Home 3D printer pays off in 1 year

^{57% of the parts for RepRap can be printed on the same printer}

Many can not think of what exactly they will print on a 3D-printer in the event of its purchase. But after buying from people, this issue usually does not arise, the work for the printer is on its own: these are various handles, clips, toys, pads, cases, vases, rings, straps, and other parts. Just go to the website MakeXYZ or Thingiverse to expand the horizons.

According to economists at the University of Michigan Technological University, a home 3D printer provides a return on investment from 40% to 200% and saves a household from $ 300 to $ 2000 per year.

The calculation is called “extremely conservative” and is made on the assumption that for the entire year the 3D printer printed only 20 parts from more than 60,000 objects in the Thingiverse repository (see the list of details below).
')
Number of objects to print in the Thingiverse repository as a function of time


Considered the cost of plastic and electricity.

The cost of electricity per gram of product


A cheap open-source printer like RepRap pays off in the US household in a period of four months to two years. RepRap is a relatively simple model that prints by the layer-by-layer direction (FDM) and can use different types of plastic.

The calculation results are shown in the tables. In the first table - the characteristics of printing, the number of the object in the catalog Thingiverse, the time of printing, the amount of electricity and plastic spent.



In the second table - a comparison of the cost of production of parts for a 3D-printer, including the cost of electricity and plastic, with its retail price.



The authors of the study expect the rapid growth of “distributed production of goods” using 3D printing technology, the spread of this technology in most households and the transition to consumption taking into account the life cycle of goods. Side effects are the growth of the cottage development market and the return of the popularity of the engineering profession, scientists say. In their opinion, it is too early to talk about the “third industrial revolution”, but a substantial transformation of economic models is inevitable.