about the cases

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 12.12.2011 um 11:05 schrieb 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?

Yes - 20000 - 50000 EUR range. Or even more depending on surface quality and number of details.

The main reason appears to be that the mould is a single unit production itself. I.e. all development cost is included in the price. And it is a mechanical masterpiece to get the plastics cool fast enough but not too fast and have the plasic parts finally fall out.

I am in favour of Radek's wooden experiments. Anyone done 3D cutting with wood?

Nikolaus