Adds material layer by layer. Hollow parts, overhangs, and wild geometry are cheap. Almost nothing is "impossible".
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Geometry decides what your tooling costs. Color and finish decide what your product becomes. We molded both: 20 numbered design features on one part, 10 production colors in 5 SPI textures on the other, plus the written and video guide that explains every rule.
DFM (Design For Manufacturability) is the practice of designing parts around the process that will produce them. Every manufacturing process has physics it cannot ignore, and injection molding has more than most: molten plastic has to flow, pack, cool, and release from steel.
A good engineer designs parts optimized for each process, and injection molding is no different. There are real benefits, real requirements, and real limitations. Try to bypass the limitations and the cost shows up as extra tooling: cams, lifters, inserts, and rework.
That's why we built a physical design tool. Reading about sink marks is one thing. Seeing them on a real molded wall, at the exact spot where the thickness steps down, is what makes the rule stick.
Adds material layer by layer. Hollow parts, overhangs, and wild geometry are cheap. Almost nothing is "impossible".
Removes material from a block. A fully hollow closed part is near impossible: the cutter has to reach every surface.
Injection molding has its own list. Uniform walls, drafted faces, no trapped undercuts. The 20 features below are that list, molded into plastic.
Our engineers walk the design tool face by face: textures, sink marks, snap hooks, energy directors, and the features that quietly add cost.
Watch the tour Geometry decides what your tooling costs. Color and finish decide what your product looks like on a shelf. The guide covers both, and each one ships as a real molded part you can hold. Pick a tool to see what it teaches.
Each number below is physically molded into the design tool. The full guide explains every one in depth; here's the map.
A little more or less grittiness completely changes how a product feels in hand. The tool carries four standard textures and four from our specialty collection (hundreds more available, including wood grain and custom patterns).
The most common finishes our clients spec, in four roughness levels. Database IDs #1689, #2683, #1695, #1696.
The unusual ones: IDs #3689, #7684, #6685, #5685. Tilt the part under light and the difference jumps out in a way photos can't show.
Grip zones, fingerprint hiding, scratch masking, brand feel. We help clients pick texture by job, not just by look.
Wood grain, leather, geometric patterns, logos. If your product needs a finish we don't stock, it can be etched into the tool.
The rules that decide whether your part comes out clean or comes out with sink marks, and whether your mold is a simple two-piece tool or an expensive mechanism.
Parts are shelled hollow so plastic flows evenly. The tool shows a shelled wall (clean) next to a solid one (dimpled with sink marks).
Flip the tool over: where the wall steps down to 25%, the back shows sink marks, the section turns brittle and translucent. Uniform walls win.
Ribs stiffen long or thin sections. Rule of thumb: rib thickness ≤ ⅔ of the wall it sits on, or it telegraphs a sink mark to the other face.
One molded piece, two connected sections, like a ketchup cap. Material matters: most living hinges only survive in polypropylene.
Raised text (embossed) is cheaper to machine into the mold. Sunken text (debossed) means milling away everything around it.Debossed costs more
Two parts fused by vibration, but only if you design energy directors: small 90° triangular ridges sized to the wall (about ⅒ to ⅛ of its width).
A hole aligned with the mold opening is nearly free. A hole perpendicular to it needs a cam mechanism in the tool.Straight pull is free
Two snap hooks, same function. One is shaped so a simple two-piece mold can release it; the other traps the steel and needs extra tooling.Cam adds tooling cost
Where screws, inserts, and structure meet the molding physics. This is where inexperienced designs most often grow sink marks and air traps.
Sized relative to the adjacent walls and ribs so they don't disturb plastic flow. No sink marks, no surprises.
Too thick, or squared off instead of rounded. The result: sink marks on the plate, air bubbles, weak structure. Thickening a disconnected boss makes it worse, not stronger.
Metal hardware placed in the mold before injection, fusing with the part as it forms. No post-assembly pressing.
The rib rules from feature 11, applied: rigidity for the plate plus a proper foundation for the bosses living inside its boundaries.
The design tool answers "will this part mold cleanly". The swatch set answers "will it look right when it does". Same idea, same approach: real molded plastic instead of a render.
These ten cover the vast majority of production parts we ship. Every chip is molded in production resin and carries its JS Chroma code, so the color you approve in hand is the exact master-batch we load at the press.
JS Chroma is our in-house color system, and the ten in the kit are the start of a 50-color production library. Need an exact brand color instead? Custom Pantone and RAL matching is available on production orders.
Mold finish is specified with SPI standards and machined into the tool itself, which makes it one of the cheapest decisions to get right early and one of the most expensive to change later. Below: one pigment, five finishes. Nothing about the formula changed.
Diamond-buffed, near-mirror. Deepens the color and saturates it; shows every fingerprint and flow line.
Fine paper polish. The consumer-electronics default: clean without being a mirror.
Stone-polished. Softens the color and hides minor tooling marks and wear.
Blasted satin. Uniform low sheen, better grip, masks fingerprints and scratches.
Patterned texture etched into the tool. Maximum scratch-hiding and grip; lightens the perceived color most.
If you have ever approved a color on a monitor and been surprised at T1 samples, none of this will shock you. Here is what is actually happening, and why physical swatches still exist.
Pigment does not start from white paper, it starts from the resin's base tone. Natural ABS is cream-yellow, polycarbonate is water-clear, nylon is off-white. The same colorant in each produces three visibly different parts. Whites and pastels show it most.
A glossy surface reflects light specularly, so the color reads deeper and more saturated. A matte or textured surface scatters it, so the identical pigment reads lighter and softer. One resin lot, two finishes, two "different" colors.
Two parts can match perfectly under office LEDs and visibly mismatch in daylight. This is metamerism, and it is why color approval is done against physical references under controlled light, never against a JPEG.
This isn't a brochure. It's a real injection molded part you can hold next to your CAD screen while you design, with every one of the 20 features physically molded in and numbered. Order it and it ships to you, free.
After you submit, we'll email you to confirm your shipping address.
The design tool settles the geometry. The swatch set settles what your customer actually sees: our 10-color JS Chroma set molded in five SPI textures, so you can judge color against real plastic instead of a render. Both parts ship together.
Real feedback from hardware teams who shipped with us, pulled straight from our Google reviews.
Really free. You order it, we confirm your shipping address by email, and the design tool ships to you with the written and video guide. No card, no charge. Allow 7 to 10 business days for delivery. The "catch" is that we think once you've used it, you'll bring us your next molding project.
Mechanical engineers, industrial designers, and design engineers who CAD-model parts destined for injection molding. If you've ever had a "looks great in the render, molds terribly" moment, this was written for you.
The kits are molded in limited runs, so the only thing that can hold yours up is stock. As soon as your package is ready we email you to ask where to send it, and if a run is out we tell you rather than leave you waiting on silence.
Yes. DFM feedback is included on every Jaycon project. Upload your CAD for a quote and our engineers will flag sink risks, undercut costs, and wall issues before tooling starts.
One last thing
Tell us what you are working on and your kit is on its way.
