What information is needed to get a quote from Aco mold

We have been receiving inquiries from clients who are not familiar with injection mold and injection molding, so a frequently asked question is what files do you need to get me a quote?

Well, it depends on what you need, if you look for injection mold only and you plan to do injection molding on your own, then it is more about the mold itself, we focus on the mold specification, here is an examples of a US customer who needs a quote for an injection mold:

“My name is Liz Williams and my company is XXX Industries, Inc. We would like to get a quote for a 4+4 mold for plastic injection molding (ABS plastic) for a two piece beverage coaster. I can send you .stl files, step files or whatever files type you need. The injection molder in the United States has the following specifications for the type of equipment they will use.

We would be using a 310 ton machine 42 oz. 26” x 26” between tie bars and no taller than 27 ½” overall. Sprue needs ½” radius. Ejector bars are 7” between center or 4” across center to center and 16” center to center up and down. If they need more please let me know.

I also see from your website that you do the injection molding as well, so I would like to get a quote from you on the actual coaster being produced as well.

Please let me know what files I need to send to you in order for you to provide me with a quote.

Thank you”

This is a informative inquiry, but still there are some missing, here is the reply from ACO mold,
“Hello Liz,
Thanks for inquiry, l am Tim. Wu, project manager of Aco mold. Very nice to know you and your company.
To get a quotation, please provide information list below as much as possible.
=> Part drawing, prefer 3D in STEP, if very tight tolerance required, please also provide drawing in 2d with tolerance specified.
=>Materials (ABS) , color, surface finish requirement...
=> Mold classification, please look into attached SPI tooling classification, and please ask if you are not clear about it.
=> Please let me know your forecast order volume for molding production, we will quote unit price base on that.

Good to have the ejection machine data. We usually would double check with customer when we do mold design.

Looking forward to your soonest reply. ”