Why Outsourcing 3D Printing is better than In-House

3D printing has transformed the way products used to design, produced and prototyped from numerous purposes.  Enterprises of various domains have shown their keen interest in integrating the technology with their manufacturing models. Today companies today are turning towards 3D printing services to give their idea a face, entity, figure, and shape but still the big question lies on the table; whether to use 3D printing in-house or outsourcing to a renown 3D printing company. No matter how big a manufacturer is, no one can develop everything in-house. Even many of the largest fortune 500 companies outsource additive manufacturing or 3D printing services for production tasks and prototype development.

Why is it so? Despite having sufficient resources and budget at their disposal ‒ even sometimes their personal 3D printing labs, below are the top five reasons why.

Capacity                                                    

Despite the fact that some large companies deploy their full-fledged 3D printing labs, resource constraints and lack of expert engineers at hand can cause bottlenecks during the production process. One of the biggest reasons why big firms go for outsourcing 3D printing services is that their own 3D printers are tied up on other projects leaving their teams with lesser time complete their projects on time.

Technology

Outsourcing gives you the freedom to look for newest and surging technologies without investing in them directly. Also not having the right equipment like SLA machine for a particular engineering project leads firms at the doors of outsourcing 3D printing services.  Many companies ignore the high costs of upgraded 3D printers and the maintenance hassle that comes with the ever-changing 3D printing technology.

Cost

Reducing price has always been the top reasons why companies prefer outsourcing manufacturing services rather than establishing a full-stack infrastructure. Purchasing a high-end 3D printer can be expensive and on top of the cost of hiring engineers and paying them, regular salaries can give a hole in the pocket. Moreover, the machine costs, special infrastructure (e.g., lots of electric), and raw materials give more reasons to rely on outsourcing 3D printing services.

Expertise

Like any other engineering manufacturing technologies, 3D printing learning is steep. The sector is relatively new meaning the expertise is few and still at a nascent stage. Outsourcing 3D printing services help companies to enjoy the vast pool of expertise from across the world. The service provider offers the right expertise and experience to leverage the benefits of 3D printing equipment, the perfect blend of materials, building orientation, and support material (if applicable) for better results.

Production Volume and Frequency

Another key factor for adopting outsourcing 3D printing services is the endless 3D printing production volume and frequency. It is important to know how frequently the company will be producing prototypes and for how much time. It is beneficial to opt for outsourcing manufacturing services if your team or department will be using 3D printing for one-off projects or low-run.