Additive Manufacturing worked example

Additive Equipment Payback with am equipment investment of 92,500 $: a worked example

This worked example runs the additive equipment payback numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: am equipment investment of 92,500 $ instead of the typical 185,000 $. Estimate payback period for an additive machine or cell from investment, annual savings, and annual support cost.

The inputs for this scenario

  • AM equipment investment: 92,500 $ (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 185,000)
  • Annual AM savings/revenue: 76,000 $ / yr (held at the documented default)
  • Annual service and support: 18,000 $ / yr (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Net annual savings = annual AM savings/revenue - annual service and support.
  • Equipment payback period works out to 1.59 years at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Net annual savings works out to 58,000 $ / yr at these inputs.
  • AM equipment investment works out to 92,500 $ at these inputs.
  • Five-year net value works out to 197,500 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where am equipment investment sits at 185,000 $ and the headline result is 3.19 years, this scenario comes in 50% below the baseline at 1.59 years.
  • Use it when building the capital approval case for a new printer, comparing AM to a CNC or outsourcing baseline, or stack-ranking competing machine quotes. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • Equipment payback period: 1.59 years (headline result)
  • Net annual savings: 58,000 $ / yr
  • AM equipment investment: 92,500 $
  • Five-year net value: 197,500 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Additive Equipment Payback calculator, set am equipment investment to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.