What failed prints really cost (and how to price for them)

Measure it honestly

Failure rate = failed jobs / total jobs over a real month. Well-tuned FDM shops run 3-8%; complex or tall geometry pushes 10-15%; resin adds its own failure modes around supports and peel forces. If you do not know your number, you are pricing blind.

The arithmetic

At a 10% failure rate, every tenth part consumes material, machine time and often labor while producing nothing sellable. The correct response is multiplying material + machine cost by 1/(1-failure rate) - or adding the equivalent percentage - on every quote.

Cut it, then keep the margin

First-layer calibration, dried filament, tuned supports and part orientation eliminate most failures. Every point of failure rate you remove without lowering prices is a point of pure margin gained.

Built into the tool

Our calculators carry an explicit failure/scrap field per process - set your real rate and successful parts automatically pay for the failures.