Updated
Short run production 3D printing
Short run production means making tens to a few thousand real parts without cutting a mould, and it is where a print farm rather than a single machine changes the answer. It is the right choice when the volume does not justify tooling, when the design is still moving, or when parts are needed before a mould could be made. The economics cross over somewhere in the low thousands, and where exactly depends on part size more than on anything else.
Get an instant price Upload the file and the price appears in under a minute.
A whole project rather than one part?
The calculator prices one file at a time. For a multi-part project, a drawing pack, a BOM or a series, send everything in one email: STEP files, drawings and quantities. A person replies the same business day with a quote for the whole batch.
Email the drawing pack to office@3descu.com
- Mutual NDA on request, signed fast once the text is agreed.
- Dimensional QC report on request, free on orders over €500.
- Rather talk it through first? Book a free 15-minute call with the people who run the machines.
What actually decides the job
Quantity is not a rounding error in the price
A part priced alone and the same part in a batch of two hundred are different numbers per piece, because setup and plate time are shared. The calculator prices the quantity you enter, so enter the real one rather than one.
The design can still move
This is the real advantage over tooling. A revision between batch three and batch four costs a new file, not a new mould. Teams that expect changes should say so, because it changes what is worth optimising.
Large runs ship in stages
A run big enough to occupy the farm for weeks does not leave as one delivery. Staging it means the first parts arrive while the rest are still printing, which is usually what the receiving end actually wants.
When tooling wins
Past a few thousand identical parts that will not change, injection moulding is cheaper per piece and this is the wrong process. Saying so early is worth more than winning the order.
Materials, in the order they are usually recommended
Every one of them is priced automatically, so the cheapest way to settle the choice is to quote the same file in two materials and compare. The full list is on the materials page.
The shop
| Scale | One of the largest 3D printing factories in Eastern Europe, 200+ printers |
|---|---|
| Process | FDM, filament extrusion |
| Maximum part size | 320 x 320 x 320 mm on the standard fleet, up to 500 x 500 x 500 mm on the large-format machines |
| Layer height | 0.12 mm to 0.28 mm, 0.20 mm by default |
| Minimum order | €20 |
| File formats accepted | STL, OBJ, 3MF, STEP, STP, up to 50 MB per file |
| Where it ships | Across the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway, by courier from Romania |
| Uploaded files | Deleted 90 days after upload |
| Quality system | ISO 9001:2015 certified |
| Who prints it | TREIDESCUPRINT SRL, J18/753/2022, on its own machines |
Delivery
| Destination | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 1-2 business days | 1 business day |
| Bulgaria, Hungary | 2-3 business days | 1-2 business days |
| Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia | 3-4 business days | 2 business days |
| Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia | 4-5 business days | 2 business days |
Get an instant price Upload a file and the price appears in under a minute.
Also called low volume manufacturing, bridge production, batch printing. Parts outside what the calculator prices are reviewed by an engineer who replies by hand.
Material notes by email
Download the material guide (PDF). Ten pages on thirteen materials, free and with no email needed.