Actona mail

I have discussed the situation a bit with an acquaintance of mine who runs the same type of business, but in France. This is my first time working   with a "real" company like you, so I want to make sure that everything is done by the book and with a collaboration like both Parties can benefit from.

AKA, you are not going   to invest in professional 3d printing equipment and spend money on training staff, and that I   feel I am being paid properly for that free time I’ll use it to give you a hand.

There will be 2 different rates, one for prototyping and one for production. Let me try to present:

Prototyping

The most expensive process, where the following must be performed for each model, you want printed:

Model verification
Manual visual inspection of the model in the 3d slicer software, check that all the layers are correct and can actually be printed.
Verification of the model does not contain 3d anatomy errors, such as non-uniform polygons/N-gons or gaps in the geometry.

Pre-treatment
Manual placement of 3D printing supports on the model so that it can be printed in the machine
This is done by stepping through the hundreds (thousands) of 0.05mm thin layers that the Slicer software forms

3D Printing
Hands-off process when the model is in the printer.
It is only here in the process that you can see whether the print succeeded or not.
If I discover here that the print fails, you go back to Pre-treatment and try again.
You keep going until the model prints   correctly and you have a file that can be printed correctly every time.

Post-processing
With gloves and gas mask + vent, the print is released from the printer.
Then the supports are released from the PCB and the model is washed in an ultrasonic cleaner with alcohol / IPA.
Finally, the model is cured in a UV chamber.
Alcohol, gloves and support residues are disposed of environmentally correct (both are harmful until they have been in the UV chamber too).
If the model is satisfactory, you have a success and can start production.
If you instead discover errors or defects, you start over from Pre-processing and the material to the print is lost.


Production

All the preliminary work is done in the prototype phase, so there are only 2 steps in this process:

3D Printing
Post-processing

You have already prototyped a    correct way to print the model, and it is as easy as just to stuff the   pre-supported model into the printer and print away .

Therefore, this rate will be significantly cheaper.

Prices

I will try to lean on my colleague's prices for prototyping and production.

Prototyping / Production hourly rate:
Must cover my time consumption for the entire process.
350kr per hour consumed, per model.

Gloves, rubbing alcohol, disposable cloths, paper towels, UV/Ultrasonic cleaner power, etc.:
75kr per model, regardless of size and quantity.

Production costs:
Must cover printer power consumption, air purifier power consumption, resin material, wear of resin vessels and FEP film, etc.
30 kr per hour the printer runs are added to the hourly price at production.

So, let’s take the Acton chair as an example, even though it didn't quite reach its goal in the Prototyping phase 😊:

2 hours of total work
700 kr

Approximately, 20 hours in the printer in total, spread over 3 prototyping attempts:
30 x 20 = 600 kr

75kr in gloves, alcohol, etc.:

1375 kr in total for prototyping so far.

Add probably an hour of work if you deliver a split model that I will try to print again in the 2 parts we talked about.   When I receive the split model, I start all over again at the top of the "Model verification" process above.