Custom Injection Mold Manufacturer —
Engineered to De-Risk Your Tooling from Day One
You don't want the cheapest quote. You want an injection mold manufacturer that catches steel, gating, and tolerance problems before the first shot — so you don't pay for them in rework.
KTM is an engineer-led mold factory in Dongguan, China. You work engineer-to-engineer, and the people answering your technical questions are the same people building your plastic injection molds.
- Free preliminary DFM on every custom injection mold quote
- Full DFM, Moldflow, trial, CMM and material reports
- Steel matched to your volume — aluminum to hardened H13/S136/1.2344
- No hidden fees, no mid-project price increases
- Export the tool or keep it in our factory for production
Our Injection Mold
Tooling Capabilities
What Is Tooling in Injection Molding?
Tooling is the machined steel or aluminum mold that shapes molten plastic into your part. People use "tooling" and "mold" as if they mean the same thing. They don't. The mold is the cavity set that forms your geometry. Tooling is the full assembly around it: the moldbase, cavity and core inserts, slides, lifters, ejector pins, sprue and cooling channels. That distinction matters at the quote stage, because most of your cost and lead time lives in the tooling, not in the mold.
"Most of your cost and lead time lives in the tooling, not in the mold."
The In-House Equipment Behind Every Mold
We cut injection mold tooling on FANUC CNC machining centers and finish detail features on Sodick mirror-finish EDM, so cavities hold the surface and dimensions your drawing specifies. Milling, grinding, drilling, tapping and engraving all stay under one roof, which keeps tolerances consistent and removes the hand-offs that delay outside-vendor projects.
Every mold is checked before it ships. Our metrology room runs a CMM for three-coordinate dimensional reports, plus an optical projector, pin gauges, plug gauges, go/no-go gauges, calipers, micrometers, height gauges and a hardness tester. You see the numbers, not a verbal promise.
For precision injection mold programs, the same setup holds tight, repeatable features across the cavity. Our 40+ presses run with robotic arms for 24-hour output, so a mold validated here moves straight into production without re-qualifying the process somewhere else.
Injection Mold Types
& Processes We Build
Different parts demand different mold architectures. We build six core types and match each to your geometry, material, volume, and the press it needs to run on.
Hot Runner Mold
Hot Runner Mold
What it does: Eliminates cold runners and the scrap they create, and holds gate quality on cosmetic surfaces.
Best for: High-cavitation, high-volume parts where material waste and cycle time both matter.
Press: Standard injection press with hot-runner temperature control.
2K / Two-Shot Injection Molding
What it does: Molds two materials or colors in one cycle, bonding them without a separate assembly step.
Best for: Soft-touch grips, bonded seals, and multi-color cosmetics.
Press: A purpose-built two-shot machine — our partners run both right-angle and balanced 2K presses.
Overmolding
What it does: Bonds elastomer or a second resin onto an existing substrate for grip and sealing.
Best for: Handles, grips, and sealing surfaces over a rigid core.
Press: Standard injection press, with the substrate loaded as an insert.
Insert Molding
What it does: Encapsulates threaded inserts, pins, or metal contacts directly in the molded part.
Best for: Parts that would otherwise need a downstream press-fit or assembly step.
Press: Standard injection press with insert-loading fixtures.
Gas-Assisted Injection Molding
What it does: Uses nitrogen to hollow thick sections, cutting weight, sink marks, and cycle time.
Best for: Structural parts, handles, and large panels with thick sections.
Press: Standard injection press paired with dedicated nitrogen gas control unit.
Unscrewing Injection Mold
What it does: Molds internal or external threads with a mechanical unscrewing action on ejection.
Best for: Threaded closures and reels — the same mechanism behind our own reel molds.
Press: Standard injection press with a geared or hydraulic unscrewing core.
Family and Multi-Cavity Molds
When several related parts share a resin and shot size, a family mold runs them together and lowers your per-part tooling cost. When you need volume on a single part, a multi cavity mold balances fill and cooling across cavities to hold dimensions cavity-to-cavity. We size cavitation to your annual volume, not to a maximum.
If you're unsure which type or steel your part actually needs, our engineers will tell you straight before any steel is cut.
That choice ties directly to one more decision — aluminum or steel?
Upload Your File for a Free DFM ReviewAluminum vs Steel Injection Molds:
Which Tooling Fits Your Volume?
The cheapest mold is the one that matches your volume. The wrong call costs you either upfront budget or a failed production run. Here is how the materials actually compare.
| Tool life | Heat transfer | Upfront cost | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminum / trial mold | thousands–under 100,000 shots | up to 7× faster than steel | lowest | mid-volume, transition |
| Pre-hardened (P20, 1.1730, S50C) | a few hundred–2,000 shots | medium | medium | prototype, bridge, low volume, new product development |
| Hardened steel (H13, S136, 1.2343/1.2344, SKD61) | 48–60 HRC, 300,000–1,000,000+ shots | medium | highest | production, abrasive/corrosive resins, mirror-polish cosmetics |
Aluminum and Rapid Tooling — When It Pays Off
Yes, we build aluminum molds, and they're our standard choice for prototype injection mold work and bridge runs. Aluminum molds for injection molding make sense in three cases: validating a design before committing to steel, bridge tooling while the production mold is being cut, and genuine low-volume parts.
Rapid tooling comes in two routes — direct (CNC-machined aluminum or 3D-printed cavities) and indirect (silicone or epoxy-filled patterns from a master). We've run aluminum molds for plastic fishing lures and supply free sample parts from our own tooling, so you can verify the part before scaling.
Hardened Steel for Production Volume
Once you're past low volume, steel is the only safe choice. A steel injection mold in H13 or S136 at 48–60 HRC holds dimensions across hundreds of thousands of shots. S136 polishes to a mirror finish, which is why we specify it for cosmetic and optical surfaces.
Glass-filled nylon and PVC are abrasive and corrosive, so those parts also call for hardened steel — and that requirement shows up in the quote up front, not as a surprise later.
Injection Mold Cost:
A Transparent Breakdown (No Hidden Fees)
Most buyers reach this page after a bad experience: a low number on the quote, then surprise charges once the steel is already cut. So here are the real ranges before you ask.
| Cost item | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tooling (one-time) | $3,000–$100,000+ | Driven by size, cavities, complexity |
| Aluminum / prototype mold | $1,000–$5,000 | ~100–10,000 cycles |
| Hardened-steel production mold | $10,000–$100,000+ | 100,000–1,000,000+ shots |
| Per-part molded cost | $0.05–$5.00+ | Amortized at volume |
| Machine hourly rate | $50–$200+ | Tonnage-dependent |
Your injection mold cost depends on your part, not on a price list. Send the file and you get an itemized number, not a range.
What Drives Mold Cost — Steel, Material, Complexity, and Finish
More than three things move the price, and an honest quote names all of them:
Part Size
Sets the mold base and the press tonnage.
Cavity Count
Multiplies the build — a single-cavity tool is cheap to make but slow to run, while an 8- or 16-cavity family mold costs more upfront and pays back on volume.
Mold Steel Grade
Aluminum, pre-hardened P20, or hardened H13/S136 — moves both price and tool life.
Molding Material
Glass-filled nylon and PVC are abrasive and corrosive; they wear cavities and attack the screw, so these molds cost more than the same part in ABS or PP.
Complexity
Side actions, lifters, unscrewing cores, and a hot-runner system all add machining hours and cost.
Surface Finish
A textured housing and a mirror-polished S136 optical surface are not the same price.
Export vs. In-House
An export mold is typically built more robustly for shipping and a second press, so it usually costs a little more than a tool we keep and run ourselves.
Why "Cheap" Overseas Tooling Often Costs More
A low custom injection mold cost usually hides a shortcut. The wrong steel grade, a skipped DFM step, or a guessed gate location shows up later as failed first-article inspection, then rework, then a re-cut tool. The $5,000 you saved becomes a six-figure headache.
We quote it once. After the PO, the price is fixed and the deliverables are listed. Our position on changes is in writing: if a problem comes from our work and your drawing and requirements have not changed, we own it — including re-cutting the mold at our cost. If you revise the drawing or part requirement mid-project, the associated tooling change is quoted and carried by you. Either way, you know who pays before the work starts.
The aluminum injection mold cost for a bridge tool is broken out separately, so you see exactly what you're paying for.
How We De-Risk Your Mold
Before the First Shot
A mold that fails at T1 costs you weeks, not hours. We catch the failure points before machining starts, through five checkpoints on every project.
Preliminary DFM Review
At the quote stage, at no charge. We flag draft, wall-thickness, and ejection problems while they are still cheap to fix.
Detailed DFM Report
After the PO, covering parting line, gate location, and shrinkage for your specific resin.
Mold Flow Analysis
When the geometry needs it. Thin walls, long flow paths, and weld-line-sensitive cosmetic parts get a Moldflow simulation before we cut the cavity.
Trial (T1) Sampling Report
With real shots, so you see the part before approval.
Full CMM Dimensional Report
And a material certificate on every shipment. Inspection runs on our in-house three-coordinate CMM, optical projector, pin and plug gauges, and hardness tester.
This is also our answer to the question buyers fear most: when something goes wrong, the founder and the engineering team handle it directly, against a documented inspection trail. Five checkpoints work because the same people own all of them. That's the difference in how KTM is run.
See the risks in your part before steel is cut. We run a preliminary DFM at the quote stage — no charge, no obligation.
Get a Free Preliminary DFM ReviewWhy Engineers Choose KTM as
Their Injection Mold Partner
At many overseas shops, the person on your call relays your question to a workshop you never speak to. That hand-off is where projects lose weeks. KTM is built the other way.
Founder-Led Technical Floor
Our founder holds a degree in mold design and manufacturing and has led the technical floor for more than 20 years. He still owns the hard problems — thin-wall warpage, glass-filled wear, unscrewing mechanisms — and reviews them himself.
When you raise a technical question, you get an engineer's answer, not a forwarded email. This is what makes KTM a technically-led injection mold manufacturer rather than a sales desk.
Real-Time Global Engineering Support
That matters most across time zones. Our project engineers work until 9 p.m. local time to overlap with US and European hours. A question you send at 9 a.m. in Detroit or Stuttgart gets a real answer the same day.
It's also why the relationships last. Several clients have stayed with us for 10 to 15 years, moving each new product generation through the same engineering team that already knows their parts, their tolerances, and their failure modes.
The proof is in the parts we've already built.
Industries & Proven Work
Knowing your application is the difference between a mold that ships and a mold that comes back. As an injection mold and automotive mold manufacturer, we've built tooling across six demanding sectors — and most of it runs under NDA, so part names stay generic while the engineering decisions speak for themselves.
Automotive
Water-tank components, exterior housings, safety buckles, mirror parts, light-strip housings. On one glass-filled nylon cooling component, a European Tier-2 supplier had burned through two tools elsewhere on an abrasive 30% glass-filled grade. We specified H13 hardened to 52 HRC, adjusted the gate to cut shear, and validated wall flow before steel was cut. The same tool has been in production for over six years.
Aerospace
Seat-recline latches, armrests, door-frame plastic components.
Electronics
POS-terminal housings, power-socket enclosures, camera-mounted parts where fit and finish are non-negotiable. One US brand needed a hard shell with a soft-touch seal in one cycle; we built the 2K mold in-house and ran it on our two-shot press, which removed a downstream assembly step and the bonding defects that came with it.
Industrial
Pipe fittings, irrigation components, stacking crates that run long production.
Baby & Kids
Bottles, nipples, sealing rings, where material safety and dimensional repeatability both matter.
Fishing Tackle
Plastic fishing lures, both hard and soft baits, plus reels and cable ties. We own these molds and provide free sample parts, so you can validate the part before committing to a tool. We move clients from a low-cost aluminum trial into hardened steel only when their volume justifies it — and several of these accounts have stayed with us for over a decade.
None of this depends on the lowest quote. It depends on the right steel and a clean trial report the first time.
From Injection Mold
to Molded Parts
Your mold doesn't have to leave China to start working. We export finished tooling to shops that run their own presses, or we keep the mold in-house and run your parts.
Our floor holds 40+ injection presses from 90 to 400 tons, with partner capacity reaching 3,300 tons for large structural parts. Robotic part removal keeps the presses running around the clock, so your delivery date tracks the build schedule, not the shift change.
There is no MOQ. Pricing scales with the run, and the larger the order, the lower the per-part price:
Same Floor, Same Team
Because the two-shot and gas-assisted presses sit on the same floor as the moldmaking, a problem found at the first trial gets fixed by the people who cut the steel. Nothing gets emailed to a third party and lost for a week.
Injection Mold FAQ
Most buyers reach this point with the same handful of questions. Here are straight answers.
Conventional tooling means a hardened-steel production mold built for 300,000 to 1,000,000+ shots. Rapid tooling uses aluminum or CNC-cut soft steel to deliver a working mold in days for a few hundred to a few thousand parts. You use rapid tooling to validate a design; you switch to steel when volume justifies it.
Tooling is the custom mold plus the cores, cavities, slides, lifters, and ejector system that form your part. It's a precision machine built for one geometry, not an off-the-shelf component. That's why it's engineered, not purchased.
A custom injection mold typically runs $3,000 to $100,000+. An aluminum or prototype tool lands around $1,000 to $5,000; a hardened-steel production tool runs $10,000 to $100,000+. Part size, steel, cavity count, complexity and surface finishing drive the number.
You're paying for a micron-level machine cut on FANUC CNC and finished on Sodick mirror EDM, then validated with full dimensional reports. Slides, lifters, and unscrewing mechanisms add machining hours. Our quote shows where every dollar goes, with no mid-project price changes.
It depends on steel, resin, design, and maintenance. Aluminum runs a few hundred to ~2,000 shots. Pre-hardened steel (P20, 1.1730) reaches the tens of thousands. Hardened H13, S136, or SKD61 at 48 to 60 HRC reaches 300,000 to 1,000,000+.
Same logic as lifespan. We recommend steel by your target annual volume, so you don't overpay for a million-shot tool on a 20,000-part program, or under-spec one and fail at part 50,000.
Machine time generally runs $50 to $200+ per hour depending on tonnage and automation. Per-part cost on a running production mold usually falls between $0.05 and $5.00, set mostly by cycle time and cavity count.
Yes. Glass-filled nylon wears tooling and PVC attacks both steel and the injection screw, so we spec hardened, corrosion-resistant grades and price the tool accordingly. Many shops decline this work to protect their screws. We take it.
Either. We ship the finished mold for your own presses, or keep it in-house and supply molded parts with no MOQ. The mold is yours, with full documentation, whichever path you choose.
Have a part that doesn't fit these answers? Send it over and our engineers will review it directly.
Start Your Injection Mold Project —
Engineer to Engineer
Send your 2D or 3D file and you get a real engineer's read on it, not a sales script. We reply with a transparent quote, a realistic lead time, and a free preliminary DFM review. No hidden fees. Our project engineers work on a schedule that fits US and EU time zones, so you're not waiting overnight for an answer.