Plastic Injection Tooling
At Metro Custom Plastics, our in-house tool room is fully equipped with advanced CNC technology to design and manufacture high-precision stainless steel molds. We specialize in creating molds built for longevity, high-volume production, and tight tolerances, ensuring maximum performance with no maintenance or repair charges while tools are operating under our management.
Our molds are engineered using stainless steel bases and cavities to guarantee durability and consistency across long production runs. Each mold is tailored to support complex geometries, variable wall thicknesses, and optimized cycle times, delivering reliable, repeatable results.
We integrate tool design and construction directly with our injection molding services, providing customers with a seamless, end-to-end solution. From concept to production, our tooling process includes Design for Manufacturability (DFM), early design involvement, and Mold Flow analysis to ensure efficient part production and superior mold performance.
Tooling costs and design considerations are driven by factors such as core/cavity machining, number of cavities, mold base configuration, and part complexity. Our team works closely with clients to balance performance and investment for each project.
Our tooling capabilities include:
-
Modern equipment such as CNC, EDM, mills, grinders, lathes, and drills
-
Metrology lab tools featuring CMMs and optical inspection systems
-
Advanced CAD/CAM (Unigraphics NX) and Mold Flow simulation software
-
Dimensional accuracy within ±0.01 mm
-
Support for a wide resin range including PP, ABS, PC, and engineering plastics like PEEK
We offer tooling in a variety of materials—steel, aluminum, graphite, and silicone—and can produce multiple mold types such as single-cavity, multi-cavity, cold runner, hot runner, insert molding, overmolding, unscrewing molds, and cavity inserts.
Typical mold build lead times range from 4 to 12 weeks, depending on complexity, with expedited options available for rapid tooling needs. Additionally, tool transfer services are available for clients looking to relocate or re-qualify existing molds.
By combining mold design, fabrication, and molding operations under one roof, Metro Custom Plastics maintains complete oversight of tool performance and quality—ensuring precision, efficiency, and customer satisfaction in every project.
Plastic Injection Tooling
At Metro Custom Plastics, we offer both prototype and production tooling to meet our customers’ needs at every stage of development. Our prototype tooling is typically made from aluminum or softer steel, allowing for a lower upfront cost and faster turnaround. This option is ideal for testing new part designs, evaluating materials, and making adjustments before moving into full-scale production. It’s the perfect way to bring your concept to life quickly while minimizing risk and expense.
When it’s time for large-scale manufacturing, Metro Custom Plastics transitions to production tooling—crafted from hardened steel for durability and long-term performance. These molds are designed to produce high volumes of parts with consistent quality and precision. While production tooling involves a higher initial investment, it delivers the lowest cost per part over time, making it the most efficient option for long-run projects.
We also help customers determine whether a single-cavity or multi-cavity mold best suits their needs. Single-cavity molds produce one part per cycle and are ideal for prototypes or low-volume production where precision and flexibility are key. Multi-cavity molds, on the other hand, produce multiple parts at once, increasing output and reducing cost per unit—an excellent choice for high-volume manufacturing. At Metro Custom Plastics, we guide you through each stage of the process to ensure your tooling solution is optimized for quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.
Metro Custom Plastics has been incorporated in the State of Texas since 1972. During the past 50 years we have honed our skills in the injection plastics industry. We are diligent in the pursuit of continual improvement of quality products that meets, or exceeds, our customer's expectations.
