5 Things That Influence Your Prototype Manufacturing Cost
Usually, some customers just tell us their thoughts directly and want a reasonable price back .
Honestly , if we offer you the reasonable price and exactly lead time , that is bullshit. In other words,
it’s impossible to tell you here and now just how much it will cost to manufacture your project without
seeing your 3D and 2D CAD files.There are many factors that will affect prices, such as materials, size,
processing method, quantities, surface requirement, tolerance requirement, assembly requirement,
delivery time requirement, etc. Despite all this, we want to provide you with a few basic suggestions
to give you a better idea of the things that impact your prototype manufacturing costs.
1. Material Cost
The material you choose will affect prototype manufacturing cost . One material has different prices
all around the world .You can refer to the local raw material cost and choose the most suitable
material which has the best performance to estimate material cost .When you ask for quote from
prototype manufacturers , they will probably quote you a lower or relatively higher price.
Truth is that cheap material matches poor-quality. The price of raw material changes all the times.
Although the expensive material may cause you additional cost on your project , the finished product
will be better on quality and duration.
2. Different Quantities
When you have finished design and are ready for prototype manufacturing, quantities will affect unit price
in the premise of quality guarantee. When your design is applicable to both CNC machining and
Vacuum Casting, the CNC machining charges will be cheaper than vacuum casting if you need only
one piece. But if you need 10 pieces, it’s cheaper to choose vacuum casting.
3. Tolerance requirement
We often receive customers’ 2D files with a tight tolerance, like +/-0.05mm.But it is definitely expensive
to maintain such a tight tolerance for the whole part .If customers can tell us the size , which are important
and will influences assemble or function, we can limit their tolerance to +/-0.05mm and others to
+/-0.1mm. You can greatly save the cost. Moreover, you should take support removal into consideration.
For internal parts, it’s needed to pay for some additional cost of post-processing if you want to
support remove every corner of the internal part.
4. Strength Requirement
Except some parts which need to cut and bond , to those complex-structured parts such as parts
need to process several surfaces, we will quote the price with cut and bond method unless customers
specifically point out that parts must need to be made in solid parts. We can help customers to save
processing cost with cut-and-bond method. By the way, customers need to claim their specific
requirement on strength.
5.Lead Time
Lead time also affects the estimate cost of a project. If our customers have a very urgent prototype
project, we will evaluate that whether the workshop staff are able to work overtime to finish it
on the basis of their delivery time. Ans if so, the price will accordingly increase.
