Things to Note When Choosing a Plastic Processing Company

When selecting a plastic processing company, you need to conduct a comprehensive evaluation based on multiple factors, including qualifications and certifications, technical capabilities, quality control, production capacity, pricing and costs, service, and communication. Specific considerations are as follows:

1. Qualifications and Compliance

Basic qualifications: Ensure the company has a business license and that its business scope includes "injection molding" or "plastic product production." Environmental approval is also a mandatory requirement to avoid production suspensions due to environmental issues after the partnership.

Industry qualifications: Verify whether the company holds relevant certifications based on the product's application area. For example, medical products requires ISO 13485 certification, automotive parts must comply with IATF 16949, and food contact parts requires FDA or LFGB material certification.

2. Technical capabilities and equipment configuration

Advanced equipment: Investigate whether the company has injection molding machines that match the product. Small parts requires 50-150 ton machines, medium parts requires 200-500 ton machines, and large parts requires machines with a capacity of 800 tons or more. Imported equipment offers greater stability and is suitable for precision parts production; domestic high-end equipment offers a more cost-effective solution for general-purpose parts. Auxiliary Equipment: Verify whether the company has automated production lines, mold temperature controllers, dehumidifiers, and other equipment, as these directly impact production efficiency and material stability.

Technical Team: Understand whether the company has its own mold shop, whether it can provide mold flow analysis services, and the responsiveness of its mold maintenance team. Also, examine process optimization capabilities, such as whether, for complex parts, it can resolve issues likes weld lines and warpage through parameter adjustments.

3. Quality Control and Testing Capabilities

Raw Material Testing: Verify whether the company conducts MFR and density testing on incoming plastic pellets to ensure batch consistency and strictly controls the percentage of recycled material.

Process Testing: Verify whether the company implements first-article inspection, patrol inspections, and full inspections, and request inspection record templates.

Factory Inspection: Verify whether the company is equipped with equipment such as a 3D coordinate measuring machine, tensile testing machine, and colorimeter, and whether it can provide PPAP documentation as required by the customer.

Traceability System: Understand whether the company has established a comprehensive production traceability system, linking each batch of product to the raw material batch, mold number, equipment parameters, operator, and testing records, to quickly identify the cause of any problems. 4. Production Capacity and Delivery Cycle

Capacity Scale: Based on your order volume, examine the company's average monthly production capacity and equipment utilization rate. For example, if your monthly demand is 1 million units, select a manufacturer with excess capacity of 1.5 million units or more.

Peak Response: Inquire whether the company can cope with seasonal order fluctuations and whether it has outsourced manufacturers as a backup resource.

Delivery Cycle: Clarify the prototyping and mass production cycles, and include delay compensation clauses in the contract.

5. Price and Cost

Quotation Structure: Requires the company to provide a detailed quote, including raw material costs, processing fees, mold fees, testing fees, and transportation costs. Avoid general quotations that hide additional charges.

Cost Reasonability: If a manufacturer's quote is more than 15% lower than the industry average, be wary of potential cost reductions by using low-quality recycled materials, reducing testing steps, or simplifying molds, thereby compromising product quality.

6. Service and Communication

Communication Efficiency: Examine whether the company responds to technical inquiries within 24 hours, provides preliminary quotes within 48 hours, and provides regular feedback on production progress. If any issues arise, provide prompt communication and alternative solutions. After-sales Processing: Find out whether the company proactively handles defective products and whether it can provide a solution within 72 hours.

DFM Services: High-quality companies offer "Design for Manufacturing" services, providing optimization suggestions during the product design phase to reduce mold complexity and production costs. They also offer process improvement solutions after mass production to help customers reduce overall costs.

Qingdao Xueyu Molding Products Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in the design and manufacturing of injection molds, injection molding and secondary processing (spraying, pad printing, ultrasonic welding, stamping), etc. For more information about plastic processing company, please contact us.

Website: www.xyzmould.com

Address: No.18 Henan Head Road, Henan Head Community, Jihongtan Street, Qingdao Industrial Park, Shandong Province, China

Email: wangmiaotian8@163.com