Just trying to understand the logic behind producing the models in China / Asia using injection moulding vs. doing it locally using SLA printing.
It seems sort-of crazy to spend €20-50K (if blog posts from British producers are to be believed) for runs of 500-1000 locomotives on moulds alone and having 12-18 month lead times on new products. Is it to do with labor costs associated with the painting & assembly that more pushes things to China? Or skepticism from modellers over 3D-printing quality (better than injection moulded for newer SLA printing).
From some quick maths it seems like local production would be on-par for costs with cheaper material but higher labour costs and no shipping costs but while cutting lead times by i'd say ~75-80%. Unless my costings are way off because I've only printed some scratch-built models for myself and nothing commercial.
Question
ShaneC
Just trying to understand the logic behind producing the models in China / Asia using injection moulding vs. doing it locally using SLA printing.
It seems sort-of crazy to spend €20-50K (if blog posts from British producers are to be believed) for runs of 500-1000 locomotives on moulds alone and having 12-18 month lead times on new products. Is it to do with labor costs associated with the painting & assembly that more pushes things to China? Or skepticism from modellers over 3D-printing quality (better than injection moulded for newer SLA printing).
From some quick maths it seems like local production would be on-par for costs with cheaper material but higher labour costs and no shipping costs but while cutting lead times by i'd say ~75-80%. Unless my costings are way off because I've only printed some scratch-built models for myself and nothing commercial.
Shane.
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