At the beginning of development, the client had no experience in die castings including their surface treatment processes. The client employed plastics for previous products. Now, in order to advance their product grade and enhance the metal texture of the product surface, they are hoping to change to metal parts with better surface treatments and performance.

The first time the client sent us drawings, they were conceptual designs and structure completely designed as a plastic parts molding. Our engineers had no idea of how to start after receiving these drawings. After communicating with the client by phone, we all decided he should come to China for business. Thus, we invited him to visit our company when he was available, so as to give him preliminary understanding of the manufacturing process of die castings. Meanwhile, letting us understand his product’s detailed assembly and function, facilitating us to make recommendations on product design, so as to make it suitable for production while realizing his intended functions.

After the first face-to-face discussion, the client came back and modified his design and sent us the whole product’s 3D assembly drawings. On receiving the drawings, our engineers performed a detailed DFM analysis for each part, offered some suggestions and modifications, and sent back 3D drawings to the client for confirmation. The client made slight adjustments and sent them back. After our confirmation, both the mold structure and production had no problems, so we sent the confirmation result at once.

After the unit price is confirmed, we received the start-mold-production requisition from the client. On finishing all of mold design drawings, we sent 2D, 3D drawings of molds to the client for written confirmation. During the process of mold manufacturing, we invited the client to provide plastic color swatch, according to which we contacted related manufacturer for paint preparation. Later, we sent back the color swatch made from the paint we adjusted to the client for confirmation.

After mold testing and measured dimensions all complied with drawings, we manufactured formal sample and sent it to the client for trial assembly. The client was satisfied with the sample on the assembly and surface treatment effects. He considered it a highly successful new product development attempt. Reaching the trial production standard at one time were beyond his expectations.

Summarizing the development of this type of mold, we believed it particularly important to get participated in the front-end design of clients’ products. Nowadays, the division of modern industry is growing more and more detailed. Thus, only by each link collaborating together and getting participated as early as possible, can problems be solved at the early stage of design. In this way, products can be made more suitable for mass production, which means that they can be produced at lowest cost while meeting the demands of clients.