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You can’t get them from the government. I don’t even know any consultant you could pay to find out what custom injection molders charge for a given size press in different regions of the country. But you can get them for free—right here. In fact, we’ve been providing this information at regular intervals since 1986. That is, until this year. As you can see, the last published survey results are for December 2012. I’ll tell you why—and what you can do about it.

Judging by the steady stream of mail (and email) that I’ve received over those years, custom molders—and OEM customers—love this twice-yearly update on the typical high/low range and average rates for specific machine size ranges in five sectors of the U.S. That comes with a table that shows how the rates vary with and without an operator and/or profit margin. And we provide extra supporting data on how much rates have changed since the last survey, average machine capacity utilization, in which sections of the country molders are busiest or least busy, and molders’ views on near-term ´óÏó´«Ã½ conditions (higher, lower, or neutral). Molders with in-house moldmaking shops also provide an update on trends in mold orders.

But there’s a catch: Everyone loves to see the data, but too few are willing to help make it happen. We can’t publish the results unless enough of you respond to our twice-yearly survey. It’s available online and takes barely five minutes to fill out. Your responses are completely anonymous; so the sources can't be identified.

Don’t let us miss a full year’s worth of data. We’re holding the end-of-year 2013 survey open at .

Go there and fill it out now—or if someone else at your company has the data, forward this to that person. And the next time a survey email appears in your inbox, please respond. It’s in your interest, and this valuable information resource depends on your input.

Thanks, in advance.