What belongs in the burdened operating rate?

Energy, direct labor, maintenance and vessel depreciation, divided by the hours the autoclave can run. Use the rate your cost accounting applies to work orders, not the power bill alone.

How do I set the chargeable share for a shared load?

By the tooling or parts each job puts in the vessel. A job filling half the usable volume carries about 50%, and the sum across a load should not pass 100. The default 100 suits a dedicated cycle.

Why does the cost per hour fall on a long cycle?

The fixed setup and quality cost is spread over more cycle hours. At the defaults the fixed 950 dollars is about 68 dollars per hour over 14 hours, and less on a longer cycle.

Does this include tooling and consumable cost?

No. It covers setup, quality and the burdened rate for the cycle itself. Bagging consumables, tooling amortization and scrap are separate costs carried by their own calculators.

Composites, Fiberglass & Advanced Materials calculator

Autoclave Cycle Cost Calculator

Price one autoclave cure cycle from the hours the schedule gives it and the burdened rate your cost accounting uses. The chargeable share handles cycles shared with other jobs or nested tooling.

What this calculator does

Autoclave cost for a cure cycle from its hours and burdened rate, the chargeable share and the fixed setup cost.

Formula used

Chargeable cycle cost = cycle hours × burdened rate × chargeable share ÷ 100
Total cycle cost = chargeable cycle cost + fixed setup and quality cost
Cycle cost per hour = total cycle cost ÷ cycle hours

Inputs explained

Cycle Hours: Autoclave hours from the cure schedule, load to unload.
Burdened Operating Rate: Cost accounting rate: energy, labor, maintenance and vessel depreciation.
Chargeable Share: Share of this cycle charged to the job, from the cost sheet.
Fixed Setup and Quality Cost: Setup, tooling load and quality cost per run, from the job estimate.

How to use the result

Best suited to quoting a cure cycle for one job, splitting a shared autoclave load, comparing cure schedules on cost.
A slow ramp, a heavy load or a failed vacuum check adds cycle hours that change the cost per hour. Thermocouple, bagging and rework costs sit outside the cycle rate.

Current U.S. benchmarks

The producer price index for plastic resins and materials stands at 280.569 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 6.6% from a year earlier. Quotes priced off last quarter's material cost miss this move.
Steel mill PPI stands at 381.162 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 23.4% from a year earlier. New factory orders are up 8.5% year over year (Census).

Common questions

What belongs in the burdened operating rate? Energy, direct labor, maintenance and vessel depreciation, divided by the hours the autoclave can run. Use the rate your cost accounting applies to work orders, not the power bill alone.
How do I set the chargeable share for a shared load? By the tooling or parts each job puts in the vessel. A job filling half the usable volume carries about 50%, and the sum across a load should not pass 100. The default 100 suits a dedicated cycle.
Why does the cost per hour fall on a long cycle? The fixed setup and quality cost is spread over more cycle hours. At the defaults the fixed 950 dollars is about 68 dollars per hour over 14 hours, and less on a longer cycle.
Does this include tooling and consumable cost? No. It covers setup, quality and the burdened rate for the cycle itself. Bagging consumables, tooling amortization and scrap are separate costs carried by their own calculators.

Related guides

Autoclave Utilization and Cycle Cost in Aerospace Composites

Last reviewed 2026-10-01.