What does a 100-part run actually cost?

It depends entirely on part size and material, but the shape of the answer is predictable: the 18% volume discount applies, the setup fee is spread across all 100 units so it becomes negligible per part, and the per-gram cost settles near the bottom of our range. Configure the part in the estimator and set the quantity to 100 to see the real figure.

Can I change the design partway through a production run?

Yes, and this is a genuine advantage of printing over tooling. There's no tool to modify, so a revision costs nothing beyond the reprint. We'll record the change against the part number and note which units are the earlier revision.

How long does a 100-unit batch take?

It depends on part size, but both cells run in parallel and parts are plated to fill the build area, so throughput is a good deal higher than a single-part lead time would suggest. Send the geometry and quantity and we'll give you a realistic schedule rather than an optimistic one.

Low-Volume Production Runs

Bridge production between a prototype and a tooled part, ten to three hundred units, with no tooling cost, no minimum commitment and volume discounts up to 18%.

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Right for

Launch volumes, spare-part inventories, and any product whose demand doesn't yet justify the cost and lead time of an injection mould.

Not right for

Volumes in the thousands of identical simple parts, where moulding is cheaper per unit and you should be tooling.

The gap between one and ten thousand

Manufacturing has an awkward middle. Below a handful of units, anyone can prototype. Above a few thousand, injection moulding is obviously right. Between those, businesses get stuck: the tool costs lakhs and takes weeks, but you need two hundred units now and you aren't certain the design is final.

Printing fills that gap precisely. There's no tool to pay for, so the only cost is the parts themselves, and there's no penalty for changing the design between batches. If unit 150 reveals a flaw, unit 151 can be the fixed version. A change that would mean re-cutting steel in a moulding workflow.

For a business launching a product, this is the difference between committing capital to a tool before you've proven demand, and letting demand pay for the tool later.

How volume pricing works

Two things drive the discount. The setup fee, slicing, plate preparation, first-layer checks, is charged once per job rather than per part, so it amortises across the batch. And parts plated together print more efficiently than parts printed one at a time, because the machine isn't repeatedly heating up, purging and cooling down.

The discount schedule is published rather than negotiated: 7% at five parts, 12% at ten, 18% at twenty-five, 24% at fifty and 30% at a hundred or more. The estimator applies it automatically, so you can see exactly where the next price break sits and decide whether ordering a few more units is worth it.

Ways to bring the per-unit cost down

Order to the next discount tier: the break is often cheaper in total
Reduce infill where the part isn't load-bearing
Choose draft or standard finish over fine for internal parts
Design the part so it plates densely, wasting less build area
Avoid multi-material unless the colour earns its cost
Plan ahead and skip the rush multiplier

Consistency across a batch and across reorders

A production run is only useful if the parts are interchangeable. Batches are run with a locked profile, a first article is measured before the rest proceeds, and a retained sample is kept so a reorder months later can be checked against the original rather than argued about.

Where a run is large enough to span more than one filament batch, we record which batch went into which parts. If a problem ever emerges, that traceability is what lets you find out which units are affected instead of recalling all of them.