Manufacturing process

Nine stations between a coil of steel and a sealed carton.

Every drinkware family runs the same spine, with two or three stations swapped depending on the material. The gate names below are the ones you will see on our batch record.

Injection and assembly area on the Lsbottle factory floor
Injection and assembly — one of fifteen lines, photographed on a working day.
Bottle washing and conveyor line
Washing and conveyance after printing, before the leak test.

The spine

From tooling to loading.

  1. 01

    Tooling

    Drawing or sample → 3D → mould. Existing moulds are used where the geometry allows, which is what keeps a first order affordable.

  2. 02

    Blanking & forming

    Steel coil is cut and drawn into the body and the inner shell. Plastic parts are injection moulded on the same site.

  3. 03

    Welding

    Longitudinal seam and the base are welded, then the outer and inner shells are joined at the neck.

  4. 04

    Vacuum

    Air is evacuated between the walls and the port is sealed. 100% of bodies are vacuum-loss checked, not sampled.

  5. 05

    Polishing

    Weld dressing and surface preparation. This station decides whether the paint looks like paint or like a coating that has been sprayed on.

  6. 06

    Coating

    Powder coating or paint, cured, then checked for film thickness, colour and adhesion before it moves on.

  7. 07

    Decoration

    Laser, silkscreen, UV or heat transfer. Registration and cure are checked on the first 50 pieces of every setup.

  8. 08

    Assembly & test

    Lid, gasket, straw and handle assembled; leak and insulation tests run per batch; AQL inspection on finished goods.

  9. 09

    Packing & loading

    Polybag or retail box, carton drop test, carton photographs to the buyer, then the loading plan is built around your retail mix.

Timing

Where the calendar actually goes.

A 3,000-piece order with an existing mould is a different animal from a new mould. The difference is almost entirely stations 01 and 06.

What each station costs
Existing mould, stock colour
Sample in 7 days, production 22–28 days after deposit and artwork approval. Add 7 days if a printed colour box is involved.
Existing mould, custom colour
Add 5–7 days for a powder batch. The line is the same; the changeover is not.
New mould
T1 samples at 18–25 days, then 7–10 days of iteration before production. Budget six weeks from drawing approval to a shipping sample.
Chinese New Year and summer peaks
Lines close for roughly two weeks around Spring Festival and tighten again in July and August. If your retail date is Q4, book the production slot by June.

Start with the station you are unsure about.

Most specifications only need one or two questions answered before they can be quoted. Send the part you are least sure of.

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