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What are your standard manufacturing tolerances?
What are your standard manufacturing tolerances?

Align your expectations with our tolerance policies

Elijah Post avatar
Written by Elijah Post
Updated over a week ago

3D Printing

With the curing/cooling of resin used in this manufacturing process, 3D printing is not held to the same tolerance standard as other higher precision manufacturing methods.

A general rule of thumb is around ±0.2mm tolerance for PolyJet parts, ±0.3mm for SLS and MJF parts, ±0.1mm for SLA parts, and ±0.5mm for FDM (ABS and PETG) parts. Note that FDM PLA, which is printed in open air conditions, would likely have tolerances of ±1.0mm. For each printing technology, larger parts will have an even wider tolerance range.

The above are rough guidelines and should be used only for reference. For more in-depth design parameters, be sure to conduct a tolerance analysis. Always design the parts with tolerances in mind!

If dimensions are critical, consider a manufacturing method like CNC.

CNC

Our CNC machined parts are produced to ISO 2768 medium linear tolerance.

We can also machine to tighter tolerances (±0.025mm or ±0.001") with an attached engineering drawing calling out critical features.

We inspect and measure each part via calipers, so callout features must be measurable through those means.

Please reach out to us via the chat window (or put information in the engineering drawing) for any special requests before requesting a quote so that we can quote accordingly and flag any concerns!

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