Injection Molding:

Since 1946, Listo Corporation has provided high quality, plastic injection molding services. We are geared to accommodate both long and short runs. We specialize in problem solving and working with molds that are difficult to process. Listo is a captive shop. We produce our own product line. Who does this help? The answer is that it helps you, our future customer. With a product line to support the majority of our overhead, we are able to offer very competitive pricing to our custom injection molding customers. Molders who do not have their own product line have to amortize those costs (machine, maintenance, and labor) and pass them along to you. At Listo, those costs are absorbed by our own products, which will allow us to bid your projects at a low price.

Introduction to Injection Molding:

Injection Molding is a plastic manufacturing operation geared for high volume production. It is a very expensive process, due to the costs involved in building the mold, which makes it difficult for small start-up companies to get into this type of manufacturing process. However, if the future volume can support these initial costs, injection molding is the only way to go. Each mold, sometimes referred to a tool, is built to exact specifications of the part or parts required by you. These tools need to be designed by a product engineer. We come into the process once the tool is built. We then take the tool, set it up in one of our 6 molding machines, and produce the parts.

One the tool is in the machine, heat and pressure is used to inject the plastic into the mold, filling out all of the cavities that form your specific part. After a short period, usually around 30 seconds, the mold is opened, and the part is ejected. This process is then repeated.

Costs of Injection Molding:

There are two costs involved in injection molding, the cost of the mold and the cost of each unit. The cost of the mold is different for every job. The majority of the cost however, is in the labor to build the mold. Molds can take as little as 50 hours or as much as 500 to 1,000 hours to build. A going rate at a tooling shop might be around $60/hour. The remainder of the mold cost is in the supplies; the mold base, inserts, and cores. The second cost involved in injection molding is cost of each unit. This is the cost that we can provide for you. Within the unit cost, there are three factors: material, machine, and set-up cost. The material cost is determined by the amount of the material needed to make the part. Materials usually cost between $1.00 and $3.00 per pound. If your part weighs 4 oz., for example, and the material cost $1.00/lb., the material cost per unit would be $.25. The machine time cost is based upon cycle time and number of cavities in the mold. Our hourly rates range from $30/hour to $75/hour, for automatic operation, depending on the size of machine needed. If an operator is required, the rates increase $15/hour. The cycle time is the time it takes for the machine to make one shot, and the number of cavities refers to how many parts are made from each shot. If, for example, a machine can run automatic at $30/hr., at a 36 second cycle time (100 shots/hr.), and has a single cavity mold, the machine cost per unit would be $.30. The set-up cost is determined by the number of shop hours needed to set-up and to begin production of a run. This time is usually between 2 and 4 hours, and at a shop rate of $75/hr. This cost is then distributed over the number of parts of the run. With the greater the quantity of parts planned for a run, the less expensive the set-up cost becomes. In our above example, if it takes 2 hours to set-up the mold, and we are planning to run 1,000 parts, the set-up cost per unit would be $.15. If these three costs are added together, our example product cost per unit would be $.70. We are always looking to reduce the unit cost of each product we manufacture, so we recommend to our customers that they maximize the number of cavities in their mold as well as the run quantity. These two figures are the biggest factors in determining the cost per unit. Again using our above example, if the number of cavities in the mold was increased to 4, meaning it makes 4 parts from each shot, and the planned run quantity was increased to 10,000 parts, the cost per unit drops significantly to $.34. This is the power of injection molding; the ability to substantially reduce the unit cost to increase profitability

Molding Equipment
Platten (H x V) Mold Clearance Max. Daylite

Boy 50 Ton 4 oz. 18" x 16" 12" x 8" Boy 55 Ton 4 oz. 19.6" x 19.6" 12" x 12" Nissei 115 Ton 5 oz. 21" x 7" 14.5" x 10.5" HPM 200 Ton 6 oz. 26" x 26" 15.5" x 15.5" HPM 200 Ton 14 oz. 28" x 28" 18" x 18" HPM 300 Ton 32 oz. 36.5" x 36.5" 24.5" x 24.5" 1 - Mini Inclined Unscrambler 4 - IMS Grinders

21.65" 23.64" 17.65" 25" 25" 44"

1 - Dri Air Automatic Hopper Loader, Model No. 5000 4 - Whitlock Automatic Hopper Loaders 1 - Dri Air Dessicant Dryer, Model No. 8000 1 - Dri Air Dryer, Model No. 4000 4 - Thermostatically-controlled Hot Air Dryers

Punch Presses and Assembly Equipment

Henry and Wright Variable-Speed Press 32-ton Niagra (A-3) 3 - #1 Open-Back Presses Spot Welder

Packaging Equipment

Bivens Model 547 / 82 Box Maker 2 - Clearpak Blister Packaging Machines

Machine Shop Equipment

Brown & Sharp #10 Universal Mill Monarch 16" x 5" Tool Room Lathe 2 - Bridgeport Mills

Rockwell floor model .5 HP Disc Sander Grobe Bandsaw Welder Norton Tool and Cutter Grinder 3A Bench Arbor Press Themac Portable Grinder Toyota Fork Lift 2 HP Edlund Upright Drill Press w/Tapping Attachment Walker Turner Band Saw Power Hacksaw Le Blonde 14" Lathe 2 - .5 HP Ofhand Grinders Reid 6" x 18" Surface Grinder Lincoln Arc Welder, 225 Amp. Portable Die Filing Machine Big Joe Lift .5 HP Upright Drill Press 2 HP Sibley Upright Drill Press