Why can two quotes for the same grenade transport case drawing differ by 20 percent?

Most of the gap sits in tooling amortisation and shot weight. A price with the mould included is not comparable to one without. Aligned, the spread narrows to 8 percent.

Can a grenade transport case be built below 600 pieces?

Yes, with a shared mould base and hand fitting, which constrains the shape and adds 30 percent to unit price.

Does 35 days count from the order date?

No, from drawing freeze, and the contract must say so.

Should tooling be paid up front or amortised per unit?

With a second order inside a year, paying up front is cheaper and keeps ownership clean. A single batch amortises better.

Is AQL 1.5 strict enough?

It suits cosmetic and assembly defects but not sealing or latch function. Judge seal and latch at zero defects.

Grenade Transport Case Procurement: Price, MOQ and Lead Time

Quick answer: A grenade transport case quote only becomes comparable after it is split into tooling, per-unit conversion and freight. Minimum order quantity follows from cavity count and changeover time, and lead time runs backward from drawing freeze.

Three Cost Blocks in a Quote
Per-Unit, Per-Kilo and Per-Hour Pricing
MOQ and the Mould Cycle Break-Even
Lead Time Counted Backward
RFQ and Payment Milestones
FAQ

1. Three Cost Blocks in a Quote

A single line reading 160 yuan per unit hides where the money goes. Split a grenade transport case purchase into one-time tooling, per-unit conversion and freight; only conversion scales with volume, so a blended figure lets either side bury margin.

For a 5.2 kg finished case, one mould costs 42,000, sampling 3,000 and testing 1,800. The 46,800 total lands at 78 per unit across 600 pieces and 19.5 across 2,400.

Block	Contents	Basis	Room to negotiate
One-time	Mould, samples, revision, report	Per project	Shared tooling, fewer cavities
Per-unit	Shot weight, cycle, assembly, packing	Per piece, falling with volume	Thinner non-structural ribs
Freight	Trucking, customs, ocean	Per container and lane	Consolidated loads

2. Per-Unit, Per-Kilo and Per-Hour Pricing

The same grenade transport case body can be quoted per piece, per kilo or per machine hour, and the readings diverge by 18 percent. Per-piece hides tooling amortisation in the unit price.

Per-kilo fails on gross versus net: some multiply finished weight by resin price, others take gross weight plus 8 percent regrind loss, and masterbatch on dark parts runs 2 to 3 percent.

Per-hour is transparent but hard to check. A 1,000 tonne press on one cavity at a 205 second cycle yields about 0.057 machine hours per case; quote 260 seconds and labour grows by a quarter.

3. MOQ and the Mould Cycle Break-Even

Minimum order quantity is derived, not announced. A grenade transport case mould costing 42,000 lasts about 250,000 shots, so one cavity would need a quarter of a million pieces to wear out. Changeover is the real cost line: each swap plus first-article approval takes 90 minutes of press time the batch absorbs.

That puts single-cavity break-even at 600 pieces. Below it setup cannot be spread; above 2,400 the marginal gain flattens and further cuts must come from resin.

Volume band	Unit price	Tooling per unit	Delivery
600 pcs	186	78	42 days
1,200 pcs	158	39	38 days
2,400 pcs	141	19.5	35 days
5,000 pcs	133	9.4	33 days

4. Lead Time Counted Backward

Lead time on a grenade transport case starts the day the drawing is frozen. Put that in the contract, or two weeks of revisions get counted as production and the shipment lands half a month late.

Count backward on 2,400 pieces: steel day 7, first trial day 18, second trial day 26, production day 34, 380 pieces a day finishing in 6.3 days, inspection 3 days, customs 5 days, ocean 18 days. The path runs 66 days, so write 72 with five days of buffer.

Milestone	Day	Precondition	Usual delay
Drawing freeze	0	Signed 3D file	Cavity changes
Steel and base	7	Tooling payment	Base misfit
First trial	18	Flow analysis passed	Sink marks
Second trial	26	First-article review	Latch fit off
Production	34	Resin on site	Press conflict
Inspection and loading	43	Sampling plan	Batch fails

5. RFQ and Payment Milestones

A specific RFQ returns comparable numbers: drawing and revision, resin grade, colour code, shot weight, insert format, printing, packing, volume band, delivery point. Leave one blank and the supplier fills it with a default.

Tie payments to deliverables: thirty percent at signature releases tooling, forty after the trial sample is signed, thirty after inspection clears the batch.

Five clauses belong in the contract: mould ownership transfers to the buyer, inspection at AQL 1.5, late delivery at 0.5 percent per day capped at 10 percent, a 45 day quote validity, and a price review past an 8 percent resin index move.

Conclusion

Procurement of a grenade transport case comes down to three tables: cost split into blocks, volume into bands, lead time into milestones with a five day buffer. Align them before arguing about unit price, then lock mould ownership and inspection criteria into the contract. Bought this way, a grenade transport case can be reordered without restarting the negotiation.

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.