How to Negotiate Silicone Tooling Ownership and Maintenance Agreements with Factories

Owning a silicone tool means you can take the steel, the inserts, and the files when the relationship ends. A line that says “buyer owns the mold” without storage, PM, recut, and wear rules is not ownership. It is a slogan.

Negotiate the package before the PO, not after first article. LSR steel, HCR compression tools, and aluminum bridges all need the same clauses. The numbers change. The fights do not.

What “ownership” has to name

Title is a list, not a feeling.

The physical stack: mold base, cavity and core inserts, slides, cold-runner deck or sprue, heaters, thermocouples, vacuum seals, electrodes, spare inserts you paid for. If a line item is missing from the ownership clause, assume the shop keeps it.

The design stack: 2D, 3D, electrode files, DFM notes, tryout parameters (cure, clamp, vacuum, cycle). A steel crate without the files is a paperweight if you second-source.

Nameplate in the steel: tool number, “property of [buyer],” date. Not cryptography. A customs and receiving fact.

Location. The tool lives at the molder. You still own it. Write the address, the right to inspect, and the right to crate it out on a stated number of days’ notice after accounts are settled.

Do not confuse “we will not use it for other customers” with title. That is a use restriction. You want both.

Clauses that actually get used

No duplicate / no extra cavity. The shop may not cut a second tool or a fifth insert on a four-cavity PO without written consent. Spare *wear* inserts you ordered are allowed. Spare *complete tools* are not, unless you PO them.

No export / no subcontract of the tool. Trading companies park steel at a sister shop. If that is acceptable, name the sister. If it is not, forbid movement without consent.

Photos at steel-complete and at every recut. Shutoff, runner, nameplate, a ruler. Same shots. This is how you notice a recut you did not order.

Return condition. Clean, rust-prevented, channels blown dry, moving items locked, packing list matching the BOM. A “you own it” clause that lets the shop return rusty plates is a transfer of scrap.

Payment vs title. Some shops hold title until the last tooling installment. That is a lien, not a partnership. If you accept it, write the trigger: title passes on final tooling payment or on first-article approval, whichever you negotiate, and steel cannot be scrapped or reused in the meantime.

Maintenance is a schedule, not “we take care of it”

Split three buckets. Shops bundle them to hide who pays.

Preventive (PM). Shutoff stone or polish interval, heater and thermocouple check, vacuum seal replacement, rust preventive in storage, channel flush. Frequency is in shots or calendar, whichever comes first. LSR hot tools sitting in a humid room rust on the calendar even if they have not run.

Repair from wear. Flash lands roll over. Gates erode. Needles on a cold deck pit. This is expected. Write who pays below a defined wear state, and who pays when the buyer’s compound is abrasive or the clamp recipe is abusive.

Modification. Geometry change, logo recut, cavitation add. Always buyer-paid unless the shop cut the first version wrong against a frozen drawing. Do not let a shop call a DFM miss “wear.”

Storage is its own line: indoor, VCI or equivalent, humidity, stacked so the shutoff is not the pallet. A tool “owned by you” that lives under a drip is your problem the day you need it.

Who pays for wear: a rule, not a sticker

Do not invent a dollar cap. Invent a *rule*.

• Normal production wear on a Class 103-intent LSR tool: shop labor for PM inside the quoted life intent; buyer pays steel or inserts if a land is recut because the product outlived the class, or because the flash spec tightened after FAI.
• Abrasive filler, metal-detectable compound, or a flash spec that needs a knife-edge land: buyer should expect earlier insert refresh. Put “wear inserts quoted as a separate line” in the RFQ.
• Damage from mishandling, rust in storage, crashed slides, water in heater wells: shop. This is why return-condition and storage language exist.
• Tryout flash that was never signed off: shop, until FAI is accepted.

If the quote has no PM interval, you are buying a tool with an implied “run it until it flashes, then argue.”

A sequence that keeps leverage

1. RFQ language first. Ownership list, no-duplicate, no-export, PM interval, photo set, title-trigger, return packing. Shops that gag here will gag later.
2. Split tooling payment from production payment. A deposit / steel-complete / FAI structure is a leverage tool. Last money should see steel-complete photos and a packing BOM, not a promise.
3. FAI is not a gift of the tool. Acceptance of parts is not a waiver of missing inserts or missing files. Check the BOM against the crate list even if the parts look good.
4. Annual inventory. Remote photo or visit: nameplate, cavity count, storage condition. If the shop cannot find your tool, you never owned it.
5. Exit drill, on paper, while everyone is friendly. Lead time to crate, who packs, who pays freight, who holds the files. Write it. You will not invent a calm protocol during a quality fight.

What not to concede in a hurry

• “Shop standard maintenance” with no interval.
• Title retained “for safety” after you have paid in full, with no escrow and no inspection right.
• A blanket right to modify the tool “for process improvement” without a drawing change you signed.
• Storage at an unnamed subcontractor.
• Files “available on request” instead of delivered at FAI.

A factory that molds well and refuses these clauses is telling you the steel is theirs. Price the relationship that way, or walk. A factory that signs everything and cannot run a shutoff is a different problem. Ownership paper does not replace capability. It makes capability portable.

FAQ

Who legally owns a custom silicone mold sitting at the factory?

Ownership is whatever the tooling contract and PO say, plus any lien the shop reserved until the last installment. Physical possession at the press is not title. If the clause list omits inserts, electrodes, or the cold-runner deck, those items often stay with the shop even when “the mold” is yours.

Should maintenance cost be included in the piece price or billed separately?

PM labor inside a stated shot or calendar interval can sit in conversion. Insert recuts, abrasive-wear refresh, and drawing changes should be separate lines so you can see them. Bundling wear into piece price hides the day the shutoff dies and the shop “discovers” a recut fee.

Can the factory refuse to release my tooling if invoices are open?

Many shops will, whether the contract allows a lien or they simply have the crate. Write the release trigger, the inspection right, and what “accounts settled” means (tooling vs production vs disputed scrap). Unpaid production invoices should not quietly convert into ownership of your steel.

Do I need the CAD and electrode files if I already own the steel?

Yes if you might second-source, recut a land, or add a cavity. Steel without files forces the next shop to reverse-engineer a hot, vacuum-assisted tool. Demand the file set at FAI, not “on request when you leave.”

What is a reasonable PM interval for an LSR steel tool?

There is no universal shot count. Tie PM to flash spec, compound abrasiveness, and class intent: inspect shutoffs and heaters on a calendar even when volume is low, and stone or polish lands when flash grows, not when the customer rejects a lot. Write the interval as shots *or* months, whichever comes first.