How much does it cost to maintain an LPBF machine per year: the complete breakdown

The price of the machine is negotiated once. The cost of running it is paid every month for ten years, and that's the number that almost never appears in the offer.

Not because anyone's hiding it: because it depends so much on how it's used that giving a single figure would be lying. But it is possible to provide the complete list of concepts and their order of magnitude, which is what you need to build your own account and to know what questions to ask any manufacturer.

The seven concepts

1. Gas: the most surprising

An LPBF machine operates in an inert atmosphere. This means that argon is consumed the entire time the machine is on, not just when the laser is melting, but also during the initial purge, which is when the most argon is consumed.

From this come two decisions that significantly change the bill:

• Bottle, bottle pack, or tank. The price per cubic meter drops significantly with larger sizes. If you plan to use the machine regularly, the tank pays for itself quickly.
• Grouping builds. Each start-up requires purging. Four six-hour builds consume considerably more gas than one twenty-four-hour build.

For titanium and reactive alloys there is an additional nuance: they require lower oxygen levels, and going below a certain threshold costs gas and takes time.

{!Average argon consumption per hour of the ALBA and indicative cost per format: to be confirmed by Samylabs.!}

2. Filters: the consumable that cannot be stretched

The metallic fumes generated by the fusion process are carried away by the gas flow and end up in a filter. This filter becomes saturated, and when it does, it must be replaced.

Two warnings worth money:

• A saturated filter doesn't just need to be replaced: as it becomes saturated, the filter deteriorates. If the airflow loses its carrying capacity, the smoke and splashes remain on the filter bed, which is reflected in the porosity. Stretching a filter is expensive in other respects.
• A used filter containing reactive powder is hazardous waste. It's not thrown away: it's treated and managed. This process has its own procedures and costs.

This is where a machine with double filter and bypass changes the game: it allows you to change the filter without stopping printing, and in continuous production that's not convenience, it's capability.

3. The powder that does not return

The powder is reused—that is what the powder left over is about—but not all of it is returned. Some is lost in screening, in what remains adhered to the part and supports, in purging, and in vacuuming.

Geometry matters more than material. A solid, compact part reflects almost all the powder; a fine lattice traps powder inside, preventing it from escaping.

It is a real cost that almost no one accounts for because there is no bill for it: it comes in the form of buying powder earlier than expected.

4. Electricity: less than people fear

A compact LPBF machine consumes roughly the same amount of energy as a medium-sized machining machine. The laser power is only part of it; the rest is consumed by the chiller, the pump, and the electronics.

The most surprising feature of the ALBA 300 is that it operates on 230V single-phase domestic current. This doesn't affect the electricity costs; however, it does affect the installation costs: it avoids the need for a dedicated three-phase connection, which can be the biggest unexpected expense of the entire project.

5. Preventive Maintenance

There are two ways to do it, and both are legitimate:

• Contract with the manufacturer. Annual fee, scheduled visits, spare parts, and priority response. The cost is known.
• In-house preventive maintenance. Cheaper on paper, but depends entirely on having a trained professional and on performing maintenance when necessary, not just when there's time.

The question to ask any manufacturer isn't how much the contract costs. It's what can you do without it: whether basic maintenance is documented and can be done by your own staff, or if every adjustment depends on someone traveling to the site.

6. Optics and coating

Small consumables that have a knack for appearing just when you're in a hurry: lens protectors, coating lips, gaskets. They don't cost much each, but having stock on hand makes the difference between being down for two hours or two weeks.

It's worth requesting a list of critical consumables before buying, including prices and delivery times. It's a question that takes a minute to answer and reveals a lot.

7. Person-hours: the greatest of all

Here's the surprising part of this list. Added up over the course of a year, the hours of labor around the machine often cost more than all the consumables combined.

Each build involves file preparation, platform assembly, loading and powder sieving, parts removal, support cutting, and cleaning. None of that is machine time, and it's all paid time.

The good news is that this is the area where you can have the most control: grouping parts on a single build plate, designing to require fewer supports, and implementing closed-loop screening. All three of these decisions are made before printing.

How to create your account in one afternoon

1. Estimate machine hours per year. This is the variable that drives almost all the others.
2. Ask the manufacturer for gas consumption per hour and electricity consumption.
3. Ask how often the filter needs to be changed and what the cost is, including waste disposal.
4. Apply a reasonable powder loss based on your specific geometry, not the catalog.
5. Add up personnel hours per build multiplied by the number of builds per year.
6. Decide between a maintenance contract or in-house preventative maintenance, and assign a price to both.

With that you have the annual cost, and with the annual cost you finally have the figure that really matters: the cost per part, which is the only one that can be compared to what you pay a supplier today.

—

If you want the specific figures for the ALBA—gas, filters, consumables, and hours—we'll send them to you in writing so you can enter them into your spreadsheet. And if you'd prefer to start without a machine, we can make the parts for you while you work out the calculations.

—

The two machines on which these calculations are based are listed in ALBA 300 and ALBA 500. Information on who operates them and their training can be found in the profile of someone who operates an LPBF machine. And if you prefer not to buy a machine yet, in parts manufacturing you only pay for what you need.

Where exactly does the gas supply come from, and why do many short builds use more than a few long ones, in argon or nitrogen.