Being a startup I am looking to create my own injection moulds and press my own parts, so I would say I am looking for each mould to support 25 to 250 pieces, aluminum will be much easier to work with on the CNC equipment I am looking to purchase. I was concerned that aluminum might be not be strong enough if the required tonnage was too high but it sounds like it would work. I selected thermal compression moulding as its something I could do without a full injection moulding machine. Basically I plan on producing the prototypes and a short production run before moving to injection moulding.