Production Printing and Small Batches

Selling prints means printing the same thing reliably, again and again.

Reliability first

• Lock in tested profiles per product (material, settings, orientation).
• Use plate layouts that pack several parts per print where it does not hurt quality.
• Keep printers maintained: clean beds, check belts, replace worn nozzles, lubricate rods, update firmware.

Costing a print

Material cost  = filament grams × price per gram
Machine cost   = print hours × (printer depreciation + electricity + maintenance per hour)
Labour         = post-processing and packing time × your hourly rate
Failure margin = add 5–15% for failed prints
Packaging and platform fees on top

Most beginners forget labour and failures, and underprice.

Quality control

Define pass/fail criteria for each product (dimensions, surface, colour match) and check every item before packing. Photograph a reference "golden sample".

Scaling

• A small print farm of identical printers simplifies profiles and spare parts.
• Print management software queues jobs across printers.
• Batch post-processing and packing for efficiency.

Records that pay off

Keep a simple production log per print: date, printer, profile, spool, result and any defect. Patterns appear quickly (one printer fails more often, one spool strings badly), and the log becomes evidence of quality if a customer complains.

Exercise

Cost one of your products with the formula above, including a failure margin, then run a batch of ten with a QC checklist and record failure rate and real time per unit.

Check yourself

• Which costs do beginners usually forget?
• Why define a golden sample?
• What simplifies running several printers?