In the last decade, the manufacturing industry has undergone a radical change. With the advent of 3D printing technologies, manufacturers and engineers now have more options to create more complex geometries for demanding applications with less investment and time. There are many reasons why 3D printing is cost-effective.
Material Savings
You can save up a lot of material costs through 3D printing compared to traditional manufacturing techniques like injection molding and CNC machining. This is because you only use as much material as required to make the product and won’t have any material waste. There are so many products today that have a hollow region inside them, in which case 3D printing will help you cut down on material costs.
No Tooling Cost
3D printing offers a cost-effective way to make one prototype at a time without additional costs. This enables companies to test their designs without investing in expensive molds or tools. Since there is no extrusion process in 3D printing, you don’t need to spend money on tooling or dies for your production. This saves both time and money since there is no waiting period for the tooling to be made.
Low Volume Production
With 3D printing, you can produce parts in low volume without incurring additional costs, unlike in traditional manufacturing processes where you need to pay for the setup, even if it’s just small volume production. Many industries need customized parts in small batches. For example, in the dental industry, a dentist will not need 50 or 100 crowns or veneers because they are custom-made for each patient’s teeth.
Traditional methods such as injection molding are not suitable for this type of scenario because it requires huge setup and tooling costs as well as material wastage. Thus 3D printing is greatly beneficial for all kinds of businesses who are looking at producing prototypes or low quantity products before committing to high volume production.
Get Mechanical Design Services
If you’re a business owner, 3D printing is likely on your radar. At Connekt, LLC, we are a highly experienced engineering design firm that can help revolutionize how you create and test new products. We provide affordable mechanical engineering design services in Northern California including Auburn, and Grass Valley. Our services include electro-mechanical packaging design, FEA consulting, 3D printing, and plastic injection molding.
Contact us today.
