Cost in numbers-old

Cost in numbers

Cost per volume approach for quick cost estimate

During the phase of business case identification, it is often necessary to estimate the manufacturing cost without a final design. For this purpose it can be helpful to come up with a rough estimate by applying the cost per volume. 

After giving an overview of cost per cm³ for all technologies, additional considerations are given for each of the main metal technologies below.

What you will find in this section

Cost per volume comparison

Big spread even within technologies

High volumes and large multi laser system

High volumes and large system

Low volumes and small single laser system

Low volumes and small system

Small system, 5% nesting

Medium size system, 50% nesting

Open system vs. closed system

High resolution nozzle

Low resolution nozzle

Manufacturing volume

The graph shows an overview of cost per cm³ of printed material for the different technologies. Stainless Steel 17-4PH is selected since this material is available for all different technologies. All costs are calculated for inhouse production with the following assumptions:
  • 30% overhead for system and labor
  • No margins
  • Manufacturing volume 100 to 10.000 parts
For each technology a minimum and maximum cost is displayed by varying the most critical factor. Please keep in mind that these values simply act as a general rule of thumb and for each applications it first needs to be analyzed which printing technology is applicable.

Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Laser Powder Bed Fusion cost are directly linked to part volume

  • Min: 2,4 EUR/cm³
  • Max: 10,0 EUR/cm³

For Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF), costs are directly linked to the volume of the build job, consisting of the part and support volume. High investment costs into the printer paired with long build times often result in the machine cost accounting for over 50% of the part cost. Reducing the part volume thus directly leads to a cost reduction.

The lowest cost per cm³ can be achieved on a multi-laser system for parts produced in high volumes. Especially latest developments with machines that are equipped with up to 12 lasers can drive down these costs even further.

Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion

Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion cost comparable to LPBF

  • Min: 2,4 EUR/cm³
  • Max: 7,8 EUR/cm³

The cost for Electron Powder Bed Fusion (E-PBF) are on a similar level than those for LPBF. For suitable applications such as bulky parts that can be stacked in the build chamber, EPBF usually has slight cost advantages. On the other hand, recent developments on LPBF processes and machines have made LPBF more cost-effective for multi-laser systems.

Binder Jetting

Lowest cost per part for high-volume manufacturing of small components

  • Min: 1,2 EUR/cm³
  • Max: 19,1 EUR/cm³

For Binder Jetting, the packing density and the system size have the biggest impact. The build time per job does not depend on the number of parts in the build envelope. Therefor there is a big spread between the minimum and maximum cost per cm³. When utilizing the build volume to 50% on a medium-sized system, the cost per cm³ can be reduced to below 1€. 

When calculating part costs it needs to be taken into account that it might require several iterations until arriving at the right part. This is due to the fact that the shrinkage during sintering is still hard to predict.

Material Extrusion

Low hourly rate, but also low print speed

  • Min: 4,7 EUR/cm³
  • Max: 5,9 EUR/cm³

Even though the hourly rate for Metal ME is lower than for other printers, the relatively low print speed leads to costs around 5 Euro per cm³. This is also driven by relatively high material cost when using metal filaments.

The minimum costs can be achieved for open systems that can work with any type of material. More productive nozzles speeding up the printing process can further decrease the cost per cm³. 

Laser Metal Deposition

Nozzle resolution with big impact on LMD cost

  • Min: 1,2 EUR/cm³
  • Max: 4,5 EUR/cm³

For Laser Metal Deposition (LMD), the nozzle resolution has a big impact on the deposition speed and cost per cm³. The nozzle thus needs to be chosen depending on the application requirements for cost and resolution.

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

WAAM with lowest overall cost

  • Min: 0,4 EUR/cm³
  • Max: 0,8 EUR/cm³

For Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), the manufacturing volume has the biggest impact. The technology is especially suitable for larger volumes so that the setup and data preparation spreads over a larger volume. This leads to the lowest overall cost per cm³. 

Since WAAM generally results in very rough parts requiring substantial post processing, these costs are only hardly comparable with other technologies in this section. 

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Sinter-based AM technologies and process chain

Sinter-based AM - a technology overview

Many different printing technologies - one sintering process

The sinter-based AM (SBAM) technologies have, as the name suggests, the sintering process in common. In this process, the printed green part is consolidated into a dense part and receives its final properties. The green part can be printed in advance using different technologies.They all have in common that metal powder is bound to the desired shape by a binder. The best-known printing technologies include Binder Jetting and Filament Material Extrusion.

In this section, you learn everything about the sinter-based AM  process chain and get an overview of the different printing technologies.

Goal and structure of this course

This course is aimed at engineers, designers and other professionals that are working closely with sinter-based AM technologies. The goal is to cover the most important aspects that will enable engineers and designers to fully grasp the capabilities and technical limitations of the printing technologies and the sintering process to succeed in technology selection and part design. Besides going through the course from the beginning until the end, this course can also act as a constant source of knowledge while working on AM projects. 

The course is structured into the following sections.

This section will start with an overview of the sinter-based AM process chain and its printing technologies, followed by a technology deep dive into the most important aspects of the BJT technology, followed by a closer look at the debinding and sintering step also including sintering simulation .

The second section will provide an overview of the different materials that are available as well as part characteristics that can be achieved with the BJT process and typical methods for quality assurance. Finally, several common defects in the BJT process are presented. 

The last section will act as a guideline for designers. Besides generally describing the process when designing for Additive Manufacturing, actionable restrictions and guidelines for the BJT process are provided. The final section will present several design examples from different industries. 

What you will find in this section

Sinter-based AM process chain

From digital model to finished part

Data preparation

Simulation to compensate the deformation during the sintering step, nesting of parts and definition of printing parameters

Printing

Through various printing processes, different feedstocks such as metal powders, filaments, pellets or dispersions are processed into green parts

Unpacking

Unpacking of fragile green parts needs to be done carefully and is typically a manual process.

Debinding

Debinding describes the process of removing the binder which results in a brown part

Sintering

To reach the structural integrity of a metal part, a sinter process is required. The powder particles fuse together to a coherent, solid structure via a mass transport that occurs at the atomic scale driven via diffusional forces.

The brown part shrinks ~13-21 % in each direction.

The process chain of sinter-based technologies differs from other AM Technologies. Especially the post-printing processes (debinding and sintering) are crucial to achieve the intended mechanical properties.

Technology principle

How does Binder Jetting work?

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting

Afterwards the build platform moves downward by the amount of one layer thickness and a new layer of powder is applied. Again, the liquid binder is deposited and hardened in the required regions of the next layer to form the green body. This process is repeated until the complete part is printed. After the complete printing process is finished the parts have to be removed from the “powder cake” meaning the surrounding loose but densified powder. To improve the removal of the excess powder from the green body often brushes or a blasting gun with air pressure are used.

To create a dense metal part the 3D printed green body has to be post-processed in a debinding and sintering process. Similar to the metal injection molding process BJT parts are placed in a high temperature furnace, where the binder is burnt out and the remaining metal particles are sintered together. The sintering results in densification of the 3D printed green body to a metal part with high densities of 97 % to 99,5%, dependent of the material.

Printing Technologies

Metal Binder Jetting

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting

Material Extrusion

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting

Mold Slurry Deposition

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting

Metal Selective Laser Sintering

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting