Plastics Manufacturing in China
Tooling costs for the items shown could buy a really niceluxury car if done in the USA! What about the cost in China? For the main case front, back, battery door, small case front, back, red LED window, and silicon rubber keypad: less than USD $20,000! The piece-price of plastic is often very close to the USA because raw plastic costs are about the same in China. But the unit shown has a hot stamping on the main case and a silk-screen operation on the small case, which are labor-intensive. Total cost of all items in the picture: less than USD $2.00!
What about volume? Because the cost of the tooling is less, it is easier to amortize these costs on smaller volumes of product. Generally if you are doing more than 1,000 units per year, the tooling costs will be amortized in only one year versus an “off-the-shelf” box, which requires some machining to be useable for your product.
What about quality? Mission Microsystems uses only high quality Taiwan grade-A steel. Typical molds are good for 500,000 to more than 1,000,000 operations. Mold makers in the USA often use aluminum tooling on low volume products to save costs, which may last only a few thousand operations and/or be permanently damaged by an inattentive operator.
Our plant is located in Daojiao town area of Dongguan in the Guangdong Province of Southern China. Our plant has thirteen machines for 50 to 150 ton applications, six machines for the 180 to 450 ton capacity, and one vertical injection machine. Mission Microsystems can manufacture components from 0.2 square inches to over 20 square inches.