You might price out some of your designs with a lower cost, quick turn, prototype focused injection mold contract manufacturer before deciding that's the right

You might price out some of your designs with a lower cost, quick turn, prototype focused injection mold contract manufacturer before deciding that's the right tech for your next projects. Something like ProtoLabs https://www.protolabs.com/services/injection-molding/ https://www.protolabs.com/services/injection-molding/ or similar. Even with aluminum molds at a low cost focused prototyping CM, which are MUCH cheaper than steel molds, I think the pricing for just one set of tooling is going to exceed your $15k budget. Finding 3D printing contract manufacturers who can manufacture with the materials you're interested in would be my recommendation if you're moving into plastics. The unit cost is going to be extreme compared to injection molding, but there's almost 0 tooling cost, so for prototyping 1 or 2 units will be significantly cheaper. Advanced 3d printing these days can rival (or even exceed) the performance of an injection molded part.