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Injection Mold Lead Time
How long does an injection mold take? Our honest number is 40 days.
Why 40 and not 25
For years this page said 25 days, because that is the number toolmakers quote. In practice, even with good factories, it has been closer to 40. We would rather give you a number we actually hit than one that sounds good in a sales conversation and slips by two weeks. If your launch date depends on the tool, build your plan around 40.
Where the 40 days go
The hands-on work is shorter than most people expect:
| Stage | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Design review for manufacturing | About a day |
| Steel arrives for core and cavity | 3–4 days |
| Machining (CNC and EDM) | Under a week and a half |
| Polishing and in-house texture | Fits inside the 40 days |
| First shots and samples shipped | End of the 40 days |
Add those up and you get well under 40. The rest is the shop’s schedule: a toolmaker runs many jobs through the same machines, and an order placed today doesn’t start cutting today. Any honest timeline has to include that queue. A 25-day promise usually doesn’t.
What adds to the 40 days
Chinese New Year. Chinese factories close for the holiday. Officially it is about three weeks; in our experience most shops are truly down for about two. See the calendar below.
Shipping. The 40 days end when the samples ship. Samples usually go by DHL, and in our experience they arrive within about a week, but transit is outside our control, so we don’t promise it.
Chinese New Year calendar
During the closure, no orders are placed in China and nothing ships. After the factories reopen, allow about a week before anything ships again. To get your tool or parts out before the holiday, these are the dates to work back from:
| 2027 | 2028 | |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese New Year | Sat 6 Feb | Wed 26 Jan |
| Last day to pay for a new tool | 21 Dec 2026 | 10 Dec 2027 |
| Last day to order parts | 2 Jan 2027 | 22 Dec 2027 |
| China closed: no orders, no shipping | 30 Jan – 13 Feb | 19 Jan – 2 Feb |
| Shipping resumes, about | 20 Feb | 9 Feb |
Miss the cutoff and your order simply starts after the holiday. The earlier you order, the less the holiday touches your schedule.
What happens after first samples
First samples are rarely perfect, and that is normal. You check the parts for fit, function and appearance and tell us what needs to change. Once a correction is clearly communicated, the mold modification typically takes about three days. Most tools need two rounds of corrections at most before they are approved for production.
Production approval is not part of the 40 days, because it depends on how quickly samples are reviewed. That part of the timeline is in your hands, not ours.
What actually makes a tool late
In our experience, three things account for nearly every delay:
- Late design changes. Changing the part after the steel is cut is the biggest single cause of lost time. We respond quickly, but a late change can mean re-machining, and that costs days, sometimes weeks.
- Sample review that stalls. If samples sit for two weeks before anyone looks at them, the project is two weeks later. That time is not recovered at the other end.
- Corrections. Sometimes something is simply not right on the first samples and the tool has to be modified. That is what the correction rounds are for, and it is why clear, written feedback matters: a vague correction becomes two corrections.
How to keep your project on schedule
- Freeze the design before payment. Settle open questions during design review, not after machining has started.
- Ask early whether your texture can be done in house. If it can't, the 30 extra days belong in your plan from day one.
- Check the Chinese New Year calendar and order before the cutoff.
- Name one person who can approve samples, and make sure they have time to do it within a few days.
- Put corrections in writing, with photos and marked-up drawings. The clearer the correction, the faster the three-day turnaround.
- If the part has more than one texture, give us a texture map (see below) so there is no guessing at the boundaries.
Common questions
No. Every day count we give — on this site, in quotes and in emails — is calendar days.
It starts when we receive your payment, with an approved design, and stops the day first samples ship.
Polishing, VDI textures and etching don’t. Textures that go to an outside specialist add about 30 days.
Factories are closed for about two weeks and nothing ships. Use the calendar on this page to order before the cutoff.
No. Production starts after you approve samples, and how long the run takes depends on quantity.
Usually no more than two, at about three days each once the correction is clear.
More than one texture on a part? Give your texturer a map.
Texturing is not one process. A texture can be machined into the steel, chemically etched, or laser generated, and a single part can use all three. The finishes themselves are rarely the problem. The problem is the boundaries: where one texture stops and the next begins, especially where a texture wraps around a corner or a radius.
The fix is simple and cheap: a texture map. That means a set of 2D drawings and 3D images that show exactly which texture goes on exactly which surface, with the boundaries marked. We learned this on a part that carried several textures produced three different ways. Once the texturing shop had a map, the guesswork at the transitions disappeared.
It also explains why texturing can cost as much as the mold itself, or more. On that same part, texturing came to about twice the cost of the mold for that part. You are not paying for a texture; you are paying for a process, and on a multi-texture part, for the transitions between them. Outside texturing also adds time — about 30 days on top of the normal tooling schedule.
Have a part that's ready for tooling?
Send us your 3D model and expected annual volume, and we’ll give you a tooling price and an honest timeline. No job too small.