CAD CAM: What it Costs

The pricing discussions on this page primarily refer to CAD CAM engine turning being done by us in our workshop for you. Whilst the cost of the design element would remain similar, if you manufacture in large volume and prefer to buy into our technology, leasing our machinery to operate in your own factory by your own employees, very considerable cost savings can be made on production prices, depending on the location of your factory.

We design to order with this process. It is so incredibly versatile that there are no limits at all on what is possible, within the construct of low relief designs on flat and convex 3D surfaces.

The possibilities of what can be done with this amazing design medium are endless!

Actual size of image: 1cm square.
 
Left: An Angel from the first Enamelled Pen created by us for Montegrappa, but in this image enamelled not as the production version but to show the capability of enamel over low relief. Actual size of image: approximately 1cm square.
 
In this series of pages, we show you examples of this wonderful design medium together with approximate unit prices for production, mostly based on editions of approximately 1000 pieces.
 
Smaller quantities are not a problem, but the setup and design costs become more significant and raise the unit price. Reject rates are also higher because most rejects happen at the beginning of a production run.
 
The system is designed to cut 9 items simultaneously, so running one offs and very small quantities significantly affects the cost.

The Cost of CAD CAM Engine Turning is based upon two primary factors.

1. INPUT AND SETUP COSTS

N.B. For new customers we may be willing to waive all of the setup costs on the first product we design for you.

CAD Design Work
This is the cost of designing and producing the 3D low relief CAD drawing that is then post-processed to generate the machine code that runs on the CNC engine turning machine itself.

This can vary from hundreds of pounds to thousands of pounds, depending upon the complexity of the design, how much repetition there is, the type of elements included and how difficult they are to draw in 3D. Human and animal figures usually present the greatest challenges in creating a good recognisable low relief image. A typical cost is about £2,500 UKP.

Post Processing and secondary programming
This is the cost of post-processing the CAD drawing to produce the tool paths, optimize them and compile them into the CNC machine code programs to operate the machine. There is also some secondary manual programming required to position the machine correctly for the start of each piece and move to a new position where alternating caps and bodies, for example, are being run or where multiple programs must be linked together for such items as octagonal tubes. Typically this work may take half a day or so to complete, including measuring for the positioning programs etc.

Tooling
Tooling may also be necessary to hold the pieces. A typical cost for this for pens might be £150 to £250 UKP for 18 sets of spindle components if required. There are 9 heads on the machine and two carousels, one to run and one to load. With pens we normally run one carousel for caps and one for bodies, so only enough components for 9 caps and 9 bodies are required unless it is intended to run all caps or all bodies on a regular basis.

We have always had, since 1978, an important and sensible company policy regarding all tooling costs that is designed to save all customers money wherever possible. While there is some flexibility in how we apply this policy for practical reasons, we broadly try to stick to it wherever appropriate. Spindles are usually specific to a product and so are charged at nearly the full cost.

Preparation of Samples (usually amortised into the unit price)
The cost of preparing samples is not actually charged for directly but becomes part of the overall initiation process of getting a design into production. It can take as much as a day to get everything right the first time; sometimes further samples are required to finalise the design. This cost is normally amortised into the unit price over the expected production run quantity. If we cut very short production runs then this part of the initiation becomes significant in adding to the unit cost.

2. PRODUCTION COSTS

Cutting Time
The actual cutting time on the machine is critical. 9 pieces are usually cut simultaneously, though in certain cases this may be reduced to as little as 4 pieces, which approximately doubles the unit price. We generally cut only 4 gold pieces simultaneously as opposed to 9 for silver, though for some items such as white gold we may only cut two at a time with a resulting increase in cost.

The depth of the low relief will determine the density of cutting required to create the image. The deeper cut the image is, the finer the cutting required to create it, thus increasing the cutting time. Usually, the deepest examples are those where enamel is used in combination with our engine turning.

Tool Life
The density of cutting and the material used will determine the number of items that each tool can cut before we must remove it and re-grind and polish it. Resetting the nine tools on the machine is skilled work and takes an hour or so.

The quantity of pieces to be cut will determine the final calculation of unit price in relation to the design and setup costs.

The Production half of our CAD CAM system: the CNC Engine Turning Machine with the electronic control systems in the background.

Another view showing the same machine on the left of this image with a number of hand operated machines in the background.