Hi,
Injection molding is new for me. So excuse me for my probably dumb questions. But i need some inputs and suggestions.
We need to buy a plastic injection molding machine. We have no experience of buying or running one. I am a machine designer and builder (30 years exp) by profession so i have some basic understanding how it works. But i would like to know what to think about when buying one. We are living in developing country in SE Asia where few speaks English so it has been hard to come by useful information around here.
We are going to mold an ABS box 450x150x90, at 230 gram each, from a mold with 2 box cavities. And a PP box at 400x140x85mm and 190 gram, also 2 cavities. The mold designer said that a 200+ ton machine is what we need. But he does not know much of machines though. This box will be used by our self, so surface finish is not that important, and we will need to make about 200,000 boxes of each per year. Buying them from an external mold company is not an option as they would cost 3-5 times the material price and the cost per box must be kept to an absolut minimum.
So my questions are:
- Should we buy an OLD second hand Japanese machines located here, Like a 2001-year model Toshiba IS220GN for about 16,000 usd (expensive?), or go for a new Chinese machine at 25-30,000 usd, popular brand they say, from a company who has been in the business for 15+ years. Some youtubers claims that old Japanese machines, even high-end for its time, are power hungry and inefficient, compared with a modern Chines ones today.
- Is it hard to manage for novis people like our self? I mean, will we be able to run and manage such machine efficiently with local, probably unskilled, mold operators, and without highly skilled mold machine engineers, as they are probably hard to find around here?
- What is most likely to fail on an old machine that we must inspect thoroughly.
- If buying a new machine from China, What issues could occur and what should be inspected thoroughly before buying one?
Any advice is highly appreciated, Thanks