“I’m looking to use a silicone Rubber keypad in my new project what are the initial costs?”
In our latest series of blog posts we hope to answer the most common questions we see from the many new enquires we receive at Diamond HMI. A significant number of potential projects are from people who have never used a silicone rubber keypad before and need to know quickly if it’s a viable option for their product. In the first in this series of posts we try to give some indications of the initial costs for tooling a silicone Rubber Keypad.
When Diamond HMI offer costings for a new project the quotation is divided into to two sections, Development and Tooling plus Unit Prices. Development and tooling (or NRE) includes the cost of the manufacturer’s engineering time and also the cost of the multi impression cavity compression tool, silkscreens and jigs which are used to create the rubber keypad.
The tooling costs that a customer should expect for a standard silicone rubber keypad are between £2500 and £4000, depending on complexity and number of impression cavities. This cost includes the initial sample run of an agreed number of parts. Please note that the tooling is payable in full at the time of ordering.
If a customer is considering a CombiKey Keypad they should budget for tooling between £4000 and £6000. Plastic & Rubber keypads have tooling costs between £8000 & £15000 depending on the number of plastic parts which require moulding.
Unit costs are based on a manufactured volume of parts shipped from the factory. Units cost are dependant on the number of impressions cavities in the tool and further vary based on number of moulding/insert colours, text graphic colours, spraying processes and other post processes such as laser etching and pad printing. Diamond HMI will consider customer requests to schedule deliveries monthly over a pre-determined period of time.
Diamond HMI’s UK team will offer design advice to help keep the unit costs as low as possible whilst ensuring that the keypad looks and performs in the way a customer requires.
Please get in touch if you wish to know more about how Diamond HMI can help in your Rubber keypad project.