Additive · Live
SLS printing quote software: instant pricing for nylon parts
Price SLS nylon parts on the share of the build they take, with powder refresh, cooling and depowdering included. Instant quotes your shop can stand behind.
- Process
- SLS
- Family
- Additive
- Input
- Mesh, STEP
- Status
- Live
The price follows the physics.
An SLS price is a share of a build. A build costs much the same to run whether it holds one part or a hundred: warm-up, layers, cool-down, and the powder that never becomes a part. The honest question is what fraction of that build a part is responsible for, and the answer comes from its cell in the powder cake, the gap you keep between parts and how densely your nester really packs. Add the part’s own sintered powder and the hands that depowder and finish it, and you have a price.
- 01
Build share
The part’s cell in the cake, the space around it plus the gap, against what a realistic full build holds. Bulky, empty shapes take more share than their volume suggests.
- 02
Build height
Machine time follows the number of layers, so a tall part forces height on the whole build and should pay for it.
- 03
Powder refresh
Unsintered powder ages in the machine, so every build needs a share of virgin powder. That waste is a real cost of each build.
- 04
Cooling
The cake stays hot for hours after the last layer, and that occupancy is time the machine cannot earn.
- 05
Depowdering and finishing
Breaking parts out, blasting and bagging them is per-part labour, a large share of the cost of a small part.
- 06
Sintered material
The part’s own mass in powder, priced per kilogram, which differs between PA12, PA11, filled grades and TPU.
Measured from the file. Priced on your machines.
Measured from the geometry
- The oriented bounding box. The part’s cell in the cake is its box plus the gap you keep between parts.
- Volume and height. Volume is sintered powder; height drives the number of recoat-and-expose cycles.
- Surface area. Depowdering and bead-blasting time follow area, not volume.
- Wall thickness and trapped powder. Thin walls break in depowdering, and a sealed cavity keeps powder you will never recover.
- Its size against the envelope. An oversize part is tried on the diagonal before it is refused.
Configured by you
- Gap between parts and nesting efficiency. The share calculation itself: cell divided by efficiency times envelope. Nesting efficiency is calibratable.
- Build time per mm of height. Recoat plus expose per layer, expressed per millimetre. The main machine-time driver, and calibratable.
- Cooling strategy. Natural or fast: how long the cake occupies the machine after the last layer.
- Refresh ratio. The virgin powder every build needs. Unsintered powder times the refresh ratio is waste, charged by build share.
- Depowdering and finishing minutes. Per build and per part, at the rate of whoever does the work.
- Powder price per kilogram. Per material, with density and the packing fraction of the cake.
What your buyer sees
- Their part, the material, and the finishes you offer: dyed, vibro-polished, sealed.
- A price that drops sharply with quantity, because the build is shared.
- A minimum-wall or trapped-powder warning before they order rather than a phone call afterwards.
- Lead-time options you set, which should allow for cooling, because a build is not finished when the laser stops.
Ten parts share one build, so its fixed cost is divided ten ways, and nesting efficiency rises with quantity, so each part’s cell takes a smaller share. This is one of the largest quantity effects in any process Quotometry prices.
Typical materials
- PA12 (nylon 12)
- PA11 (nylon 11)
- Glass-bead filled PA12
- Carbon-filled nylon
- Alumide (aluminium-filled PA12)
- TPU
- Polypropylene (PP)
Typical parts
- Functional prototypes
- Snap fits and living hinges
- Ducting, housings and enclosures
- Low-volume production parts
- Interlocking assemblies printed without supports
Both priced by the real engine for the sample bracket against the SLS service bureau template that ships with Quotometry.
Pricing sls, in depth
How to calculate 3D printing cost, for any process
A 3D printing cost is six lines: material, machine time, labour, post-processing, failures and overhead. How to work out each one, with FDM and SLS examples.
Knowledge baseFDM vs SLA vs SLS: choosing a 3D printing process
FDM, SLA and SLS compared on tolerance, surface finish, strength, cost, lead time and typical parts, with a simple way to choose the right process for a part.
Knowledge baseMJF vs SLS: cost, quality, materials and when to choose each
MJF and SLS both make nylon parts from a powder bed. How they differ on cost per part, surface, colour, materials and lead time, and how to choose between them.
SLS quoting, answered
How do you know how well my parts nest?
You tell it, then you calibrate it. Nesting efficiency is a setting with a single-part figure and a full-build figure, and the efficiency rises between the two as quantity grows. The calibration tool fits both from builds you have actually run, so the share a part pays matches what your nester really achieves.
Is powder refresh in the price?
Yes. Unsintered powder multiplied by your refresh ratio is waste, and it is charged by build share like everything else about the build. You state the refresh ratio for each powder, so every grade is priced the way you actually run it rather than at an industry average.
Why does a large hollow box cost more than its volume suggests?
Because it takes space in the cake. A part’s build share comes from its cell, the space around it plus the gap you keep, not from the powder it sinters. A large thin-walled enclosure therefore pays for the build space it occupies, while a small dense part pays mostly for material and handling.
Do you check for trapped powder?
Yes. A sealed cavity keeps powder you can never recover, so it is flagged against the escape-hole size you set. Walls below your minimum, long thin panels that may warp and thick sections are checked too, and the buyer sees the warnings in plain language before they order.
Your next quote can take a second.
Start free with a real shop: your machines, your materials, your rates. Put the widget on your site when the prices look right to you.
Free plan, no card. Paid plans by the month, cancel any time.