Why charge cost of capital on a mold I pay for once?

Because you pay the toolmaker up front but recover the money over years of shipments. The capital recovery factor sizes a yearly charge that repays the mold plus interest, like a loan payment.

What rated mold life should I enter?

Use the shot life on the toolmaker's quote or warranty. For scale, Class 103 molds are built for up to 500,000 cycles, Class 102 up to 1,000,000 and Class 101 beyond.

Is a cheaper aluminum mold better for a short program?

Often, if its rated life covers the shots needed. Aluminum molds cost less and can run tens or hundreds of thousands of parts; steel molds cost more and last longer.

What if the customer buys fewer parts than forecast?

Then the tool is under-recovered: every part not shipped leaves its tooling charge unpaid. Amortize over committed volume, or agree a true-up payment for any shortfall at program end.

Injection Molding calculator

Mold Amortization Cost Calculator

Set the tooling charge in a piece price so the mold and the money tied up in it are repaid by program end. You need mold cost, cavities, annual demand, program years, cost of capital and rated mold life.

What this calculator does

Tooling charge per part that repays a mold and its financing over the program, and whether the mold lasts.

Formula used

Program volume = annual part demand × program life (years)
Capital recovery factor = i(1 + i)^n ÷ ((1 + i)^n − 1), i = cost of capital ÷ 100; 1 ÷ n at i = 0
Amortized tooling cost per part = mold cost × capital recovery factor ÷ annual part demand
Financing cost = mold cost × (capital recovery factor × n − 1); cost before financing = mold cost ÷ program volume
Shots needed = program volume ÷ cavities, rounded up; rated life used = shots needed ÷ rated mold life

Inputs explained

Mold Cost: Toolmaker quote plus design, trials, texture and freight.
Cavities: Cavities filled every shot.
Annual Part Demand: Parts per year from the customer's forecast or release schedule.
Program Life: Whole years of production in the customer's award or program plan.
Cost of Capital: Annual rate your finance team charges on cash tied up in tooling.
Rated Mold Life: Shot life on the toolmaker's quote or warranty.

How to use the result

Best suited to tooling line in a new part quote, molder-funded versus customer-paid tooling, aluminum or hardened steel tool for a program.
Rated life is the toolmaker's figure, not a guarantee. Scrap and setup shots are not counted, so actual shots exceed shots needed by your scrap rate.

Current U.S. benchmarks

As of 2026-10-02, the U.S. prime lending rate is 7.00% (Federal Reserve via FRED). Equipment loans and lines of credit typically price at prime plus a spread, so use your actual borrowing rate when you have it.
The producer price index for plastic resins and materials stands at 280.569 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 6.6% from a year earlier. Quotes priced off last quarter's material cost miss this move.
The U.S. has 9,635 plastics product manufacturing establishments employing about 677,302 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).

Common questions

Why charge cost of capital on a mold I pay for once? Because you pay the toolmaker up front but recover the money over years of shipments. The capital recovery factor sizes a yearly charge that repays the mold plus interest, like a loan payment.
What rated mold life should I enter? Use the shot life on the toolmaker's quote or warranty. For scale, Class 103 molds are built for up to 500,000 cycles, Class 102 up to 1,000,000 and Class 101 beyond.
Is a cheaper aluminum mold better for a short program? Often, if its rated life covers the shots needed. Aluminum molds cost less and can run tens or hundreds of thousands of parts; steel molds cost more and last longer.
What if the customer buys fewer parts than forecast? Then the tool is under-recovered: every part not shipped leaves its tooling charge unpaid. Amortize over committed volume, or agree a true-up payment for any shortfall at program end.

Last reviewed 2026-10-05.