The crossover between 3D printing and injection molding falls between 300 and 3,000 units for most consumer parts, and part size is what moves it. A 5-gram clip that prints for $4.50 and molds for $0.09 in a $12,000 tool crosses over at about 2,700 units. A 600-gram...
A molded plastic part costs between $0.15 and $3.00 to produce once the tool exists, and the tool costs $3,000 to $60,000 before the first shot. Those two numbers are the whole story. Piece price is built from resin, machine time, secondary operations, scrap,...
