Stratasys Fortus Print Cost Calculator: Calculate Your True Part Cost
Move beyond simplistic filament estimates. Account for industrial chamber thermal draw, high-temp oven soak times, disposable build sheets, liquefier tip wear, and machine depreciation to find the exact zero-margin cost of your Fortus builds.
Why Standard Slicer Estimates Fall Short on Industrial FDM
If you rely solely on GrabCAD Print or Insight to determine how much a print costs on your industrial Stratasys system, you are likely underestimating your true operating expenses by 20% to 40%.
Industrial FDM machines like the Fortus 380mc, 450mc, and F900 are heavy thermal assets. They do not just melt filament; they maintain actively heated build envelopes ranging from 90°C for standard ABS up to 215°C for ULTEM 1010 and PPSF. Over a 30-hour print, the resistive oven heaters, circulation blowers, and facility HVAC cooling loads consume substantial electricity that standard slicers fail to factor into the bill.
What This Calculator Takes Into Account
Built specifically for additive manufacturing engineers, lab managers, and shop owners, this calculator breaks down every cost driver required for precise internal job costing, machine rate recovery, or customer quoting:
- Material & Purge Waste: Computes exact model and support consumption while factoring in canister tail waste and purge tower volume.
- Chamber Heating & HVAC Load: Automatically calculates active print and cold-chamber warmup soak power draw (kW) matched to your specific machine architecture and polymer tier, plus optional facility A/C cooling loads.
- Consumables Wear: Amortizes high-temperature build sheet replacement frequency and liquefier tip lifespan (including hardened tips for carbon fiber filaments).
- Machine Overhead & Maintenance: Choose between full new CapEx/OEM maintenance service contracts, in-house refurbished preventive maintenance (PM) schedules, or marginal out-of-pocket modes.
- Post-Processing & Labor: Accounts for soluble support bath chemistry, wash tank energy, direct operator touch labor, and scrap failure allowances.
How to Use the Calculator
- Select Your Fortus Model: Choose your exact machine model (ranging from legacy T-Class 360/400mc systems to modern 900-Class and F900 printers). High-temp polymer locks prevent incompatible configurations.
- Choose Your Material & Filament Source: Select your polymer tier (ABS, PC, Nylon 12CF, ULTEM 9085, ULTEM 1010) and toggle between Stratasys OEM canisters and third-party/open filament pricing.
- Input Slicer Job Data: Enter your net model volume (in³), support volume (in³), and total build hours straight from your slicer report.
- Review the Cost Breakdown: Inspect the live KPI summary cards, distribution bar chart, and detailed line-item table to see exactly where your budget goes.
True print cost calculator
Zero-margin cost per job across material, consumables, chamber energy, machine overhead and labor.
Machine & material
Job parameters
From Insight or GrabCAD PrintRates & overrides Edit
| Component | Share | Cost |
|---|---|---|
Model & support material — |
0% | $0.00 |
Build sheet & tip wear — |
0% | $0.00 |
Chamber & machine electricity — |
0% | $0.00 |
Maintenance & depreciation — |
0% | $0.00 |
Support removal — |
0% | $0.00 |
Operator touch labor — |
0% | $0.00 |
Scrap allowance — |
0% | $0.00 |
| Total | 100% | $0.00 |