Tooling: Tooling is the part-specific equipment needed to make a part, such as an injection mould, a die or a fixture, paid for once before production starts.
In moulding, tooling usually means the mould itself. Hard tooling is hardened steel, built for long runs. Soft or rapid tooling is aluminium, or even a 3D printed or silicone mould, made faster and cheaper for shorter runs. In stamping, tooling means dies and punches; in machining it can mean a fixture or special cutters.
What it means for the price
Tooling is a one-off cost, often quoted separately as NRE, and often owned by the customer once paid for. It shapes the economics of the whole job: a high tooling cost needs a large quantity to spread over. A quote that hides tooling inside the part price also hides why a repeat order costs less than the first.
Example: an aluminium mould at €5,000 suits a run of a few thousand parts; a steel mould at €20,000 suits a run of hundreds of thousands. The figures are an example.
Common confusions
In machining, “tooling” can also mean the cutting tools themselves, which are consumables, not a one-off. A quote should make clear which meaning it uses. See tool amortisation for how a one-off cost becomes a per-part price, and read what drives injection moulding cost.
Go deeper: Injection moulding cost: tooling, cycle time, resin and the break-even