Selecting the right source for components can save your mold design and building team significant time, labor and expense in almost every facet of the process—from design and development to manufacture and assembly. Finding the right working partner can ease the burden by shortening the design phase, streamlining workflow efficiency, ramping up productivity and speeding time to production.

Given the complexity of mold design and part geometries today, there are many factors to consider in evaluating marketplace suppliers of custom and configured mold components. In your search, be sure to compare and contrast the suppliers’ product offerings and capabilities in regard to:

1) High quality component materials, which can affect overall mold quality relative to strength, wear resistance and long-term reliability. Inferior materials can lead to mold brittleness, low service life or even breakage.

2) Good surface finish, according to specification, which can significantly affect mold release characteristics, durability and finished product quality.

3) Precise dimensional tolerances, per specification, which can eliminate the time and labor needed to perform additional machining, handworking or finishing.

4) Competitive pricing.

5) Short leadtime.

6) No minimum order requirements.
In addition, the mold component supplier should have an established track record of excellent customer service and a reputation for delivering high quality products that conform exactly to the mold designer’s specifications.

A vendor that also has the ability to deliver the specified products within a tight timeframe anywhere around the globe increases the value to the moldmaker exponentially. In these times especially, long leadtimes are simply not an option and can lead to costly production delays and dissatisfied customers.

That’s why it is also important to take the time to scour the market and select a supplier capable of maintaining adequate inventories of configured parts, performing rapid prototyping of custom parts, and offering timely delivery of a wide range of design and configuration options.