Find answers to frequently asked questions about Engineering Resource Center's plastic prototypes, injection mold tooling and low volume production services.
While other prototyping services focus on manufacturing prototypes as fast and cheap as possible, we focus on quality. We developed a unique modular tooling system to reduce the upfront cost of tooling while using steel tooling to maintain production-like quality.
Submit our Rapid Quote form to receive a response within 24 hours. One of our engineers will provide you with a quote for the tool and lead-time.
Here is how it works:
Yes. We will sign an NDA at the start of your project. Concept designs and production specifications are always kept the intellectual property of our customers.
Our Injection Mold Classification Guide can help you determine the correct mold style based on your part specifications, quantities, materials, lead time and design features.
Prototype Mold: Prototype molds are built for minimal production (under 1000 parts) and parts with a short life span.
Bridge Mold: Built to fulfill low production order volumes (typically 1,000-100,000 parts).
Production Mold: Built with hardened steel for high-volume, recurring annual orders.
Since our company was built off the promise of "your design, no compromises", we primarily use steel to construct our mold inserts (read this article to learn why). However, we do offer an option to use aluminum inserts in our MTS for parts that don't require the benefits that steel offers.
Lead time can vary based on part complexity and additional design features. On average, our lead time for a prototype tool ranges from 2-3 weeks.
We offer thousands of choices so you can prototype with your exact material choice. One of the benefits of working with The ERC is that our engineers will guide you through material selection and even select alternate qualified materials for you in order to get the highest quality at the lowest cost. Watch this video for a better understanding of our material selection process.
The max part size we can run in our injection molding press is 15" x 15".
Size Classification (for pricing):
Small = smaller than a golf ball
Medium = size of a softball
Large = larger than a football
Lead time can vary based on part complexity and additional design features. On average, our lead time ranges from 2-3 weeks.
Yes! We are often called upon to help customers convert parts from machined, forged, or cast metal to highly engineered plastic.
Click here to read more about how we can convert your metal parts into plastic.
Low volume production bridges the gap between prototype and production to service low annual volumes of production parts. This offering saves our customers the expense of purchasing production tooling for small production part quantities. Many customers use this to produce service/replacement parts or to test a new product on the market before investing in production tooling.
To keep part prices low, we invested in automated injection molding machinery. This allows us to practice lights-out manufacturing, meaning we produce parts even when no one is in the building.
Every night, on the weekends - even over the holidays - we are making parts with little to no labor costs. When you cut labor, you cut your part price. Proven RJG technology monitors quality without human interaction to ensure consistent, repeatable parts.
