Table 2.

Comparison of costs for developing parts by 3D printing vs conventional technologies

Parameter	3D printing vs conventional technologies
Material and design costs	›Essential material cost is the same. However, less material is consumed due to easy geometry optimisation and very lesser material wastage (Berman, 2012). ›The design complexity in medical equipment is achieved at a very lesser additional cost by 3D printing technologies (Mobbs et al., 2017). ›Since design iterations are easy by 3D printing design cost is much lower than conventional processes.
Labour costs	›3D printing carried out automatic manufacturing with CAD model input so there is very lesser involvement of human labour (Gebler et al., 2014) ›These technologies reduce the labour cost because products are manufactured in one go.
Machinery costs	›A low-cost 3D printer like FDM capable of printing medical equipment is available in the market (Tan et al., 2016).
Running costs/energy costs	›There are lesser maintenance and energy cost for the smooth running of these technologies particularly FDM (Petrick and Simpson, 2013) ›The energy input to the technologies like FDM is very less and is eco-friendly(Mello et al., 2010)
Tooling and die costs	›No tooling cost or cost of jigs and fixtures involved in 3D printing. ›Only 3D printer is required which can print the part in lesser cost and time (Rayna and Striukova, 2016)
Post processing costs	›Very little or no post processing required hence very little or no such cost involved (Rengier et al., 2010).