Overseas injection mould tooling typically offers significant cost advantages compared to manufacture in the UK. The reduced cost can often mean challenges are introduced elsewhere in the project.
Injection mould tool manufacture overseas can introduce further risk. Language and communication barriers can occur, depending on where the tool is being manufactured and the capabilities of your team and your suppliers to communicate.
Further to this, the geographical distance introduced by overseas manufacturing can add an additional layer of risk. Insight into your project can become unclear and harder to achieve.
You can still reap the benefits of overseas tooling manufacture, while also reducing upfront risk by partnering with a UK-based team that can manage design, tooling manufacture and communication with an overseas supplier. How can a UK-based tooling partner help?
How can I be sure my design requirements are understood?
For successful injection mould tool manufacture, it’s important that the toolmaker understands exactly what is required.
A UK-based tooling partner should carry out Design for Manufacture (DFM) reviews to help identify potential issues with mouldability, as well as understanding tooling requirements before manufacture. Long-lasting tooling results often stem from solid design from the outset.
Approved CAD files, drawings and technical specifications should be communicated clearly to the toolmaker. It may sound obvious, but we’ve seen how easily outdated drawings or specifications can create confusion.
A structured project database helps track information and maintain a clear record of the agreed requirements throughout the project.
How do I know what’s happening during tool manufacture?
Geographical distance poses a practical barrier to tooling manufacture. Email updates don’t always provide enough detail, especially when a project involves several manufacturing stages on top of the complexity of toolmaking itself.
Managed communication between suppliers and the UK-based tooling partner provides customers with regular photo-progress updates, along with project timelines, so you can be assured the project is making organised and visible progress.
A detailed process such as this provides an opportunity to raise concerns early, rather than waiting until a delay or manufacturing issue becomes more significant.
How would I get visibility during tool trials?
Tool trials are an important step in evaluating how effective a mould tool is at producing components to the agreed specification. With multiple trials potentially taking place, and the possibility of needing to make further adjustments to the tool, it makes sense to want clear insight into this process.
For customers using overseas injection mould tooling, clear reporting at this stage is important.
Coordinating with overseas suppliers means providing detailed trial reports, including photos, sample measurements and, if required, information about modifications.
Most importantly, a member of UK-based staff travelling overseas to supervise the tool trials provides a more direct window into the project, especially at a crucial stage before the tool is signed off.
How can I trust an overseas tooling supplier?
Choosing an overseas injection mould tooling manufacturer is not an easy task. Considering manufacturing capabilities, experience, communication and the ability to meet the agreed requirements are starting points. But even so, it cannot be guaranteed that your chosen supplier will perform to the required standard.
A UK-based tooling partner will already have established supplier relationships, rather than requiring customers to undergo the complicated process of assessing manufacturers independently.
Long-standing relationships with trusted overseas toolmaking partners reduce the guesswork and risk involved. Being familiar with the capabilities of suppliers helps projects to be managed more effectively.
What happens if I want to benefit from overseas tooling costs, but I don’t want to manage the communication myself?
Working with a UK-based tooling partner means you can benefit from overseas injection mould tooling manufacture without having to manage every stage of communication directly.
At Liondell, we provide UK-based engineering input, DFM reviews and project management, while our overseas partners manufacture the tools.
We help coordinate the process from initial design review through to tool trials, approval and delivery.
Good communication cannot remove every risk associated with injection mould tooling, but it can help prevent misunderstandings, improve project visibility and support better-informed decisions.
Find out more about our Production Tooling services and how we manage overseas injection mould tooling projects.
