Plastics News Europe - June 2019 - 22

MOULDS & TOOLING

Mould or buy-in plastic
components?
For many years, Original Equipment
Manufacturers (OEMs) have questioned
whether it's better to buy plastic
components off the shelf or if it is
more cost efficient to build a custom
made tool and have a contract moulder
manufacture them. How to decide?

ros and cons are often weighed
up based upon what's cheaper,
convenient and efficient in the
more immediate term. In a new
whitepaper drafted by Broanmain
Plastics, Jo Davis, Operations Director
(pictured), explores the tooling tipping point and examines the counter
arguments of bespoke versus offthe-shelf plastic components. Founded 60 years
ago, Broanmain Plastics
is a specialist family-owned technical
trade plastic moulder
with expertise in various processing technologies,
including
vacuum forming, compression moulding and
injection moulding. Plastics News Europe discussed a
few of the more salient points
from the whitepaper with Davis.
The size of a project is an important part of the decision, said Davis.
"During the early foundation years
when developing a product, there's
naturally an element of uncertainty.
For low volume orders, buying a
standard component, for example an

Being able to access and modify tool inserts helps
to extend the longevity of investments

3D printing can be beneficial for
prototyping, but can be extremely
costly when mass manufacturing
plastic parts

electronic casing, may initially make
good business sense. It's without
doubt cheaper initially as there's no
development process or guess work."
She added that as production volumes start to ramp up, switching to a
custom made tool rather than using
parts designed for the mass market
can offer a relatively quick return on
investment.
The downside to buying off-theshelf components is that they are
largely designed for the wider market. Even though technical knowhow
is often pooled, buying standard
parts can often mean a compromise,
with parts containing features that
aren't needed.
Davis also pointed out that it may
not be possible to source customised
features or add personalised branding 'if it's important to your Intellectual Property'. Another potential complication is if the vendor drops out of
the market or encounters a supply issue. "Finding a critical replacement
may be a struggle," she stressed.
With the advent of increasingly
better quality parts being produced
by 3D printing, that, too may be a
technology to consider. "Whether it
can offer a good alternative or not
depends on the part and the technical features," said Davis. "3D printing may be beneficial when creating
complex customised parts. Although the material, time and resourcing costs are likely to be much
higher, printing parts from a digital
file may be more economical in the
short term, especially during the

Being the legal owner of
a component's IP can help
differentiate an end product
from your competitors

prototype development phase."
Obviously, however, at a certain
point, commissioning a mould tool
becomes the more cost effective
choice, despite the initial outlay required. Generally, when production
levels start to scale up, that is when it
is time to consider contracting out repeatable moulding work to an expert
who can help to evaluate the different tooling options and payback.
"The exact tipping point will depend
on the original unit cost, the price
paid for a high spec, quality tool, and
the new costs per unit," said Davis.
"Typically, for an electronic case, payback would be between 4,000 and
5,000 units."
Once developed, a tool should run
at least half a million components,
although figures upwards of four mil-

JUNE 2019

Plastics News Europe - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News Europe - June 2019