Quotes for molded parts, drafted around the numbers your estimator sets.

A buyer sends a drawing, a model, a resin callout and an annual volume, for one part or a family of them. Your estimator works out the shot, picks a press, judges the cycle and cavities, gets a mold price, adds secondary work and packaging, and writes the quote. Much of that is gathering facts already in the package or your rate sheets.

For the test, AI works through copies of RFQs you already answered and drafts your quote sheet line by line, every rate traced to your own sheets. Repeat parts and re-quotes get cycle time and cavity count from your records, with the source shown. On new parts those fields stay empty, beside a list of what the package left out.

Material is priced on the shot, not the part. Resin cost starts from the shot weight, every cavity plus the runner, divided back across the cavities. A hot runner leaves little or no runner to pay for; a cold runner leaves one to regrind or scrap, and some customers forbid or limit regrind. Machine cost is the press's hourly rate times the cycle time, divided by the cavities. The draft shows each input and its source: your resin price list, your press rates, or a blank for your estimator.

A resin callout carries more than a name. A brand and grade followed by "or equivalent" still needs the customer's written approval for any substitute. Color may come precolored or as a concentrate at a let-down ratio, and the two price differently. A UL 94 rating holds only at the thickness on that grade's UL Yellow Card, and a colorant can affect it, so a V-0 callout on thinner walls becomes a question for the buyer. Medical parts add a grade listed as tested to USP Class VI or ISO 10993, a cleanroom class under ISO 14644-1, and validation work your shop may quote separately.

The tool is its own quote. Tooling sits apart from piece price, priced by your toolmaker or tool room. The RFQ may name an SPI mold class, from Class 101 for a million cycles or more to Class 105 for prototype tools of about 500 cycles or fewer, and an SPI finish from A-1 diamond buff to D-3 dry blast, or a texture number. Each moves the tool price, so the draft carries every callout into the toolmaker request and never prices the mold. Terms count too: one automotive supplier's published tooling terms bar a tooling invoice before full PPAP approval, and the draft notes terms like that on the tooling line.

Volume, families and transfers change the math. Cavity count usually follows the estimated annual usage, so a volume range needs a quote at each point your estimator picks. A family mold splits one cycle's cost across different parts, so a buyer who drops one part reprices the rest. A transfer tool, a customer's mold coming from another molder, may arrive with that molder's process sheet or with nothing; the draft uses only what is written and lists the mold evaluation as open. Ultrasonic welding, pad printing, heat-set inserts, assembly and packaging, from bulk boxes to returnable dunnage, come from your own rates.

Your reviewer. The owner names the person who knows your quoting best, usually the lead estimator, who checks each line against the quote that went out: shot weight and runner, resin price, press class, secondary and packaging lines, tooling callouts and every question raised for the buyer. Include a family mold or a transfer tool if you quote them.

After a yes, new RFQs get a draft quote sheet and a question list as they arrive, for about 30 days.

Your estimator fills the judgment fields, checks every line and decides what goes out. No quote reaches a buyer unless a person sends it, and the same scoring table runs through the live month.