Effect of build orientation in 3D printing production for material extrusion, material jetting, binder jetting, sheet object lamination, vat photopolymerisation, and powder bed fusion

3D printing is moving towards end-part production. However, the high-cost structures of 3D printing have a negative impact on technology transferability. Manufacturing time per part becomes a critical enabling factor for whether the technology can be implemented or not. The aim was to investigate the effect of build orientation and the number of parts relative to manufacturing time per part in the material extrusion, binder jetting, vat photopolymerisation, material jetting, powder bed fusion, and sheet lamination. The tested geometry was a Nokia Lumia 820 mobile phone cover. Manufacturing time per part depends heavily on the geometry, orientation, printing process, and amount of parts manufactured in a single build. Manufacturing time per part varies substantially between the tested technologies. The optimal processes in regards to the production speed were found to be powder bed fusion and binder jetting. In addition, material costs and costs related to process time per manufactured part were compared.