about the cases

[Fernando Martins]

On 12/12/2011 10:04 AM, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
> So we have to go the painful way of designing our own cases. But the
> good side is that we can improve on the outer shape and look&feel.
>
Yes, I think that makes sense, but the cost of the moulds seems to be a 
major roadblock in the road of reasonably priced devices when done in 
small numbers.

I was asking because my brother lives in a region in Portugal known for 
manufacturers of moulds, China being one of typical destinations. I 
asked him what he knew about this business and the main issue seems 
indeed to be very high cost of the moulds whereas the plastic products 
cost merely cents. Unfortunately, as mentioned by Patryck in the other 
reply, moulds also need to be rectified after some time, and even this 
cost can be too high.

And, it seems that to make a single mould, it can in fact require more 
than one iteration. I was a bit surprised about this last one as I 
thought NPC tools could make the mould exactly according to spec but he 
did not know what were the issues.

My brother did not know specific costs but he heard on past informal 
conversations of costs on the orders of many thousands of Euros.

Did you get to any figures yourself?

Regards,
Fernando