You need plastic parts made. What you probably do not have is a CAD file, a settled annual volume, or a clear answer on whether this job needs a mold at all.
Those three unknowns are what decide the price, and they are the reason most quotes come back either uselessly high or attached to a tooling bill that dwarfs the order. So start from what you actually have and how many you actually need — the process falls out of that.
Start Here: How Many Do You Need?
| Quantity | Route | Tooling | Typical lead time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–5 | Machined from plastic stock | None | Days |
| 5–500 | Vacuum casting in silicone molds | Low, and consumable every ~20–25 parts | ~1 week |
| 100–10,000 | Aluminium bridge tool | Mid | Weeks |
| Thousands per year, ongoing | Steel-tooled injection molding | High, but amortises | Weeks to months |
If your number sits in the 5–500 band and someone has quoted you a steel mold, get a second opinion before you sign. That band is where tooling cost most often swallows an entire project budget for no reason.
Industrial Grade and Medical Grade Are the Same Processes
This trips people up, so it is worth being direct about: medical-grade is not a separate business or a different factory floor. It is the same injection molding, with a heavier set of controls stacked on top.
| Industrial grade | Medical grade | |
|---|---|---|
| Process | Same — injection molding, casting, machining | |
| Material | Commercial resin, datasheet | Medical-grade resin with certificates and lot traceability |
| Environment | Standard production floor | Cleanroom molding and assembly |
| Documentation | Dimensional report on request | Documented process parameters, validation records |
| Testing | Fit, function, dimensions | Adds biocompatibility and sterility work where the application requires it |
| Lead time | Baseline | Longer — qualification is the slow part, not the molding |
Practically, this means you do not have to decide which "kind" of supplier we are before you enquire. Tell us what the part does and where it ends up, and we route it to a facility qualified for that grade. You keep the same contact either way.
Medical-grade work has its own section, because the documentation and the product families are specific: medical plastic components and devices →
What Sits Under This Capability
Plastics We Work In
| Material | Why you would pick it | Available as |
|---|---|---|
| ABS | The default for housings and covers — rigid, tough, paints and textures well | Molded, cast (ABS-like resin) |
| PC (polycarbonate) | Impact strength and optical clarity; lenses, light pipes, guards | Molded, cast (PC-like / clear resin) |
| PP (polypropylene) | Chemical resistance and living hinges; fluid-contact parts | Molded, cast (PP-like resin) |
| PA / nylon | Wear and fatigue resistance; clips, gears, moving parts | Molded, cast, machined |
| POM / acetal | Dimensional stability and low friction; bushings, precision parts | Molded, machined |
| PMMA / acrylic | Optical clarity where PC's toughness is not needed | Molded, machined |
| PEEK, PTFE | High temperature, chemical attack, low friction under load | Machined from stock |
| TPU / rubber-like | Seals, grips, gaskets, soft-touch — Shore A20 to A90 | Molded, cast |
| Silicone | Heat, flexibility, skin and fluid contact | Molded, industrial or medical grade |
| Flame-retardant grades | Electrical enclosures and terminal covers — state the standard you must meet | Molded, cast |
Need the part in metal instead, or a plastic part with metal inserts? See materials we machine — aluminium 6061 and 7075, stainless 304 and 316L, brass, titanium and carbon steel — or custom metal parts.
You Do Not Need a CAD File
This is the part most suppliers make hardest. Here is what actually works as a starting point:
| What you send | What we do with it | Adds to lead time |
|---|---|---|
| The physical part | Measured and used directly as the master, or reverse engineered into CAD | — |
| A hand sketch with dimensions | Modelled, drawing sent back for your approval before anything is cut | ~1–2 days |
| Photos with a ruler in frame | Same — modelled and confirmed with you | ~2–3 days |
| A worn or broken original | Reverse engineered back to correct geometry, not copied in its damaged state | ~2–4 days |
| A STEP or STL file | Straight into DFM review and quoting | — |
How the Work Is Actually Delivered
EKINSUN is your single point of contact: engineering and DFM, quoting, quality control, documentation and delivery. Tooling and production run through qualified manufacturing partners that we select and manage, which is how an industrial job and a medical-grade job can go through facilities suited to each without changing who you deal with.
MOQ is 1 piece. Quotes come back within 12 hours. An NDA is signed before you send files if you ask for one.
Common Questions
No. A photo of the part with something for scale, a hand sketch with dimensions on it, or the physical part itself is enough to quote from. If the part exists we can work from the part; if it does not, we can model it from your sketch and send you the CAD to approve before anything is made.
No — it is the same processes with a heavier set of controls layered on top: material certificates and resin traceability, cleanroom molding and assembly, documented process parameters, and biocompatibility testing where the application calls for it. Same tooling and same machines; tighter rules, more paperwork, longer qualification. Tell us the application and we will tell you which grade it needs.
One. Below about five pieces we normally machine them from plastic stock, because you would otherwise be paying for a mold you barely use. From roughly five upward, casting in a silicone mold is usually cheaper and looks closer to a molded part.
Almost always vacuum casting. Steel tooling cannot be justified at that quantity, and machining a thin-wall housing with ribs and snap features out of solid stock is impractical at any price. Expect two to three silicone molds for 50 pieces, and roughly a week.
Yes, and it is a large share of this work. The physical part becomes the master — no drawing, no original tooling and no surviving supplier required. A used part works; a cracked one usually works after we repair the master and get your approval on photos.
For molded and cast parts: ABS, PC, PP, PA (nylon), POM, PMMA, TPU and silicone, plus casting resins formulated to behave like each of those. For machined plastic parts: POM, PEEK, PTFE, nylon, acrylic and HDPE from stock. State what the part has to survive — heat, sunlight, oil, load, contact — and we will name the grade.
EKINSUN is your single point of contact and handles engineering, DFM, quality control and delivery. The tooling and molding themselves are run by qualified manufacturing partners we manage. That is why we can put an industrial job and a medical-grade job through different facilities without changing who you talk to.
We can, but the number will be worse than it needs to be. Route selection turns almost entirely on quantity — the same housing can be a $0 tooling job or a five-figure tooling job depending on whether you need 40 a year or 40,000. Give us a rough annual figure and we will price the route that actually fits.