Additive Manufacturing cost

How much does Additive Manufacturing cost?

Freedom of design, mass customization or lean process chains are just a few of the reasons often named for consideration of Additive Manufacturing as production technology of choice. At the end all such potential benefits have to be expressed in one deciding factor: Cost. If during the evaluation and decision process Additive Manufacturing technology cannot show its cost-effectiveness or increase the margin, other means of productions will be employed. Thus, it is critical to understand how to derive Additive Manufacturing cost on component level, but also how to consider including secondary cost saving effects in the complete analysis.