I
usually put about 5 to 15 hours into an initial design. I will
listen to you, look at any sketches or drawings you have and
come up with a rough 3 dimensional computer model. This costs
$300 to $900. You will receive edrawings that you can look at 3
dimensionally and use to refine your design.
During the design refining process I work for $60 per hour.
This is where all the design, material, styling and
manufacturability questions are solved. Most computer model
iterations get done within 10 to 15 hours. After you are
satisfied with your design, the computer models are ready for
production quotes.
I usually contact three production shops for quotes. I send
them the computer models over the internet in the format that
they choose. Using these computer models they will tell us how
much the production process will cost and how much each part or
assembly will cost. I usually spend about 1 to 3 hours (for
parts and simple assemblies) preparing the files, contacting the
shops and preparing a report for you. This costs ($60 to $360)
(large assemblies greater than 4 parts may be more time
consuming). Machined parts and parts without tooling are
straight forward costing. Ballpark injection mold production
tooling costs are around $5,000 to $90,000 per tool depending
on how complex the part. The price of each part depends on cycle
time (how quick the part can be made) and material cost per
part.
There are less expensive alternatives to production tooling.
Sometimes this is the best way to get your product to market.
These however produce a more expensive part.
You are interested in the cost of the part delivered to your
customer. This includes the profit, mold amortization, the part
price, handling the part, assembling the part (if necessary),
packaging the part, bar codes and shipping to your customer. I
can support this effort with electronic pictures and 3D models
that can be manipulated on computers (jpeg, pdf, ppt. edrawings
etc.). Using this information you can decide if the design is
feasible.
When you are satisfied that the product is feasible we can build
a prototype. I have prototype shops that I use to make
Stereo-Litho models for plastic, laser cut and break pressed
parts for metal and machine shops. These look just like the
finished part and can be used as a market research tool. You can
take this prototype to your customers and see if they will buy
it at the price you can make it. Prototype parts cost about $150
to $2000 per part again depending on the complexity.
At this point you may have only $1000 to $4000 into the project.
Your customers will give you your most valuable input, they will
suggest improvements. Using these suggestions we revisit the
design refining process, production quote process, part cost
process and if the changes are radical enough we do another
prototype.
When You are convinced that we have a winning
design we can commit to tooling and production. Then your real
work starts. You are in business.
Please give me a call
Rob Drew
Archbar Design
360-901-2675
