Print farm: A print farm is a group of 3D printers, often dozens of identical desktop machines, run together as one production operation.
Print farms range from a dozen printers on shelves to hundreds of machines with automated part removal. Most run FDM; some run banks of low-cost MSLA resin printers. Work is scheduled across the machines, so a large order can be split across many printers and finished in a day instead of a week.
What it means for the price
Each printer is cheap to own, but the farm’s overhead (space, power, operators, failed prints, maintenance) is spread across all of them. The number that decides the hourly rate is utilisation: a farm whose printers are busy most of the time can charge far less per hour than one whose printers sit idle. On small parts, labour per part (removal, support cleanup, checking, packing) often matters more than machine time.
Example: a €600 printer depreciated over two years costs €0.075 per hour if it prints 4,000 hours a year, and €0.15 per hour at 2,000 hours a year. The figures are an example.
Common confusions
A print farm is not the same as a service bureau, which may run fewer, larger industrial machines across several processes. Both need a machine hour rate built from their own costs. Read how to price a print farm’s work or see Quotometry for print farms.
Go deeper: Print farm pricing: utilisation, failures and the real hourly rate