Cost Estimation of Additive Manufacturing : A case study of TylöHelo Company's Sauna Product

Abstract: The concept of Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been used extensively for a long time now, with many industries embracing it. In this modern lifestyle, peoples need to be different not only in their dressing styles but also to change their outlook on their living room interior, their homes, their gardening, and every aspect of their life. Thereby people need more customized products. So Additive manufacturing can provide mass customization to the needy ones. As a consequence, Additive manufacturing becomes more important, and industries realized this fact and they adopt it. However, one must know the cost associated with different Additive Manufacturing techniques and different parameters involved with Additive Manufacturing to reap the benefits of additive manufacturing technology.  The ready-made sauna rooms of TylöHelo Company are the quickest and easiest to assemble of the many options, and this is used as a case study in this study. In this thesis, the cost analysis is performed on a TylöHelo sauna product – ‘Corner knot’ produced using two AM technologies such as SLA and FDM processes. The different parameters involved in the print settings were studied and it was optimized to get an optimal cost for these products. FDM printer Prusa MK3S and SLA printer form 2 and their respective slicing software were utilized for this purpose. From the results, it was found that FDM was a better alternative for producing the Corner Knot sample than the SLA process. It is because the cost associated with FDM and SLA is respectively 27.77 Kr and 55.33 Kr. Prusa printers were utilized for this purpose. The cost comparison between the solid-based AM technology Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and Liquid-based AM technology Stereolithography is conducted in this study and FDM is found to be the superior solution over SLA since the cost for the production FDM is lower than SLA. The orientation of knots and layer thickness are the different parameters associated with the build time of additive manufacturing. In the future, the cost comparison and parameters associated with other solid and liquid-based AM technology along with powdered-based AM technology can be conducted.