soft tooling vs hard tooling

Prototype tooling exists to answer design questions cheaply. Production tooling exists to answer them profitably. Confusing the two is expensive in both directions: a single-cavity soft tool pushed into a 20,000-piece order runs out of capacity, while a hardened steel tool bought before the design is frozen locks in every open change request. This article compares the three stages — prototype (soft) tooling, bridge tooling and production tooling — on cost, lead time, mold life and unit cost, then sets out the thresholds that tell you when to move between them. Key Takeaways Prototype tooling is normally cut in aluminium or unhardened P20 steel, produces roughly 500 to 5,000 shots, and typically costs USD 1,000 to 8,000 as a simple single-cavity tool for a mid-size part. Bridge tooling in...