How To Reduce The Cost Of 3D Printing in 2023

Every printer owner wants to cut down on paper waste and keep costs in check.
The total costs are astounding: According to one survey, the typical office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year, with almost half of that material going to waste.

So, in this guide, I am giving you a clear concept how to reduce the cost of 3d printer.

Hope you enjoy the guide and the suggestions will help to reduce the cost.

What influences 3D printing costs? 

 Materials: There are various polymer materials available for each 3D printing process.

SLA resin, SLS, and MJF powders are typically more expensive than the spools of filament used in FDM (fused deposition modeling).

The cost of the part will directly depend on how much material is needed to print it.

This is crucial when using FDM printing because it frequently calls for support structures.

Volume: Larger pieces take longer to make and demand more material and space on the machine.

Costs are raised as a result of these increases in materials and production time.

Post-processing: It’s possible that a component still needs to be assembled manually after you’ve finished printing a part.

These finishing techniques, which raise the part’s final cost, include support or powder removal, cleaning, sanding, and other kinds of post-processing.

Equipment prices: These expenses include the time spent installing and setting up equipment, operational expenditures, routine machine repair, and other sporadic upkeep.

These expenses will probably be incurred regardless of the manufacturing technology you choose.

Simple Ways to Lower Your Printing Costs 

Even though corporate printing can consume up to 3% of annual sales, 90% of business owners fail to keep track of these costs.

They simply understand that paper and ink are expensive and easily destroyed. However, you don’t have to sacrifice your finances to get office printers.

There are various methods to cut your printing expenses.

Change Your Print Settings 

Duplex Printing: One of the simplest ways to reduce print costs is to print on both sides of a page, or duplex.

Duplex printing requires one paper sheet for every two pages produced. For simple print requirements and internal communications, duplex printing is ideal.

Draft Mode Printing: The option to print in “draft” or “rapid draft” mode is available on many printers.

This option effectively lowers the printer’s DPI, producing a lighter print that consumes a lot less ink or toner.

This is an excellent method for printing office papers and producing internal copies.

Replacing Old Equipment 

Consider replacing any old printers you have in your office.

Inefficient printers can hinder business productivity and increase costs in a number of ways, including:

 Inefficiency: An older printer can not perform well like a new printer.

They waste more ink completing the same jobs.

Increased costs per print result from this.

Repairs: Older gadgets sometimes require regular repair calls, which are expensive.

You could buy a new printer with that money instead. Less maintenance is likely to be needed on newer equipment.

Less Control: In order to help you improve your surroundings, newer printers can automatically measure and report consumption, efficiency, and other crucial parameters.

To provide you even more print control, they can also enable individualized rules and limitations.

These functionalities are frequently not supported by older devices.

More Energy Use: Older technology consumes more electricity than more recent energy-certified technology.

As a result, expenses go up and the environment is affected more.

Lower material costs 

Another factor supporting 3D printing as a competitive production alternative is the reduction of raw material costs.

In 3D printing, raw materials are added layer by layer and only where they are actually needed, which significantly lowers material waste.

You can also use 3D printing to reduce the amount of material required to create a part.

Metal light weighting is the process of using 3D printing to make metal parts lighter.

One of the few methods for producing lightweight metal components at a reasonable price is 3D printing.

Cutting, drilling, and machining are more labor-intensive and therefore more expensive.

The complexity needed to create lightweight structures doesn’t incur additional costs with 3D printing.

In actuality, the contrary is true: the production process is more affordable and efficient the lighter the part.

Reducing tooling investment 

3D printing is assisting in the reduction of tooling expenses.

For example, 3D printing is an excellent technique to directly make tools or to bypass some assembly processes by printing devices in a single part.

Opel admits to a 90% reduction in tooling costs for the assembly process.

It depends on your business and how you employ 3D printing, but it is clearly a solution to reduce tooling expenses.

Optimizing your design 

If you intend to use 3D printing, your 3D model must be optimized for 3D printing.

Working on the product design might help you optimize and lower the cost of your 3D printed part.

A cost-effective design can help you save money.

Indeed, by using 3D modeling software to create your model, you may create a design that is truly optimal and uses the least amount of material.

You can cut your production expenses by using lattices or honeycomb designs!

Furthermore, having a well-designed 3D printed item obviously reduces post-production stages that add cost and time to the creation of your product.

It will assist in lowering production expenses!

Additionally, You can also perform some extra work to  reduce the cost of 3d printer

You can also get help on reducing your 3D printing cost from reading: 7 Best 3d Printer Under 300 in 2023

 Scale down model 

If you only require the visual aspect for prototyping, the size of your model is unimportant.

You can reduce the size of your 3D part if it is not critical.

Indeed, if your portion is smaller, you will obviously save money because you would use less powder!

Hollow the product’s part 

You can use our hollowing tool while uploading your 3D model to our online 3D printing service.

How does it function?

You can get a hollowed portion by drilling two holes in your design.

This manner, you’ll be able to remove all of the powder from the model, and your portion will be hollowed.

Because you will use less powder, your parts will be less expensive.

Make use of our batch control tool 

If you intend to print more than 20 units using the Sculpted 3D printing service, you can employ the batch control tool.

This tool will assist you in optimizing the space available in your 3D printer. The less space you take, the less expensive your order.

Consider it for your next order.

Final Thought

Reduced production costs, process optimization, and so on are all achievable goals when adopting additive manufacturing.

This blog article has helped you realize the benefits of additive manufacturing for your company’s budget more clearly and that you will not hesitate to take advantage of our printing cost-cutting ideas.

Reading this guide, I hope that now you can reduce the cost of 3d printing.