Short-run production

When printing is the right way to make a batch

Injection moulding is far cheaper per part and enormously more expensive to start. The tool has to be made before the first part exists, and that cost has to be spread across everything it produces. Below a certain quantity the sums simply do not work, and above it printing stops making sense.

Printing wins when:

• The quantity is small. Tens of parts, ordered again when they run out.
• The design might still change. A tool is a commitment; a printed batch is not. A revision costs a reprint rather than a new tool.
• You need them now. No tooling lead time — the first batch is the same process as the tenth.
• Variants matter. Six versions of a fixture for six different parts is trivial to print and painful to mould.
• The part is a means, not a product. Jigs, fixtures, workholding, gripper jaws, production aids — things that make something else, where the part itself is never sold.

What repeat orders look like here

The model is kept and versioned, so a reorder is a print rather than a fresh job. Settings are kept constant between batches — same material, same orientation, same parameters — so that batch four behaves like batch one. Where something has to change, you are told rather than discovering it in a part.

Repeat work is the kind of work this workshop is set up for, and it is priced and scheduled as an ongoing arrangement rather than as a queue of unrelated orders.

Capacity, and how lead times are set

Batches in the tens are routine, and hundreds of a smaller part are comfortable with a lead time agreed at the quote. Because there is no tooling and no setup to amortise, the first batch runs on the same process as the tenth — which is what makes small repeat orders worth doing at all.

Print time rather than part count is the real currency: fifty small parts can be a shorter job than three large ones. So the three things that get you a firm answer fastest are the quantity, the rough size, and when you need them. Send those and you will have a lead time you can plan around, usually the same day.

Where a programme is heading for volumes beyond what one workshop should be making, you hear it early and get a recommendation on the right route — because a supplier who tells you that at the quote is worth more than one who discovers it at batch four.

How consistency is held

Parts from a repeat batch are made the same way and behave the same way: same material, same orientation, same settings, from the same kept and versioned model. Where something has to change, you hear about it before the batch runs rather than finding it in a part.

A first article is printed and checked before the rest are committed. That is the substance behind the consistency — fit confirmed against your own hardware, on a real part, before the batch exists. It is a more useful guarantee than a figure in a specification, because it is measured against the thing your part actually has to work with.

What this suits best

Functional parts, made in useful numbers, where fit and behaviour matter more than a moulded cosmetic finish: fixtures for a production cell, jaws for a cobot, spares for equipment, components for a product made in small volumes. Materials are PLA, PETG and flexible TPU, chosen per job for the duty the part has to take.

Who this suits

Businesses with a proven part they need again — fixtures for a production cell, jaws for a cobot, spares for equipment, components for a product made in small numbers. Ideally the design is already settled; if it is not, prototyping comes first and this follows.

Minimum order is $75, and a first article is normally printed and checked before a batch is run.

Frequently asked questions

How many parts can you actually make?

Batches in the tens are routine, and hundreds of a smaller part are comfortable with a lead time agreed at the quote. Send the quantity, the rough size and the date you need them, and you will have a firm lead time to plan around, usually the same day.

Is the price per part cheaper for a larger batch?

Yes — repeat parts avoid the design work, so a reorder costs less than the first order. Printing does not have the steep volume curve moulding has, though: the tenth part takes about as long as the first. Where a programme grows to the point that per-part price dominates, we will say so and recommend the right route, which is the kind of advice worth having early.

Will every part in a batch be the same?

They are made the same way — same material, orientation and settings, from the same kept model — and a first article is printed and checked against your own hardware before the batch runs. That first article is the assurance: fit proven on a real part rather than promised as a figure.

Can you hold our model and print on demand?

Yes. The model is kept and versioned, so a reorder is a print rather than a new job. Your files are never used for anyone else.

What if we outgrow you?

Then you will already have the model, which makes scaling up straightforward — that is one reason the file policy is what it is. We would rather set a customer up to grow than hold them back, and we will tell you when that point arrives.