3D printing

A shop quotes printed parts once its park holds a printer. The material decides how a part is made: a print material is printed on a printer of its process, a machining material is machined. STL, 3MF and OBJ files are always printed. For a STEP or IGES file the customer chooses printed or machined where both are possible.

Printers

A printer is a machine with the technology 3D printing and one process: FDM/FFF, MSLA, DLP, SLA, SLS, MJF or LPBF. The build volume is its X, Y and Z. A printer can be picked from the machine catalogue; the nozzle, the loaded materials and the margin kept along the edges are the shop's and are never copied. Each process has its own figures, every one with a default shown in the empty field:

• FFF: nozzle, volumetric flow, acceleration, top speed and the material changer (spools, toolchanger, IDEX).
• MSLA, DLP: the platform's moves per layer. SLA: the same and the laser's scan speed.
• SLS, MJF: layer, time per layer, warm-up, cooling and where a build cools, gap between parts.
• LPBF: layer, number of lasers, build rate per laser, recoating per layer.

Print materials

Print materials are a list of their own, separate from machining materials. Each has a form (filament, resin, polymer powder, metal powder), a density, a price per kilogram (per litre for resin) and colours. A material can be picked from the catalogue: the density, colours and data sheet figures are copied, the price is always entered by the shop. A row from the Open Filament Database is marked as community data.

How a printed part is priced

• Filament (FFF): the print time from the part's walls, infill, top and bottom layers, supports, travel and cooling, plus the material by role. Parts printed on one plate share its setup and cooling.
• Resin (MSLA, DLP): a whole layer is exposed at once, so a build takes as long for one part as for a full platform; the parts on it share that time. Supports and a raft are added under overhangs.
• Resin (SLA): the laser draws every part, so the time grows with the volume and the outline.
• Polymer powder (SLS, MJF): a part pays the share of a full build its box takes, or, if the shop prices each order on its own builds, the builds the order fills. Powder is charged at the material's refresh share of what the build is loaded with, and never less than the part itself.
• Metal (LPBF): the volume melted at the material's rate for the layer printed, recoating per layer and the setup of each build: the order's own builds or, if the shop shares plates, the share of a plate the part's footprint takes.
• Every family: if the shop charges failed builds, the printer's time, the setup and the material are spread over the builds that succeed.
• Every family: if the shop switches it on, preparing the file - checking it, orienting, supports, slicing or nesting - is charged once per quote at the labour rate.

Each family has its own calibration list: approved resin prices never move a filament price.

Settings per print type

Each print type the park holds a printer of has its own card in Quoting rules → Quality classes. A field left empty uses the default shown in it.

• Profiles and advanced settings (filament, resin): the qualities the configurator offers and the limits of what a customer may set.
• “Builds” (polymer powder, metal). “Shared with other orders”: a build is filled with parts of many orders, and a part pays the share its box (powder) or its footprint (metal) takes, so its price does not depend on the quantity. “Each order its own”: the order pays whole builds - the setup, the warm-up and the layers up to its tallest part - even for one part. Default: shared for powder, each order its own for metal.
• “Build filled by parts” (powder) and “Plate filled with parts” (metal): how much of the chamber or of the plate's floor the parts, with their gaps, take on an average build. A lower figure puts fewer parts in an order's own build and makes a part in a shared one pay more. Defaults: 30 % and 70 %.
• “Work by hand”: the hourly rate of a person who removes parts and supports and prepares files. Empty: the printer's rate.
• “Build setup costed at”: the setup minutes of a build at the printer's rate, or at the rate of work by hand when the work is done off the printer, such as unpacking and sieving a powder build at a separate station. Default: the printer's rate.
• “Failed builds”: when ticked, the printer's time, the setup and the material are divided by the share of builds that succeed. An empty share is a published rate: filament 7 %, resin 6 %, powder and metal 12 %.
• “File preparation”: when ticked, checking the file, orienting it, supports and slicing or nesting are charged once per quote at the rate of work by hand. Empty minutes: filament 5, resin 10, powder and metal 20.

Two settings are outside the card. The setup minutes of a build for each print type are in Quoting rules → Operation times, and calibration fits them. With builds shared with other orders every price holds setup and print time in the same proportion, so calibration keeps the setup minutes as set and fits only the calibration multiplier. A printer whose build takes longer or shorter to prepare than those minutes says so in “Build setup (× family)” in the machine editor, for example 2 for a large industrial chamber.

Stress relief, cutting parts off the plate, HIP, bead blasting and dyeing are finishing operations: in Quoting rules → Finishing, an operation offered for printed parts names the “Print types” it applies to.

What a customer chooses

The customer picks one of the shop's profiles. If the shop enables advanced settings, the customer can also set a filament print's layer height, infill, walls and supports, or a resin print's layer height and supports, within the shop's limits; the server applies the limits to every request. A powder or metal print offers only its colours. A finishing operation is offered for a printed part when the shop marks it for printed parts, and only for the print types it names, for example stress relief for metal alone.

What waits for a technologist

• every metal print: the price is shown to the customer only after approval;
• a part printed without supports under an overhang;
• a print longer than 168 hours;
• a mesh that did not close after repair, or a 3MF whose painted colours could not be read.