3D Printing Service

3D printing cost per part is dependent on a multitude of factors, including design, material, process, and post print operations. Typically, the post print operations account for most of the part cost, especially if manual labor is involved. In general, the laser powder bed sintering processes like SLS and MJF are the most optimal economic choices for end use parts if cost is a key factor.

When selecting a 3D printing technology, first determine critical design requirements like strength, temperature resistance, water resistance, aesthetics, or durability. This will often help you determine if a metal or plastic 3D printing is needed for your application. Check out this 3D printing material selection guide for further assistance on technology options to align with your design requirements.

The maximum size of the part depends on the bounding box in the 3D printing machine being used.

Please see maximum part sizes for each process above.

One of the biggest advantages of 3D printing is speed, or time to part in hand. Additional advantages include flexible design, cost savings, and production quality parts without tooling investment.

3D printing has historically been leveraged as a rapid prototyping manufacturing method. With advancements in post-processing options and engineering grade additive materials, 3D printing is often leveraged for end use part production.

Though all file types are ultimately converted to STL (.stl) before printing, the recommended file type to upload is STEP (.stp/.step). SOLIDWORKS (.sldprt), and IGES (.igs/.iges) files. Check out further guidance on how to design .stil files for 3D printing. Learn more about .stl files for 3D printing.

Originally created and developed by 3D Systems STL is considered the preferred and standard file type to use for 3D printing. STL files describe the surface of the part by breaking it into a collection of triangles. The STL file lists the location of each point of every triangle as well as which side of the triangle faces outwards. Compared to other CAD file formats, STL files have relatively little information, describing only the surface geometry of a three-dimensional shape and not other attributes such as colour, texture etc.

So, what does STL stand for? STL has several backronyms such as, Standard Triangle Language, Standard Tesselation Language, but was originally taken from the word and process stereolithography.

To learn more about STL files and how to design for them, read our tip here.

While additive manufacturing is excellent
for prototyping because it is a very cost
effective way of producing many different
designs during the development phase,
it is also increasingly used to make final
parts. Indeed, there are many advantages
of using 3D printing for production, but
more on that later.

Increased automation and faster production speeds mean that if you need anything up to a few hundred parts, then 3D printing could be the answer you are looking for.