This document provides a costing model for 3D printed parts using FDM technology. It outlines the key cost components to include in the model such as material, part size and infill, printer costs, processing costs, labor costs, and defects. It then provides an example cost calculation for a single part production run and analyzes the sensitivity of costs for production runs of 100 and 1000 parts. The cost components are calculated and the percentage contribution of each to the total cost is identified.

1. COSTING MODEL
for FDM 3D Printed Parts
Adapted from MIT’s Additive Manufacturing for Innovative Design and Production course,

2. | 2
2 Cost components
4
Q & A
1
5
Sensitivity analysis to the impact of each factor
Objective of the Costing Model
Costing Model + Example3

3. | 3
1 Objective of the Costing Model

4. 1. Objective of the Costing Model
When we start hearing about 3D Printing, the main applications were:
• Prototypes;
• Jigs & Fixtures;
• Architectural models.
The time and cost saved by using 3D printing in these applications was
so clear, that there was no need for big calculations.
| 4

5. 1. Objective of the Costing Model
Currently, however, we are starting to adopt Additive Manufacturing for:
• On-Demand production;
• Customized production; and
• Low Volume Manufacturing,
and, for these cases, it’s not clear what is the best manufacturing
process except if we do the cost calculation.
| 5

6. | 6
2 Cost components

7. 2. Cost Components
Material
Printed parts are made of material,
therefore material’s cost is relevant to
calculate the cost of the final part.
In our example we will use:
• Raise3D Premium Polycarbonate
• Cost: €49.99/kg
| 7

8. 2. Cost Components
Material
The cost shall be inserted in ideaMaker,
in case it’s not there yet.
Do it, using the Filament Settings
option, and use the currency you are
working with.
| 8

9. 9

10. 10

11. 2. Cost Components
Part Size and Infill
The quantity of material used depends on:
• Size of the part;
• Infill;
• Need for support.
ideaMaker gives us a good estimation of the
quantity of the total material used, including
also support. To have the information, we
just need to slice the part to be printed.
For our example, we got a turbine file from
GrabCad.
| 11

12. 12

13. 13

14. 14

15. 2. Cost Components
Part Size and Infill
ideaMaker informs that we will use 24.9g of
filament.
We will use that information later on.
| 15

16. 2. Cost Components
3D Printer
The price of the printer is also a relevant
factor.
In our example, we will use the EU price
of Raise3D Pro2:
• 3,499€
| 16

17. 2. Cost Components
3D Printer
But there are more relevant factors related with the 3D
printer:
| 17
Factor Unit Quantity
Machine purchase cost € 3,499
Machine lifetime yrs 7.00
Infrastructure cost (as % of machine cost, up-front) % 5%
Maintenance (as % of machine cost, per year) % 5%
Machine build area (LxW) (28cm x 30.5cm) cm^2 854
Machine uptime % 80%

18. 2. Cost Components
Process
The process can be a significant part of the cost, in particular for short runs.
We consider relevant the following factors, and used the following input quantities:
| 18
Factor Unit Quantity
Consumable cost per build (e.g., build plate) € 0.50
First-time build preparation (engineer) hr 1.00
Time per build setup (operator, machine) hr 0.10
Time per build removal (operator, machine) hr 0.10
Time per machine warm-up (machine) hr 0.15

19. 2. Cost Components
Post-process
Depending on how to objected is placed in the printed bed, the mechanical
properties of the printed object will be different, and the post-process can be
shorter or longer.
For our example, we will consider 5 min per part:
| 19
Factor Unit Quantity
Post-processing time per part hr 0.083

20. 2. Cost Components
Operations
We considered the following factors as the most relation for the operations:
| 20
Factor Unit Quantity
Hours per day hr/day 24.00
Days per week day 7.00
FTE (Full Time Equivalent) for build exchange hr 0.25
FTE per machine supervised (during build) hr 0.05
FTE salary, engineer €/hr 23.56
FTE salary, operator €/hr 10.10
FTE salary, technician €/hr 8.08

21. 2. Cost Components
Defects
Finally, we also included in the final cost an estimation of possible defects.
In our examples we considered: 1%
The defective part cannot be used and another part shall be produced. Therefore,
we calculated this impact by increasing the quantity by % of expected defects.
| 21

22. | 22
Costing Model + Example3

23. | 23
TOTAL RUN CALCULATIONS
Parts produced 1
Number of builds 1
Units Value Comments about calculation
Material Total part material (part + support) kg 0.0247 Info from ideaMaker
Total material in all builds kg 0.0247 Quantity x Material per part
Total material cost € 1.23 Info from ideaMaker
Build prep Build prep time (engineer) hr 1.00 Our estimation
Total build prep cost € 23.56
Machine Total up-front cost (machine + infrastructure) € 3,674 Price of printer + Cost of Infrastructure
Annual depreciation € 525 Price / Machine lifetime
Annual maintenance € 175 % Maintenance x Price of printer
Annual machine cost 700 Depreciation + Maintenance
Operating hours per year (uptime adjusted) 6,989 Hrs/day x Days Week x Nr Weeks x Machine Uptime
Machine cost per hour occupied € 0.10 Annual Machine Cost / Operating hours year
Total warm up time hr 0.15 Our estimation
Total print time hr 3.05 Info from ideaMaker
Total build exchange time (setup+remove) hr 0.20 Our estimation (setup + removal)
Total machine time required hr 3.40 Warm-up Time + Print time +Build exchange time
Total machine usage cost € 0.34
Consumables Per-build consumables € 0.50 Our estimation
Total consumables cost € 0.50
Labor Labor hours during build hr 0.16 (Warm-up Time + Print time +Build exchange time) x FTE machine supervision
Labor hours build exchange hr 0.05 (setup + removal) x FTE for build exchange
Total labor hours hr 0.21 Labour hours during build + Labour hours for build exchange
Total labor cost € 2.12 Total Labour hours x FTE salary operator
Post-process Post-processing time per part hr 0.08 Our estimation
Total post-processing time hr 0.08 Time of post-processing per part x nr of parts
Total post-processing cost € 0.67 Total post-processing time x FTE salary of technician
Defects Defective parts % 1.0% Our estimation. Impact by increasing required production to meet intented quantity

24. 3. Costing Model
| 24
Units Value Comments about calculation
Material Total part material (part + support) kg 0.0247 Info from ideaMaker
Total material in all builds kg 0.0247 Quantity x Material per part
Total material cost € 1.23 Info from ideaMaker
Build prep Build prep time (engineer) hr 1.00 Our estimation
Total build prep cost € 23.56
Machine Total up-front cost (machine + infrastructure) € 3,674 Price of printer + Cost of Infrastructure
Annual depreciation € 525 Price / Machine lifetime
Annual maintenance € 175 % Maintenance x Price of printer
Annual machine cost 700 Depreciation + Maintenance
Operating hours per year (uptime adjusted) 6,989 Hrs/day x Days Week x Nr Weeks x Machine Uptime
Machine cost per hour occupied € 0.10 Annual Machine Cost / Operating hours year
Total warm up time hr 0.15 Our estimation
Total print time hr 3.05 Info from ideaMaker
Total build exchange time (setup+remove) hr 0.20 Our estimation (setup + removal)
Total machine time required hr 3.40 Warm-up Time + Print time +Build exchange time
Total machine usage cost € 0.34

25. 3. Costing Model
| 25
Consumables Per-build consumables € 0.50 Our estimation
Total consumables cost € 0.50
Labor Labor hours during build hr 0.16 (Warm-up Time + Print time +Build exchange time) x FTE machine supervision
Labor hours build exchange hr 0.05 (setup + removal) x FTE for build exchange
Total labor hours hr 0.21 Labour hours during build + Labour hours for build exchange
Total labor cost € 2.12 Total Labour hours x FTE salary operator
Post-process Post-processing time per part hr 0.08 Our estimation
Total post-processing time hr 0.08 Time of post-processing per part x nr of parts
Total post-processing cost € 0.67 Total post-processing time x FTE salary of technician
Defects Defective parts % 1.0% Our estimation. Impact by increasing required production to meet intented quantity

26. 3. Costing Model
| 26
Production run size parts 1
Number of parts per build 17
Number of builds required 1
Total cost for production run €
Material 4.3% 1.23
Build prep 82.9% 23.56
Machine usage 1.2% 0.34
Build consumables 1.8% 0.50
Labor 7.5% 2.12
Post-process 2.4% 0.67
Defects (included in other factors) 1.0% 0.28
Total cost € 28.43
Average cost per part € 28.43

27. | 27
4 Sensitivity analysis to the impact of each factor

28. 4. Sensitivity analysis to the impact of each factor
| 28
Production run size parts 1
Number of parts per build 17
Number of builds required 1
Total cost for production run €
Material 4.3% 1.23
Build prep 82.9% 23.56
Machine usage 1.2% 0.34
Build consumables 1.8% 0.50
Labor 7.5% 2.12
Post-process 2.4% 0.67
Defects (included in other factors) 1.0% 0.28
Total cost € 28.43
Average cost per part € 28.43
Production run size parts 100
Number of parts per build 17
Number of builds required 6
Total cost for production run €
Material 55.5% 124.71
Build prep 10.5% 23.56
Machine usage 0.2% 0.52
Build consumables 1.3% 3.00
Labor 2.2% 5.02
Post-process 30.2% 67.98
Defects (included in other factors) 1.0% 2.25
Total cost € 224.79
Average cost per part € 2.25
Production run size parts 1000
Number of parts per build 17
Number of builds required 59
Total cost for production run €
Material 61.8% 1,247.10
Build prep 1.2% 23.56
Machine usage 0.1% 2.41
Build consumables 1.5% 30.00
Labor 1.8% 36.37
Post-process 33.7% 679.81
Defects (included in other factors) 1.0% 20.19
Total cost € 2,019.25
Average cost per part € 2.02

29. 4. Sensitivity analysis to the impact of each factor
| 29

30. | 30
Q & A5

31. 5. Q&A
Q & A
| 31

32. Thank you!
Thank you
| 32