Iam supposed to do costing for a modification that we are doing for a hand held vacuum cleaner, the modification is an retractable arm.I want to know how are hand held vacuum cleaners manufactured, (forging, extrusion, injection molding??) What would be the cost??Any help thanks
Look at the hand held vacuums they have in the store. If the housing is plastic, it is a 99.99% chance it is injection molded. If it is made of metal it could be extruded if it has a constant cross section along its length. Aluminum is a very common extrusion metal. I would doubt any high volume hand vac would have a forged housing, but I don't get out that much. Casting and machining is a possibility. As far as costs, it all depends on the life of the tool, and the number of cavities for a mold or a casting. If you mold/cast one part at a time it is much more expensive than two or four or eight. The more you mold at once, the bigger the molding/casting machine and the more expensive the mold/casting. So it depends on how many you want to make in a given amount of time, and how many through the life of the product. Finally, for your modification, do you have a design with drawings and a volume target? That is the first step to figuring out costs.
