Tooling is a critical part of any manufacturing process that greatly affects your costs. However, high-quality tooling is important if you wish to create quality rubber parts that meet specifications. Luckily, there are ways to improve the quality of your rubber parts while keeping your tooling costs down. Understanding how to keep your tooling costs down will help you enjoy maximum benefits from your custom rubber parts.
Here are a few questions experts recommend asking yourself if you wish to reduce rubber parts manufacturing expenses.
1. Have You Considered Potential Failures?
The preparation stage of the custom rubber manufacturing process is as important as the actual molding. When designing your rubber parts, it is important to consider the budget needed and potential failures you may come across. That way, you can find ways to prevent these failures even before you start molding the rubber parts. As a result, you eliminate unnecessary costs. Some elements to consider during your design stage include undercuts, texture, and in-mold labeling.
2. Are You Using Family-Cavity or Single Cavity Mold?
One element that significantly affects your tooling costs for your custom rubber manufacturing is the type of mold you are using. Apart from getting a proper mold design, the number of cavities available in the mold is also crucial. Family molds are more cost-effective since they have multiple cavities, allowing you to mold two or more parts simultaneously.
On the other hand, using a separate mold for every part increases your duplication time and costs as you have to wait for one part to cure before moving to the next. Luckily, rubber part molding experts utilize family molds when creating multiple parts with the same size, material, and design requirements to reduce the tooling costs and time.
3. How Are You Dealing With Flash?
Flash is the excess rubber found on molded rubber parts. It is crucial to consider how you will deal with this flash to reduce manufacturing costs. One way to eliminate flashing on rubber parts is using flash-free molds. However, these molds are quite costly, meaning you have to pay more for the tooling costs.
Therefore, if you wish to reduce your tooling costs, consider hand-trimming the flash or using cryogenic deflashing. It is best to work with a reliable manufacturer to determine the impact of flash on your budget and how you can reduce the tooling costs.
Using family-cavity molds, and finding a proper deflashing solution will help reduce your manufacturing costs, considering possible failures in the rubber parts manufacturing process. However, you can achieve all this by working with rubber parts manufacturing professionals. They have the experience, skills, and tools to create high-quality rubber parts without breaking the bank.
