Manufactured Plastics Question

It depends on how much you want to spend. There is design cost, mould build cost, production cost and shipment to your point of sale. The alternative is to go to a company who do promotional pens and do it the easy way. They will give you any number of alternatives and designs and you will get a fixed cost with none of the headaches.

Where you want them? What would be the quantities? Do you have your preferred design(s)? These three particular questions would lead to different answers!

There are lots of people doing that in Far East, especially China. There are lots of people can draft you a design, even on the Internet!

Cheers

AC Wing.

Thanks for the replies. They wiil be distributed in the US. I will need about 10,000 initially. I am wanting to create a capped design much like a highlighter or marker but without any ink well and simple but unique attachment at the writing end. Basically the barrell and butt end can probably be stock items but the writing end and possibly the cap will need to be manufactured. I'm looking for a company who can help in this process. I am in Texas if that helps anyone guide me. Thanks again for your time.

There're many companies can do what you requested in China. But it would be better if you can specify your preferred design and the quantity you need.

Regards,

Lisa

If you go to a plastics company you still have to source the ink & nib etc & arrange assembly. Go to the pen maker & they can do the whole job.

Go to a local designer whose work you like, it could be a jeweller, custom bike builder, architect, dress designer, sculptor or whatever, talk to them and to a local plastic manufacturing company and have a ball. For cheap, go to a catalogue, see what you like and print something funky on it.

But when you hit a glitch, and you will, local means cheap.

Simon

The most expensive way for you to go would be to have a designer draw your idea and then have a prototype house make you a model or few. Some plastic manufacturers do have these services in-house. Unless you have a lot of money to spend this is not the way to go in your specific case. Making a wooden and/or an acrylic pen has been a hobby that has become very widespread. There are many individuals who can develop the design you want, very inexpensively. What I'm suggesting is that you go to a Wood Craft store (www.woodcraft.com) and ask if their pen turning instructor or a customer might be interested in making a pen/highlighter body design for you.

In addition, there are supply houses that cater to just the pen enthusiast and have a myriad of supplies. Examples are: www.woodturnerscatalog.com and www.hutproducts.com These places also supply the internal mechanisms to make functional pens, as does Wood Craft, but maybe with a greater selection.

In this situation I would follow Ockham's (Occum's) Razor: The principle proposed by William of Ockham in the 14th century: "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate'', which translates as "entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.'' What this means is when you have a choice of doing something more than one way, to achieve the same result, then always take the easiest, or in your case, the least expensive way.

Davah's idea is also a very viable approach. It is always easiest to sell an idea that has the 'form, fit and function' completed. Good luck.

Very helpful reply. Thank you.

All ideas are good. Actually, depending on the location you want the stuff, there are gift retailers, who buy and sell pen with all different shapes and style at really low cost! If you don't mind the design very much, you might just choose one out of their stock then this save you all the tooling and design cost.

Even if you are demanding in the design, they might get help to ask their supplier or so to give you some drawing, or you might even get freelance designer around your region to help, and get these retailer to help you to source them! It should be the cheapest unit cost of getting your pen done, but quantities must be big! These suppliers or retailers can easily be found on the web! You might be supprised to find, some suppliers in China might you cost even lower than the pack and package you can find elsewhere! Or, if you have friends working in China, ask them to help, you might have surprising offers!

The actual action to take, I believe, depends on the locations, quantities and design you have in mind! Good Luck!

AC Wing.