Send an inquiry Order newsletter Etteplan AMOTool – Calculate your production costs for 3D printing Etteplan AMOTool is a cost-free cloud based application to calculate the production costs for 3D printing, i.e. additive manufacturing. It gives you valuable information and input to your product development process and purchasing as well along the entire product life-cycle from prototyping to production and outphasing.
Key benefits No need to disclose IPR Gives you the cost even before you start a project Diminishes project risks early on Tells quicky if your product could be 3D printed Cost-free How to use Etteplan AMOTool in different phases of product life cycle Calculate your production costs for 3D printing Etteplan AMOTool During product development The benefits of additive manufacturing materialize best if the product is designed for additive manufacturing from the scratch. With AMOTool you can assess the production costs of your product or component if it is 3D printed before your start with the design process. This allows you to create a solid business case for your project early on in the development. The AMOTool helps you estimate the cost structure and the cost of your products if it’s 3D printed. However, it makes sense to try 3D printing also in cases where traditional manufacturing technologies will be deployed. For example, the first prototypes and the 0 series can be 3D printed in order to speed up the development lead time and to decrease the costs due to design iterations and the need to adjust production tooling, for example, the casting mold. With the AMOTool you can estimate the costs of the prototype and the 0 series for budgeting and to leverage the information in the procurement process. During production During the production phase there can be challenges in the delivery chain for components, and in these situations additive manufacturing can be the solution to quickly produce the missing parts. But before ordering from alternative sources you can use AMOTool to know the ball park figure for the costs. During outphasing During and after the outphasing phase it makes seldom sense to store production tooling, which were needed to produce products in traditional technologies. The costs for warehousing production tooling such as casting molds are often high and their deployment for production is also costly especially for a smaller batch. Before 3D printing a component, you can estimate the production costs with AMOTool. 3D printing can decrease considerably your total service costs due to reduced lead times and warehousing costs. The cost matrix helps you identify the needed changes in your product in order to make 3D printing a viable option. In this case it makes sense to 3D print, if you can reduce the weight by 20 percent or the height by 40 per cent
Etteplan AMOTool is risk-free Unlike many other tools in the market, AMOTool is risk-free: you don’t need to upload your IPR, e.g. 3D models to the cloud. All you need is the preliminary idea how the product will look like including the height and it’s volume. With AMOTool you can first make a rough calculation and then make a well justified proposal about utilization of AM in your case or just ditch the idea immediately. Read more about the benefits of Etteplan AMOTool Use of Etteplan AMOTool for purchasing, management, engineers AMOTool is suited for managers and engineers to make sound product development decision and to understand if additive manufacturing a viable option for production. For the purchasing AMOTool helps compare the quotes from difference service bureaus. Scenario 1: Managers & engineers can create a business case together before starting a development project (AM NPD). It’s possible to roughly estimate the size of the component and possible features that might have an effect on the production costs. Based on these estimations AMOTool can be utilized to calculate production cost for the 3D printed part. Based on the calculation a manager can estimate potential benefits, the required investment and alternative production costs for the product. Finally the result is solid business case calculation which can be used to justify the budget for product development project. Scenario 2: Engineers can check suitability of a component for AM while doing traditional design project. Mechanical engineers who are interested in additive manufacturing, but don’t have expertise in AM native design, are also able to do quick checks if the product they are working with would be suited for additive manufacturing. Scenario 3: Engineers can justify design solutions (weight, height, nesting etc.) AMOTool offers the possibility to test different design solutions to see how the design effects the production cost. In this way you can understand the financial impact of the design and make well grounded decisions. Scenario 4: Purchasing can compare prices between AM and traditional manufacturing (spare part cases). Purchasing and service professionals know exact how much a part should cost when they are produced with traditional technologies. Sometimes there are extremely challenging and expensive components which have a major impact on the production cost. By utilizing AMOTool it’s easy to check if the production cost for additive manufacturing would be lower. When you know that 3D printing makes business sense, you can start building up the AM supplier network. With spare parts it’s slightly different. Typically lead time is the most important factor, but still price matters. With the help of AMOTool the service professionals are able to compare 3D printing cost with, for example, the casting costs. Based on the comparison it is easy to decide if it makes sense to pay a slightly higher price for a shorter lead time with 3D printing. Scenario 5: Procurement can reliably compare quotations from different service bureaus. Once 3D printing has become mainstream in your company, the need for 3D printed components will increase. Due to the nature of 3D printing it’s impossible to apply traditional pricing principles. With AMOTool you can always see if the quotation you received from a service bureaus is in the right ballpark.
Tero Hämeenaho Department Manager, Additive Manufacturing and Optimization +358 103 072 757 Send e-mail
