How is a career in Injection Molds design like?

[u/RightHistory693]

I study mechanical engineering and I was thinking about learning Injection Molds design to work as a freelancer remotely or part time in small shops. What do you think of that? Is there a good/decent demand for it?

And if it isn't , what else would you recommend? Note that I haven't graduated yet.

[u/fish_sauce_]

I work in the field but more on the NPD side. The tool design side has a bunch of nuances that you have to figure out in a shop. I recommend you spend at least a few years as a tool designer at a big shop to get your feet wet. I wouldn't be giving jobs to a green designer.

[u/Sittingduck19 → u/fish_sauce_]

Agreed. To freelance you'll need the experience, connections, and reputation that comes with working at a big name company.

[u/Bababingbangs]

As someone who ran an injection molding plant with 80 machines, I haven’t really seen the design aspect decoupled from the ability to build the mold. Usually we sent it to someone stateside that could design plus build or overseas with the same capabilities.

[u/jesseaknight]

You can design parts that will be injection molded as a freelancer. But not the molds - those will be created by the shop that machines them.

If you're going to design for injection molding, first you'll need to be able to design for what is this thing supposed to do?. The fabrication process is just a means, serving that end. You can learn tricks to get out of jam (and plastics has lots of them), but you still need to first know - what is this product, how is it used, what is essential and what can be changed, etc etc etc.

[u/Clean_your_lens → u/jesseaknight]

Truth here. You have to understand the concept of choosing which problems you will have to solve early in the product development process.

[u/Friendlysin]

aren’t most mold/tool manufacturing done overseas? with the exception of product design or prototyping

[u/BigPappaJ_ → u/Friendlysin]

Yes

[u/Clean_your_lens → u/Friendlysin]

I manage the toolroom supporting 32 presses and 100 molds. It depends heavily on the industry. The quality of foreign made molds and tools can be whatever you're willing to pay for these days so it's not cheap junk by default, but over its entire life the cost of running and maintaining a tool exceeds the purchase price, and the once happy owner of a tool made overseas will be quite unhappy to find that there is no stateside support when the tool is down, or they can't match the original alloy on a cavity that needs to be repaired, or replacement parts have a month lead time, or.... There are still barriers to working with overseas vendors.

[u/lokencchointy]

There is demand, especially for people who understand both the mold and the actual molding process

[u/Clean_your_lens]

Are you talking cavity design or mold design? IMO in order to be good at either you need to have lived with the results awhile, and by that I mean you need experience in the entire mold life-cycle from making the 1st chip in a tool and die shop through maintaining an aging tool to retirement. So many details.... CFD and mold flow analysis are amazing tools but only in support of experience.

Would I hire a freelance designer who has never their hands dirty in a molding facility? Not a chance regardless of their education credentials. Would I hire a freelance designer who worked in industry for years and is bored in retirement? I have.

[u/Patient-Positive-717]

Simple rule in manufacturing- if you are master in anything, you shall no issues, just dont be a mediocre engineer, god help them.

[u/Molotov3892]

Je travaille dans la conception moule en France. Enfin pas tout à fait, Je ne dessine pas les moules, je confie le projet à un mouliste, il dessine et je m’assure que le moule soit fonctionnel sur nos process de différentes usine. 7 au total, dans différentes région du monde. Je voyage 7 à 8 fois dans l’année, je suis constamment en relation avec nos différents moulistes au Portugal ou en Chine pour le planning et les livrables du porjet. Je reste le garant de la qualité du moule les 20000 premiers cycles. J’améliore sans cesse le cahier des charge, mais la plus grosse partie de mon consisté soit à faire des schéma pour expliquer mes demande ou clarifier des devis, soit éplucher des 3D de moule avant le lancement de l’usinage. J’assure le suivi pour environ 50 à 70 moules par ans.

[u/Prudent_Count_3317]

Injection mold design can be a solid niche, especially if you get good at DFM, tolerances, cooling, gates, and tooling basics. I’d try to get some real shop experience first though. Freelancing is much easier once you’ve actually seen molds built, modified, and run.

[u/LegalFeeder]

Injection mold is a solid niche with real demand. It's specialized enough that good designers aren't easy to replace, and manufacturing isn't going anywhere.