Six lines in the Gaobu plant are running five quite different products this week, and the difference is not the shell. It is the question each buyer asks first.
Five industries, five different spec sheets
- Power tools and industrial service: the question is slot tolerance. A 1/2 inch drive socket or a torque wrench goes in and out hundreds of times, so inserts are cut to about +/-0.5 mm with a thumb-width finger relief, and two-tone shadow foam is common so a missing tool is visible at a glance.
- Medical and emergency response: the question is cleanability and temperature. Diagnostic and insulin kits need a wipe-clean lining and, for cold-chain items, a pocket sized for a gel pack behind a 2-4 mm insulating layer.
- Consumer audio: the question is surface finish. A headphone case is held every day, so laminate choice, stitch pitch and emboss depth matter more than impact performance, and a soft brushed lining is standard.
- Drones and radio control: the question is weight. Shells get ribbed and thinned to 2.2-2.6 mm, and the insert has to hold rotors and propellers flat rather than clamped, because a bent blade is the usual damage claim.
- Beauty and cosmetics: the question is presentation. Aluminium-frame cases carry mirrors, dividers and lift-out trays, and the finish has to survive a salon floor and a trolley.
What they all ask for first
Two things. How much per unit at 1,000 pieces, and whether the case will pass their drop test. Price at 1,000 typically sits 8-14% below the 500-piece tier because press setup and lamination batches are amortised over more units, and 3,000 takes another step out. MOQ stays at 500 for a first run and a standard sample takes about 3 days.
Drop performance is a specification, not a promise. Loaded to the real weight, cases are dropped from 1.0-1.5 m on all six faces, three drops per face, following ISTA 2A or ISTA 3A depending on the parcel profile; buyers moving palletised freight ask for ASTM D4169 instead. Zippers are cycled 5,000 times, since the zipper is usually the first thing to go. Audio and medical are the two fastest-moving categories in our enquiry log, and both push the same requirement: tighter interior tolerances and traceable materials. RoHS and REACH declarations are now requested at the sample stage rather than after the first order, and several buyers want the mould number printed on the carton so a defect can be traced to one tool - the medical side of that work sits in our medical case range. Beauty volume is steadier and tied to launch calendars rather than replenishment, so the aluminium vanity case line usually books its tooling two to three months ahead of a launch, while environmental specs arrive mostly as a request for a recycled outer fabric rather than a change to the shell. Tooling for the EVA tool case reorder on line two is being swapped after lunch because the buyer raised the bit count from 24 to 32.