Tooling is an essential element of near net shape manufacturing processes such as injection molding and die casting, where it may account for over 25% of the total product cost and development time, especially when order quantity is small. Development of rapid and low cost tooling, combined with a scientific approach to mold cost estimation and control, has therefore become essential. This paper presents an integrated methodology for die and mold cost estimation, based on the concept of cost drivers and cost modifiers. Cost drivers include the geometric features of cavity and core, handled by analytical cost estimation approach to estimate the basic mold cost. Cost modifiers include tooling parameters such as parting line, presence of side core(s), surface texture, ejector mechanism and die material, contributing to the total mold cost. The methodology has been implemented and tested using 13 industrial examples. The average deviation was 0.40%. The model is flexible and can be easily implemented for estimating the cost of a variety of molds and dies by customizing the cost modifiers using quality function deployment approach, which is also described in this paper.
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