What a buyer asks before giving a moulding job: mould ownership, tool life and samples

The purchase head at the fittings brand has your quotation open, and their questions are about the steel, not the piece price. If we pay for the mould, is it ours? Can we take it elsewhere? How many parts will it make before it needs work, and who pays then? Answer all of it in the quote, not in an argument years later. Say who owns the mould and from when, how many shots it is built for, who repairs it and how it leaves your shop.

Who owns the mould: settle it on the first page

There are three honest arrangements, and each suits a different buyer.

The buyer pays for the tool and owns it. The buyer pays an advance before steel is ordered and the balance on sample approval. Ownership passes when the last rupee is paid, if your contract says so, so have your own lawyer read that clause. This suits a brand with a part it will run for years and may want to move one day.

The tool cost is spread over the piece price. The buyer pays nothing upfront and a little more per part. The mould stays yours until a stated quantity has been supplied, then passes to the buyer. Without that quantity in writing, the buyer believes the tool was paid for after the first lot, and you believe it never will be.

You own the tool outright. Common for standard items, such as caps or crates, that you sell to many buyers. The buyer buys parts, never the mould, and cannot take it anywhere.

Whichever you choose, keep tooling on its own line, apart from the piece price; our note on what to put in an RFQ reply shows why that line decides comparisons. Then fix a name plate to every customer-owned mould, stating the owner and the part number. A stamped plate settles more arguments than a filing cabinet.

Tool life is a number of shots, so write one down

"Good quality mould" means nothing to a purchase head. Shots do. State the number of shots you will stand behind, and what it rests on: the steel, the number of cavities and the resin.

Resin matters more than buyers expect. A glass-filled grade wears gates and cavities faster than plain polypropylene. Steel is the other lever. A pre-hardened steel tool costs less and wears sooner than a hardened one. When the buyer's annual quantity is uncertain, quote both, with the shots each is built for, and let the buyer choose.

Then say who pays for what once the mould is running:

• Routine care, such as cleaning, greasing and small fixes between runs, is yours. It is part of moulding well.
• Wear repairs within the stated shots are yours too, because you set that number.
• Damage from your own handling, a dropped mould or a crash on the press, is yours.
• A design change the buyer asks for, a new logo or a moved rib, is their, quoted before the work.
• Refurbishment after the stated life is their, quoted and approved first.

When the buyer wants their mould back

Sooner or later, a buyer who owns their tool may move it: to a cheaper moulder, to a plant nearer their assembly line, or in-house. Write the exit terms while everyone is still friendly.

Ask for written notice, and for all dues on parts and tooling to be cleared before the mould leaves. Agree a joint inspection, with a last set of parts moulded and kept by both sides as the record of its condition. List what travels with it: inserts, spare cavity blocks, the hot runner controller if the buyer paid for it, electrodes, the mould drawings if they were part of the deal. Anything you supplied from your own stock, say so on the same list.

And do not hold a paid-up mould hostage over a dispute. It ends the relationship, and in plastic manufacturing the buyers, toolrooms and moulders all know each other. The story travels faster than your brochure.

The tooling terms block

Paste this into every quotation that includes a new tool, filled in for that job.

Mould: part name and number, cavities, steel, hot or cold runner, made by (your toolroom or the named toolroom).

Ownership: the buyer's on full payment of tooling / the buyer's after (stated quantity) parts / ours.

Name plate: fixed on the mould, showing owner and part number.

Built for: (stated number) shots on (resin).

Our care: routine maintenance, and wear repairs within the stated shots.

Buyer's cost: design changes, and refurbishment after the stated shots, each quoted before work starts.

Transfer: written notice, dues cleared, joint inspection with last-shot parts kept by both sides, and a listed set of accessories.

Samples are a separate agreement. What a trial must prove, and who signs it off, is set out in mould trial and sample approval. If the buyer wants free samples before committing to a tool, see how to handle a sample request.

Imagine a moulder in Vasai and a bath fittings brand

Imagine an injection moulder in Vasai, north of Mumbai, making ABS shower parts and cistern components for a bathroom fittings brand in the city.

The first quotation had one tooling line: the mould cost, half in advance, half on approval. It said nothing about ownership, shots, repairs or transfer. The parts ran for years, and the moulder quietly paid for gate repairs along the way. Then the brand's new purchase head asked to move the mould to a cheaper moulder. The moulder said the hot runner was the moulder's and the repairs were unpaid. The brand said it had paid for everything. The mould left after weeks of argument, and so did the customer.

When the same moulder quoted a new flush valve part for another brand, the tooling terms block went into the quotation. It named the steel and the shots, put the hot runner on the brand's side of the ledger, and listed who paid for what after the mould was running. The new brand's purchase head queried the refurbishment line, accepted it, and signed the quote with the purchase order. Nothing in the price had changed. What was new was that each future argument now had an answer on paper.

When short terms are enough

Skip the full block for a small change to a mould you already own, such as a new insert, and charge it on one line. Skip it for standard parts from your own tools, where the buyer never owns steel. And for a repeat buyer with a signed set of tooling terms, refer to them by date and change only what is new.

Before your next tooling quote

Open the last three quotations you sent with a new mould in them. If any of them leaves ownership, shots or transfer unsaid, add the block before the buyer asks. If you would like your quote template built with you, along with the follow-up behind it, tell us what you need.