Machined vs. Plastic Injection Moldings

We injection mold, CNC machine, and stamp simple to complex plastic parts.

plastic injection moldings

Jaco was required to select whether plastic machined or plastic injection moldings would be the best option to produce 8,700 pieces of an Ultem carrier button.

Required Injection molded product specifications

Jaco’s customer needed to produce 8,700 pieces of a carrier button manufactured from Ultem. Although Jaco’s customer viewed injection molded products as the best alternative for producing the Ultem button, the customer assumed that the tooling cost would be cost-prohibitive. Jaco was requested to identify the best process for this application, plastic machined or plastic injection moldings.

plastic machined or plastic injection moldings

Case Studies

Machining

$550Each
  • No tooling cost
  • Quick turnaround using Ultem sheet stock
Jaco’s solution was to machine 100 prototypes, which allowed Jaco to work out the fastest feeds and speed to machine the Ultem design. Ten different operations were required including sawing, vertical and horizontal milling, drilling and counterboring.

Plastic Injection Molding

$150Each
  • Mold insert included in selling price
To achieve the lowest tooling cost, Jaco presented an insert concept. The customer was charged for a core and cavity, which mounted into a Jaco quick-change MUD frame. The price for the 8,700 injection molded products was $1.50 each, which included the mold insert amortized into the selling price – a savings of $4.00 per piece over machining. Conventional machining is a good choice for plastics, but injection molding was the best and lowest cost solution for this project.