Plastic Manufacuring

Another option is looking into casting with fiberglass molds which is relatively quicker to have tooling made and inexpensive BUT if the quantity is too large it could become too tedious to be cost effective. Thermoforming or vacuum forming is inexpensive but the resiin molds for these are relative in price dependent on how many you need. I paid 2500 USD for a mold resin type for protoyping and I run a thousand sheets with it and no warpage on a product of 38" square. Now you could go with wood molds if the tiles do not necessarily have to be precise on the duplications being EXACTLY alike. Wood is relatively cheap to do too just double check the thermoformers requirements for running such and the mold sizes and thicknesses needed and get it done by a local woodworkers shop not a mold making facility even if they are doing wood as the woodworkers shop will be half the cost with same results given the proper specifications.

If you have access to the cabinet shop just make it out of wood and search thermoformers who will run a wood mold. Thats the cheapest and when you make the mold for your imprinting Just use a mirror and show yourself how to draw these onto the mold. This will eliminate the screen printing as well as have them in a mold. You can always make the bottom of your mold as seperate grids of the size of the tiles or group them so that you can run so many of this one and more of the more prominent ones you need and interchange the mold as a lego building kit.

With 12,000 pieces IF you plan on making many more than that I would look into the injection molders and look at the small shopd first as they may consider doing the molding if they are in a competitive region just to gain access to another client and repeat business.

If you go for a flat tile then choose to engrave is another route which eliminates a larger tooling cost BUT increases man hours to do so. They also have computerized laser cutters which may be an option for you to look at with a extruding company or straight STANDARD sheets not cut to size THEN request the laser cutting to size as a piece work and do by weight NOT by piece count which will allow them to not spend man hours counting or QA checked. Using standard sheets and not cut to your size off the start then cutting you have a DRASTIC reduction in price as well as availability.

These are a few more options. I work in the plastics industry so I have more options if these dont solve your issue. Let me know.

Just an opinion though not an expert.

To the figures of that particular game I am not familiar with.

As to the thickness I run ABS which is cheaper to run than styrene as it leaves a matted finish instead of the gloss finish and its alot cheaper. I have run up to a thickness of 1.25m but can go to 1.5m. I am sure there are others who can run alot thicker depending upon their equipment.

Thermo can make alot of different items. It is easier and more cost effective if the one process is done and not having to do a second piece to combine them. ( A mountain pulled down by the vacuum for its form is easier to do in one time through the machine rather than a top for an advertising campaign as an example I will use the top of the Camel cigarettes roof top piece in the bell shape. It was easier to run 2 pieces and glue together rather than design a modl for a pull down all at once to get the definition in the part for detail work.)

My advise is go to a thermoforming shop and talk with sales rep. They will help you out as they try to find a solution to get as much work in the door as possible and do it as cheap as possible. Some may not do injection or tooling but are partnered with guys who will and they get a better quote than you will ever see.

Also they may have a solution to get it done injection wise and then other parts done thermo and some done injection depending on all your needs and they put it as one quote from their house shop so it will be on their shoulders to shop it around for outsourcing to complete job. Its a cut throat business BUT it is also a very close knit when trying to combine different parts in one quote.

If going to use standardized sheets try to search your area as I see Philly and Atlanta are very cheap and big on the industry. Also look around for similiar items and look at who manufactures them as they may have obsolete or molds kicking around which are for sale or corporately owned or have permission to allow others to use them for a fee rather than retooling your own.

Similiar to Rummikub???

They could be done with thermo BUT probably better to run with injection. Now since we are talking only a small run and not millions of pieces I would not bother going that route either.

A Thermo mold done with resin mold you would be looking at about 2500 or that ball park unless you went with a small mold which if you make for a smaller machine and put more man hours on it than you could prolly get it done for around a 1000.

Now I would investigate your local shops as some may have a laser cutter in their shop which if set up like a table saw you can run your pieces through with automatic feed and have them done precise and cheaper.

You can also got through a extruder since you want cut slices. Just get a flat die cut for the extrusion press to pump the plastic through and have cut while still coming off the press. A flat thickness with a standard die equal to that thickness would be suffice and then use an engraver to engrave your artwork or cuts you need in the tiles after they cool.

Time frames on making molds vary so highly it is not even feasible to try to guess how long it would take. I had my one done in 6 weeks and the other took 8 months. Try Minnesota or North Carolina for mold makers as they are usually the quickest for turn around time.

Anyone know of a wood supplier that could make these?

I actually thought of silk screening and stamping, but I worried about the quality. 12,000 piecies leaves a lot of room for errors.

I suppose if I could set up a process that removes most of those errors, silk screening would be more permanent than stamping.

Carey

Since you are offering, how much would you charge for 12K units? I can send you a CAD image of the tile. Should we talk about this one off line?

Carey