design for manufacturability tips

Two identical part drawings can come back with tooling quotations that differ by a factor of two, and the reason is rarely the molder's margin. It is how much of the design was still open when the enquiry was sent. A DFM review closes those gaps before a price is issued, not after. A DFM (design for manufacturability) review is the engineering pass that checks a 3D model and a 2D drawing against the limits of the injection molding process: wall sections, draft, undercuts, gate location, parting line, tolerance stack-up and material behaviour. Its output is not a report for the file. It is the list of changes that decide tooling cost, cycle time and how many trial iterations sit between T1 and an approved part. This article sets out what to prepare before you request a quote and which desig...