Formative · Live
Injection moulding quote software: tool and piece price estimates
Budgetary injection moulding quotes: the tool from projected area, depth, cavities, side actions and steel, plus resin and cycle time. Always reviewed.
- Process
- Injection
- Family
- Formative
- Input
- STEP, mesh
- Status
- Live
The price follows the physics.
An injection moulding (molding in the US) quote has two prices: the tool and the part. The tool is a one-off cost driven by projected area, the number of cavities, side actions for undercuts and the steel it is cut from, and it is usually amortised over the run. The piece price is resin per shot plus cycle time, and cycle time is dominated by cooling, which grows with the square of wall thickness. An instant figure here is a budgetary estimate, confirmed by a person, but a good one tells a buyer early whether moulding makes sense at their volume.
- 01
Tooling
Projected area, cavity count, side actions and steel class set the cost of the mould, usually the largest number in the quote.
- 02
Tool amortisation
The tool spread over the parts in the run, which is why moulding only pays at volume.
- 03
Cycle time
Dominated by cooling, which grows with the square of wall thickness, so thick walls are slow and expensive.
- 04
Resin and shot weight
The part and its runner per shot, at the resin price.
- 05
Undercuts and side actions
Each moving core adds tooling cost and can add cycle time.
- 06
Press size
Clamp force follows projected area, and a bigger press has a higher hourly rate.
Measured from the file. Priced on your machines.
Measured from the geometry
- Projected area in the pull direction. Sets toolroom hours, the size of the mould block and the clamp force a press needs.
- Depth. Adds toolroom hours per centimetre.
- Wall thickness. The median wall drives cooling time; thin walls, thick walls and a large spread between them warn.
- Volume. Gives shot weight and resin per part, with a cold-runner share.
- Undercuts. Directions a straight pull cannot release count as side actions and add toolroom hours; a trapped volume goes to review.
Configured by you
- Mould materials offered. The steel classes a buyer chooses from, each with a toolroom-hours factor, a tool life and a density.
- Cavity counts offered. More cavities mean more toolroom hours and fewer seconds of press time per part.
- Toolroom hours per tool, per cm², per side action and per extra cavity. The tool cost model; the main terms are calibratable against tools you have bought.
- Clamp force, largest shot, dry cycle and set-up per run. Per press: which presses fit, and the fixed time in each cycle and each run.
- Melt, mould and ejection temperatures and thermal diffusivity. Per resin: the cooling time a wall needs, with a cooling-time calibration.
- Design review per line and T1 sampling per tool. Engineering and sampling charged once.
What your buyer sees
- Material, mould steel class and cavity count, with texture, high-gloss polish and first article inspection as options in the shipped configuration.
- How the price per part falls with the size of the run, from 500 to 100 000 parts in the shipped configuration.
- A clear label that the figure is a budgetary estimate your team will confirm after reviewing draft, walls and gating.
The tool is paid once and shared by every part in the run, so the price per part falls steeply with volume until it approaches resin plus cycle time. That curve is the reason to quote moulding at several quantities.
Typical materials
- Polypropylene (PP)
- ABS
- Polycarbonate (PC)
- Nylon (PA6, and PA66 with 30 % glass)
- POM (acetal)
- TPE
- PC/ABS blends
Typical parts
- Consumer product housings
- Clips, caps and closures
- Automotive interior parts
- Medical device components
- High-volume replacements for printed or machined parts
Estimate: the shop confirms this price before the order is final, as its template asks.
Estimate: the shop confirms this price before the order is final, as its template asks.
Both priced by the real engine for the sample bracket against the Budgetary injection moulding template that ships with Quotometry.
Pricing injection, in depth
When to switch from 3D printing to injection moulding
Find the quantity where a mould beats printing: a worked break-even with a table, the sensitivity to tool cost and print price, and what besides price should decide.
Knowledge baseInjection moulding cost: tooling, cycle time, resin and the break-even
How an injection moulded part is priced: the tool, the cycle, the resin and the setup, with a worked example of tool amortisation across four batch sizes.
Knowledge baseVacuum casting vs injection moulding for low volumes
Silicone moulds or a hard tool? How vacuum casting and injection moulding compare on cost, lead time and quality for tens to hundreds of parts, with a worked break-even.
Injection quoting, answered
Can I quote injection moulding with Quotometry today?
Yes, as a budgetary estimate. The widget prices the tool from projected area, depth, cavities, side actions and steel class, and the part from resin and a cycle led by cooling. Every line goes to your review: the estimate carries low confidence by design, and the shipped configuration adds a rule that tells the buyer the price is budgetary.
Why do moulding quotes always go to review?
Because a mould is a large, one-off engineering decision. Quotometry does not measure draft, place gates or simulate flow; it cools the median wall rather than the thickest, and counts side actions rather than designing them. The instant figure tells a buyer whether moulding fits their volume, and your toolmaker confirms the real number.
When does moulding beat 3D printing?
When the run is long enough that the tool, spread over every part, costs less than the difference in piece price. Below that, printing or casting wins. Pricing the same part both ways shows where the cross-over sits for that part, which is a better answer than any rule of thumb.
Why do thick walls make moulded parts expensive?
Cooling time grows roughly with the square of the wall thickness, so doubling a wall can roughly quadruple the time the part spends cooling in the mould. Thick sections also sink and warp. Coring them out is usually the cheapest design change a buyer can make.
Other formative processes
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