Guides

How to Read a Metal Printing Quote

The machine rate is the small line. Heat treat, supports, and inspection are where the quote gets honest.

A simple diagram of a powder-bed fusion process
Wikimedia Commons ยท CC BY-SA 3.0

A metal quote that says printed in stainless and a single price is not a quote you can compare. Laser powder bed, binder jet, and directed energy deposition make different surfaces, different speeds, and different leftover stresses. The number on the first line is often the build. The part you can bolt down also needs stress relief, support removal, machining of the faces that mate, and a check against the drawing.

Lines worth insisting on

Ask for the alloy designation, the heat treatment, the as-built tolerance, and which features will be machined. Ask whether internal powder is cleared. Ask what you get if a coupon fails. A shop that builds aircraft hardware will already have answers. A shop that is guessing will offer to see how it goes. That second offer is a research project, and it should be priced like one.

  • Build height drives time more than a fancy thumbnail does.
  • Supports leave scars. Ask which faces are allowed to have them.
  • Threads cut in the machine are rarely the threads you keep.
  • Inspection method belongs on the quote, next to the price.

Do this next

  1. 1

    Send a drawing with datums, not only a mesh with a nice render.

  2. 2

    Ask which steps are in the price and which arrive later as change orders.

  3. 3

    Confirm powder specification, reuse rules, and what record you receive.

  4. 4

    Price a machined or cast alternative on the same drawing so the premium is visible.