Hi - I’m an industrial designer based in Canada, looking to purchase sample plaques for VDI and SPI. I’m having difficulties tracking down a quality source/trustworthy source. Any recommendations?
Thanks, I found that one but then when you attempt to purchase plaques it flips to another page. It looks like the only way to purchase is to contact them. The website was so disorganized, I wasn’t sure it was legit. Have you purchase through them? Is it easy?
I haven’t. I use MoldTech.
where did you get your mold tech plate? how much does it cost?
They are not cheap. I don’t remember the cost. I think around $400. I just googled where to buy MoldTech plates and found a place.
Definitely not cheap items unfortunately, it’s a bit of a scam. Our company lent one of our plates to a client for them to review (mistake) and they never returned it. We can’t find a way to replace just one and buying a whole new set is kind of ridiculous.
If you want a free alternative, though it’s nowhere near the same thing, you can see some basic surface finish stuff on Protomold’s freebies:
https://get.protolabs.com/design-cube/?_ga=2.229916700.1808642786.1586869521-168103021.1586869521
If you’re just looking for the basic A-1 to D-3 finishes, you can get an SPI mold finish plaque for $20 from here: Item Detail - AR-106 Mold Finish Guide
I’m not 100% sure that’s where we got ours from, but ours is product # AR-106 like this shows and they’re a reputable organization.
I’ve never asked, but you could ask Yicksang. They are the Chinese equivalent to mold-tech and VDI. The textures are pretty similar. They must cost less than Mold-Tech because I’ve had factories send me samples before!
Also, Protomold has a couple textures on their design cube. It’s free, but if memory serves, it’s just polished or machined finishes. Still, it might be enough.
Last suggestion is just look at the VDI samples on google image and wing it. I did that a few times and it’s been close enough that I was happy with the results.
You could these plaques from Plastopia website. The quality of their plaques are verified by Apple, Samsung, Space X and many other leading companies. Search Plastopia VDI texture card or SPI finish card on google and you will find them.