Rubber & plastics: sourcing questions answered
2 categories in this group, each with sourced answers on minimum order quantity, tooling cost, lead time, unit cost, HS classification and import duty.
Custom silicone and rubber parts
Silicone and rubber components — gaskets, seals, boots, grips, keypads, wristbands, tubing — are among the cheapest custom parts to tool up, which makes them the usual first project for a buyer testing a Chinese supply chain. A compression or liquid-silicone mould is inexpensive next to injection tooling, and unit costs fall steeply with volume..
Plastic injection moulding and tooling
Injection moulding is the default process for plastic parts at volume, and the moment a buyer commits to a mould it becomes the most expensive decision in the project. The tool is a one-off capital cost that only makes sense against a realistic total volume, so the honest question is never "can it be moulded" but "at how many units does moulding beat machining"..