1. Material Selection

As with most 3D printing materials, the price of SLS materials vary greatly, depending on the desired characteristics and specific applications. PA12, or Nylon 12, is the most commonly used SLS material, due to its good mechanical properties and versatility. It is the most affordable of all the available SLS materials. Other materials, such as PA11 (biocompatible and flexible), TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) (resilient and flexible), Carbon fibre-reinforced nylon (strong and rigid, ideal for high-performance engineering components) and PP (polypropylene) (lightweight and chemically resistant), are more expensive than PA12, with PP being priced in the middle, and the others being more expensive.

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2. Part Volume and Quantity

While processing costs for SLS are largely determined by the volume of parts to be produced within the build chamber, there are however significant differences between processing small parts and large parts. In contrast to other manufacturing processes such as CNC machining or injection molding, SLS has very few set-up costs. Therefore, for equal processing volume, larger parts are more cost-effective than smaller parts. This makes SLS a very cost-effective solution for small-batch production.

3. Geometry and Complexity

The SLS printing process offers great freedom when it comes to the design of products. Due to the layer-wise manufacturing process, parts with complex geometries can be produced without any problems. Supports, which are typical for other 3D printing processes, are generally not required for SLS parts. In some cases, however, extreme geometries, thin walls or deep cavities may require special processing. In such cases, additional tests may be required to check the stability of the part, or the part may need to be reinforced.

4. Post-Processing and Finishing

In SLS printing, the surface finish of the parts is a parameter that can be very important to the customer. The standard surface finish of SLS parts has a rough surface and a grainy texture, which in many cases is not acceptable. However, the surface finish of the parts can undergo additional surface processes, which are typically very expensive. Common surface processes for smoothing the surface are bead blasting, dyeing or coloring. High-end surface processes, such as Vaporfuse smoothing or even CNC finishing and coating are usually used for consumer products.

5. Production Scale

For low volume production of individual parts, such as tens or hundreds of identical components, SLS is likely to be the most cost effective manufacturing process. This is because no tooling is required for production of small batches unlike with small batch production of injection molded parts.

Please note that we have provided approximate price ranges for SLS parts below. These prices are variable depending on the suppliers used.

•      Small parts (5–10 cm) in PA12: $2–$20 / part (in small batches).

•      Medium parts (10–20 cm): $20–$100 per part.

•      Large parts (over 20cm): over $100.

•      Batch production (50–200 parts): Per part price may decrease by 10–30% (for example, producing 50 PA12 housing parts for you would be significantly cheaper than producing single or 2 parts). This makes SLS printing very cost efficient for pilot production or so called bridge

Here is an example of the cost decrease when producing PA12 parts like PA12 housings in batch instead of one-off: 50 PA12 housings will cost much less per part than 2 PA12 housings (in terms of production costs).

There are many scenarios in which the price per part for Injection Molding is lower than for SLS production, but each part is produced with the cost of the Tooling included. For Low volume production SLS is therefore the more cost effective option.

While FDM printing (for example with PLA or ABS) of simple prototypes is very cheap, the mechanical loading and surface finish of FDM printed parts is significantly less than for SLS 3D printed parts.

CNC Machining for example has an excellent precision, but with increasing complexity of shapes the price in comparison to SLS will increase very fast.

We offer SLS 3D printing on an on-demand basis. With cost transparency throughout our online quotation system we are able to provide the most cost effective solution for your 3D printing needs.

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We have a wide variety of SLS materials at your disposal such as PA12, PA11, TPU, Carbon Fiber Nylon, PP and many more.

Select finishing options tailored to your project.

Scale from one-off prototypes to hundreds of parts, without the need to set up a mold (tooling) and purchase it.

Our largest print area is 620 × 320 × 320 mm, we can therefore make very small parts with complex geometries as well as large functional parts for testing and validating.

3D Printing with SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) is often very cost-effective for the production of functional prototypes as well as for so called “bridge production” of small series of parts. The costs for 3D printed parts by means of SLS 3D printing are usually in between making a single part by CNC machining or by casting on one hand and making a part by injection molding on the other hand.

The advantages of SLS 3D printing are the large number of available materials, the cost effective production of small series of parts as well as the production of parts with complex geometries. Therefore SLS 3D printing is considered as one of the most suitable production methods.

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