When 3D printing pays off instead of an injection mould
A mould means a large upfront investment and weeks of waiting. Where is the threshold at which it pays off, and when is it wiser to print — even thousands of pieces?
Choosing between an injection mould and 3D printing isn’t about technology, but about quantity, time and how sure you are of your design. Here’s a summary of how we handle it with our customers.
What a mould really costs
The price of a mould isn’t just making it. Add:
- time — usually weeks from brief to first pieces,
- irreversibility — every change to the part means modifying the mould, sometimes a new one,
- minimum run — for the investment to pay off, you have to produce many pieces at once,
- storage — the pieces you’ve made have to sit somewhere.
3D printing has none of these costs. You pay for the parts you actually need, even if it’s just one piece.
When we print
Before you’re sure of the design. While the part may still change, a mould makes no sense. Printing lets you produce a series, put it into use and print the next series already modified.
When it’s dozens to thousands of pieces. Our farm has over 20 printers, so a series doesn’t run on a single machine — the quantity scales with time.
When the part changes or comes in several variants. Ten variants of a holder mean ten moulds, but only ten files.
When it’s urgent. We typically ship within 2–5 working days, express within 24 hours. You won’t get a mould in a day.
When the part is large. We print pieces up to 800 × 800 × 1000 mm in one go — with a mould, that would be tooling that doesn’t pay off.
When the part is no longer made. We can remodel spare parts for older machines from a sample, photo or sketch and print them.
When a mould is better
Let’s not kid ourselves: for hundreds of thousands of identical pieces, for parts where the customer insists on an injection-moulded material, or where a unit price of a few crowns is decisive, the mould wins. In that case we’ll say so straight away — and printing often at least helps fine-tune the part before the mould is made.
How to find out for your part
Tell us the quantity, what the part is for and when you need it. We’ll prepare a quote for free and in advance — and if it turns out that something other than printing pays off for you, we’ll tell you.
