Ordliste
Tool ownership — definition
The question of who owns the casting tool — with us, the answer is the customer.
The customer pays for the tool and owns it. We procure it through our preferred tool suppliers, matched to our machines, and maintain it throughout the production run.
The consequences are clean and run both ways. You carry the investment, and therefore have a real reason to run the series long enough to earn it back. At the same time the lock-in is not legal: the tool is yours, and in principle you can move it.
We think this is the more honest model. The alternative — the foundry owning the tool and building the cost into the unit price — looks cheaper at the start and ties you in harder.
What should be agreed in writing is who owns the tool drawings, what happens in the event of tool failure, and what it costs to move the tool out.