How the cost per part is estimated
The estimate is the price a service bureau would typically charge, not the cost of owning a machine. It exists to compare technologies and quantities. It does not replace a quote.
What goes into the price
- Machine time for the build.
- Material, for the part and for the support.
- Labour per build, shared between the pieces in that build.
- Finishing per piece.
- Order preparation, shared across the quantity.
How many pieces share a build
The number of pieces per build comes from the footprint of the part on the build platform for FDM, resin and metal, and from a share of the chamber volume for SLS (55 % usable). A build is shared with other orders, as it is at a service bureau, so the price of one piece is not the price of a whole build.
Orientation and support
The estimate uses the orientation with the least support among six base orientations. For metal, the support volume comes from the same calculation as the check. If that calculation does not finish, no price is shown instead of a guess.
Quantities and machine classes
Prices are shown for 1, 10 and 100 pieces. FDM has two machine classes, a fast one for parts up to 256 mm and a large one up to 350 mm, and the part goes to the fast class if it fits.
Assumptions
All rates and material prices are assumptions typical for the machine class and are marked as assumptions in the report. Machine makers are not named.
What it does not include
Design time, testing, qualification, tax and delivery. Whether printing pays off against machining or casting is a different question, covered by a cost assessment.
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