3D printing has now established itself as an ideal substitute for conventional manufacturing methods in a wide range of industries. Rapid printing speeds, far greater design freedom, the ability to create highly complex components and many other advantages have enabled 3D printing to be adopted by many companies, from small to large, for their production processes.
However, not all of these companies own one or more 3D printers themselves. Service providers that produce custom 3D-printed components have now become quite popular and make the advantages of 3D printing accessible to even more companies.
To help you decide which of these two options is best for you, we have listed the five most important advantages of both below, followed by the most important company-specific decision factors. Let's start with the advantages of buying your own 3D printer.
Advantages of in-house production
The biggest advantage of having your own 3D printer is undoubtedly the much greater independence from suppliers and supply chains. Particularly since the beginning of the 2020s, we should all, whether companies or consumers, have realised how essential independent production can be. It doesn't take much – a virus is enough – to bring down our entire globalised value chains. Those who can maintain their production in such a case not only ensure their survival, but also an increase in market share due to weakening competitors.
For internal emergencies, your own 3D printer is also a godsend. If, for example, an essential component of a machine breaks down, waiting times, however short, always result in losses. To get the machine back up and running as quickly as possible and thus prevent longer downtimes, but at the same time avoid incurring horrendous storage costs for spare parts, having your own 3D printer is ideal. Spare parts, even those with a high degree of complexity, can be printed quickly and on demand, whereas with a service provider, there are waiting times due to capacity utilisation, delivery times, transport routes and other reasons.
But even under normal circumstances, having your own 3D printer offers great advantages – one of which is the lower cost per component. Of course, a service provider doesn't live on air, love and material costs alone – after all, good service comes at a price. In particular, companies with a large production volume quickly recoup the initial costs with the parts costs saved.
Another important advantage of purchasing your own 3D printer is having complete control over all process parameters. Of course, service providers rely on customer satisfaction and usually also have excellent expertise in 3D printing, but very specific or complex requirements may not be implemented or only at an extra charge. Having your own 3D printer allows you to customise it exactly to your own wishes and requirements and also invites you to experiment, to challenge parameters that have long been considered perfect and possibly to achieve an improvement in certain properties.
Last but not least, the increased security with regard to product designs must also be mentioned. Naturally, a confidentiality agreement can be concluded between the service provider and the customer; nevertheless, the risk of a leak increases with each additional person who has access to the sensitive product data. For companies that develop their own products, the increased security factor of in-house production is therefore indispensable in most cases.
Advantages of a service provider
Service providers in 3D printing have many advantages to offer – one of the most important being their high level of expertise. Even if 3D printing may sound simple – just press a button and you're done – there is a little more to it than that. Processing of the digital model, material handling, printer maintenance and cleaning, post-processing and a few other processes must be mastered to obtain 3D-printed components of maximum quality. 3D printing service providers can get more out of your parts – in terms of mechanical, thermal and weight-specific properties – if they don't already have a great deal of in-house 3D printing expertise.
The consulting aspect of 3D printing service providers should not be underestimated either. After all, the best service providers not only offer a printing service, but also design validation, material advice and commercial validation. Even if not all the details and parameters of a project have been determined yet, the advice of an expert service provider can be invaluable.
If products intended for sale are 3D printed, some 3D printing service providers also offer the option of dropshipping. In this case, the service provider not only takes on the role of the producer, but also the role of the distributor, by forwarding the finished components not only to the seller, but directly to the end customer. Such a service negates the disadvantage of the double transport route and reduces the work for the service user.
A simple economic reason, which despite its simplicity is of great importance, is the much lower entry costs combined with a lower investment risk. Industrial 3D printers of the highest quality can easily cost over 100,000 euros, which is simply unaffordable for a large number of companies, especially SMEs. A service provider can therefore be the ideal way to take advantage of industrial 3D printing without having to spend large sums of money directly.
Last but not least, the lower personnel and time commitment also speak in favour of passing on your print jobs to a suitable service provider. This applies not only to smaller companies, where staff may simply be lacking and new ones would have to be hired, but also to large companies – including those that already work with 3D printers. 3D printing service providers are also ideal for coping with peaks in demand without having to force their employees to work overtime.
What is profitable for whom?
Although the reasons for the acquisition costs and personnel expenses may sound as if only large companies could achieve in-house production using 3D printing, the widespread availability of high-quality desktop printing solutions in recent years means that SMEs are now also able to reap the benefits of 3D printing themselves. The size of the company therefore plays a less important role in the decision.
The really important factors are experience-, situation- and effort-oriented. For many companies without a wealth of experience in 3D printing, a service provider is always the first step on the road to additive manufacturing. This allows them to test the advantages of 3D printing based on their own requirements without having to make a large investment.
But even companies with a lot of experience in 3D printing are now increasingly turning to service providers to better reflect the rapidly changing market conditions in their portfolio. With the help of service providers, faster customisation and individualisation of production is easier than ever before.
And, as is so often the case in life, it is of course also a question of effort. Some companies have the capacity to print all their components themselves, but prefer to hire service providers so that they can deploy their staff elsewhere.
A company-owned 3D printer is particularly attractive for businesses that want to protect their production from supply chain failures, respond quickly to possible internal emergencies and are not afraid of a major purchase as long as the ROI is quickly achieved – which is undoubtedly feasible with 3D printing.
At the end of the day, the decision between in-house production and outsourcing is, of course, very individual. Other companies have different priorities and objectives that require different approaches.
We at PartsToGo, together with our colleagues at ProductionToGo, can cover all these approaches. With us, you have a trusted service provider when it comes to the precise, customer-oriented and expert production of your components, and with ProductionToGo, you have found your ideal reseller of high-quality industrial and desktop printing solutions!