Quick answer: Custom case colour starts at three stacked thresholds: one 25 kg drum of masterbatch colours about 500 kg of compound, or 111 sixty-litre bodies. A colour change costs 600 to 1,200 CNY in downtime and purge, which is why the tiers land at 50, 300 and 1,000 units.
Table of contents
- Three Thresholds Behind Custom Case Colour
- Masterbatch Minimums Converted into Bodies
- What a Colour Change Actually Costs
- MOQ Tiers and the Per-Piece Premium
- FAQ
1. Three Thresholds Behind Custom Case Colour
The custom case colour minimum is arithmetic, not policy: the smallest masterbatch pack, the downtime of a colour change, and the rounds needed to sign a colour chip. Each one asks for tens to a couple of hundred pieces, and stacked together they produce 300.
The first is masterbatch. Suppliers sell 25 kg drums and will not split one, at roughly 700 CNY for a standard shade. At 5% let-down a drum colours 500 kg of compound, and a 60 L body runs 4.5 kg, so one drum covers 111 bodies.
The second is cleaning. Going from a dark to a light shade means purging screw, barrel and hot runner: 2 to 4 hours of downtime and 30 to 60 kg of scrap, which at 8 CNY a kilo is 240 to 480 CNY before machine time is counted.
The third is chip approval. Two rounds are normal, one against ΔE and one against the grey scale, with 10 to 15 days between them and about 1,000 CNY of sampling, and that bill is the same at 20 pieces or at 300.
Three routes carry different floors: masterbatch from 300 pieces, dry-blend powder from 50 kg, post-painting from 20. Painting adds 15 to 25 CNY a body with a 0.04 to 0.06 mm film that chips at the corners, so for a single-season promotion it is the cheaper custom case colour path.
2. Masterbatch Minimums Converted into Bodies
For custom case colour, let-down ratio decides how many bodies one drum covers, and the dark-light spread is wider than most buyers expect. Carbon black covers at 3%, while pale grey and bone need 6% to 8% because titanium dioxide competes for the pigment.
| Let-down | Compound per 25 kg drum | 60 L bodies | Typical shades |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3% | 833 kg | 185 | Carbon black, dark olive |
| 5% | 500 kg | 111 | Mid grey, navy |
| 8% | 312 kg | 69 | Bone, pale sand |
Colour also sets the drum price: inorganic tones 25 to 35 CNY a kilo, bright organics 45 to 70, metallic and pearl 120 to 180. The same 25 kg drum is 700 CNY in a standard shade and 3,750 CNY in pearl, which is 6.3 against 33.8 CNY per body.
That gap is the first reason metallic shades start at 1,000 units: aluminium flakes and mica orient inside the screw, so shade drifts between lots.
Light shades hide a second threshold in the barrel. After a dark run the first 200 light bodies carry a grey cast. They need 100% inspection. The alternative is a 30 kg flush. Both go before the custom case colour run. Neither is free.
3. What a Colour Change Actually Costs
A colour change bills three lines: downtime, purge scrap and the drift at the head of the run. Together they run 600 to 1,200 CNY a change, or 2 to 4 CNY a body at 300 pieces and 6 to 12 CNY at 100.
Downtime is priced by machine hour: a 250 t press at 180 CNY an hour spends 360 to 720 CNY on a 2 to 4 hour clean-out. Scrap of 30 to 60 kg at 8 CNY is 240 to 480 CNY; light purge is reused, dark purge downgraded.
Rotomoulding writes a different bill. Dry-blend powder only needs the form emptied and blown out for 40 minutes, 5 kg of powder is lost and 80% of it can go back in, so a change costs about 150 CNY and a run starts at 50 kg.
| Item | Injection | Rotomoulding |
|---|---|---|
| Downtime | 2–4 hours | 40 minutes |
| Scrap | 30–60 kg | 5 kg |
| Change cost | 600–1,200 CNY | 150 CNY |
| Drift at head | 200 bodies | 20 bodies |
| Minimum charge | 25 kg masterbatch | 50 kg powder |
Drift at the head of a run is the line buyers forget. After a switch to a light shade the colour climbs for 50 to 200 bodies while ΔE falls from 3.0 to 1.0, and shipping that stretch puts a visible step into one delivery.
4. MOQ Tiers and the Per-Piece Premium
Stack the three thresholds and custom case colour splits into three tiers: 50 bodies for a standard shade, 300 for a RAL match, 1,000 for metallic and pearl. What separates them is the base the fixed cost is divided by.
| Shade | Minimum | Premium per body | Lead time added |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (black, olive, mid grey) | 50 | 0 CNY | 0 days |
| Custom RAL | 300 | 6–12 CNY | 7 days |
| Metallic or pearl | 1,000 | 18–30 CNY | 15 days |
At 300 pieces the premium is 6.3 CNY of masterbatch plus 5 to 6 CNY of change and sampling, which caps at 12. At 1,000 pieces the masterbatch stays at 6.3 while change falls to 0.75 and sampling to 1, so the premium settles at 8.
A 300 piece order takes a full shift: one colour match, one clean-out, 20 trial bodies, 280 sellable pieces. The custom case colour floor carries that trial loss inside the price.
Colour does not touch print tooling. Screen printing is charged per colour at 300 CNY a screen regardless of body shade, while in-mould labels need changes to vacuum ports and gates, which is a separate line on the quote.
The questions buyers ask most have short answers: a 20 piece run is billed as sampling, the chip is signed at ΔE ≤1.5 or 2.0 on dark textures, and a colour change never needs a new mould.
Rhythm moves the floor too. Six hundred bodies in four calls of 150 means four clean-outs, 4,800 CNY that adds 8 CNY to every body; one 600 piece match with staged delivery pays for the change once.
Conclusion
The custom case colour minimum is three fixed costs over an acceptable premium: 700 CNY for a drum of masterbatch, 600 to 1,200 CNY for a change, 1,000 CNY for sampling. That is about 2,500 CNY, or 8 CNY a body at 300 and 25 CNY at 100. Read it as three lines: 185 bodies from dark masterbatch, 111 from a light shade, 1,000 for effect pigments.
This article discusses only the container (case body) side of specifications and design intent, and does not cover any handling, loading or use of the contents.
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