Your quantity does not support the making of a unique housing, even
if the mold was a cheap plastic one.
The cost of a decent set of steel injecton molds for a housing
assembly generally starts in the mid-to-high five figures. Offshore
suppliers can cut the cost by perhaps 30-50% without much loss in
quality, but beware very low quotes. If the tool is poorly designed it
might have any or all of a whole series of cosmetic and structural
defects (flow lines, weak spots in knit lines, splay, etc. etc.) and
still be considered (by them) to be acceptable. Some suppliers will
attempt to quote you low on MUD inserts and lock you into to using
them for part production at whatever price they want, because you
don't really own the tool.
I suggest you find one off-the shelf that is close to what you need;
it will be a lot less expensive.
Maybe, but perhaps not if it limits the market. Certainly 5K
units/year is enough in some cases, although injection molding doesn't
really start to shine until you get over 100K pieces total production.
Generally you're looking at several suppliers- a part designer to
design a moldable housing (with features, style and knowledge of
'rules' to follow to assure manufacturability), a mold designer to
design the molds themselves, given your parameters (SPI mold class and
so on), and a company to actually run the molds themselves (typically
a "custom injection molder"). It's almost an analagous process to
hardware circuit design, but with the additional step of tool design.
PCB assembly houses are all over the US (and Canada as well), and
likely there is at least one within an hour or so from where yoy live or
your facility; look in the yellow pages for them.
Picking ahouse nearby means you can keep a close watch as well as get
faster turn-around (been there, done that).
Yes, it's certainly easier to start with a local supplier.
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
