Bridge production
Sell real product in the weeks or months between a finished design and the first molded parts. Your launch date stops depending on the toolmaker.
- Before the mold
- Product launch
- Beta units
3D Printing · Mass production
Skip the $5,000 tool and the eight-week wait. We print your end-use parts in real engineering plastics, from one part to thousands, with no minimum order. 3D printed in the USA and shipped to all 50 states.
Price per part and schedule within one business day · (928) 955-8251
What it is
Production 3D printing makes finished plastic parts directly from a digital file, layer by layer, on printers running the same approved settings. There is no mold to build, so there is nothing to pay for or wait on before the first part. Pluribus Manufacturing runs production orders from a single part to thousands in PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU and carbon-fiber nylon, with first parts printed in 2–3 business days.
The problem with molds
Injection molding is built for huge quantities of one unchanging shape. For everything else, the tool is the problem: it is expensive, it is slow, and it freezes your design.
Typical tooling prices and lead times for steel production molds.
Printing vs injection molding
01
A mold is paid for in full before you have sold a single part. Printed production has no mold, so your first dollar goes into parts you can ship, not into a block of steel.
02
A mold has to be designed, machined, sampled and corrected. A print run starts from your file: first parts are printed in 2–3 business days and the run follows.
03
A mold locks the design. Every change means reworking or replacing the tool. With printing, a revised file is simply the next batch, so customer feedback goes straight into the product.
04
Molding makes sense only in large batches, so you buy and store months of inventory. Print 50 this week and 50 next month, and keep your cash and your shelf space.
05
No draft angles, no parting lines, no side actions. Internal channels, undercuts, lattices and several pieces combined into one part print as easily as a plain block.
06
Left and right, small, medium and large, custom text on each one: a mold makes one shape, but a print run can hold a different part in every position on the plate.
07
Molds need storage, maintenance and eventually replacement, and moving one between suppliers is slow and costly. Your production tool here is a file.
08
Launch with real, sellable parts before committing to tooling. If the product takes off and a mold makes sense, you order it with a proven design and real sales behind it.
The math
Take a $50,000 mold and divide it across your order. That is the tooling share of each molded part before plastic, machine time or shipping. Next to it is the full price of a printed part: a PETG bracket, 50 × 30 × 40 mm.
| Quantity | Mold cost per part | Printed part, example price |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | $5,000 | $2.00 |
| 25 | $2,000 | $1.32 |
| 100 | $500 | $1.17 |
| 500 | $100 | Custom quote |
| 1,000 | $50 | Custom quote |
Printed prices are an example only, taken from our quote system on November 14, 2026, before shipping and tax. Every production run over 100 parts is custom quoted for your part, material and schedule. For 100 parts or fewer, upload your file to see your own price in seconds.
Is it right for you?
Planning a mold later? Print the first runs now, start selling, and tool up once the design and the demand are proven. That is bridge production, and it is what this service is built for.
Expanding · Yuma, Arizona
Demand for production work has outgrown one shop. We have started setting up a new 5,000 square foot facility in Yuma, Arizona, dedicated to production runs.
Printers run around the clock, so power is a real part of every part's cost. Energy costs less in Arizona than in California, and that saving goes into lower prices per part. More floor space means more printers on your run at once, and faster turnaround on large orders.
Large production runs will ship from Yuma, in the middle of the Southwest, and faster shipping options are offered on every order.
Run types
Each of these is a run we can price this week. Send the file, or just describe the part.
Sell real product in the weeks or months between a finished design and the first molded parts. Your launch date stops depending on the toolmaker.
A product that sells 50 to 5,000 units a year rarely earns back a mold. Printing keeps it profitable from the first order to the last.
Multi-part sets packed together as kits, and service spares printed when they are needed. Shipped to your warehouse or straight to your customer.
Size and color versions, or a name on every part. Each position on the print plate can hold a different part, with nothing to re-tool.
Assembly jigs, alignment fixtures and holders for your own production line. When one wears, print another instead of machining a new one.
Spares for equipment, older vehicles and industrial machines that the maker no longer supplies. We scan or rebuild the part and print it on demand.
Step 01
Send the part and the quantity
Upload a file for an instant price on up to 100 parts, or use the form on this page for a larger run. You get a price per part and a schedule.
Step 02
Approve a real part
We print one and you approve it before the batch. On runs of 50 or more this step is built in.
Step 03
We run the batch
Every part prints from the file, material and settings you approved, and is checked before packing.
Step 04
Delivered, then repeated
One shipment or staged deliveries, with faster shipping options on every order. Reorder any time with the order number.
Quality
General tolerance is ±0.5% with a lower limit of ±0.5 mm; small features are typically within ±0.2 mm. FDM parts show light layer lines; that is normal for the process.
Check 01
File check before printing
Every file is sliced with the settings for your material before we quote it, so thin walls, missing geometry and parts that are too big show up before you pay.
Check 02
First part approval on runs
For runs of 50 parts or more we print one part and send you photos, or the part itself, to approve before the batch starts.
Check 03
Dry material
Nylon, carbon-fiber blends and TPU absorb moisture, so they are dried before printing to keep layers bonded and surfaces clean.
Check 04
Every part looked at
Each part is checked by eye before packing: layer bonding, warping, stringing and surface defects. Supports are removed completely.
Check 05
Critical dimensions measured
Tell us which dimensions matter and we measure them with calipers before the order ships.
Check 06
Reprint if we got it wrong
If a part has a print defect that is our fault, send a photo within 48 hours of delivery and we reprint it at no charge.
Confidentiality
New products and customer parts are confidential by default. Your files are used only to quote and make your order.
Get a production quote
You get a price per part and a delivery schedule within one business day.
Prefer to talk? Call (928) 955-8251 or email [email protected]. For 100 parts or fewer, price your file instantly.
For small and medium quantities, yes. Injection molding needs a mold first, and a steel production mold commonly costs $50,000 to $70,000, with large or multi-cavity tools passing $100,000. A production mold also takes months to design, machine and sample, and that cost is spread over every part. On a 100-part order a $50,000 mold adds $500 to each part before any plastic is molded. Printed production has no tooling cost, so the price per part is low from the very first part.
It depends on the part, but for small plastic parts the crossover is usually well into the thousands of identical pieces, and with a $50,000 to $70,000 production mold it can be tens of thousands. Below that, printing costs less in total. Above it, many companies still print because they need parts in days, expect design changes, or do not want to hold inventory.
Yes. Printed parts in PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU and carbon-fiber nylon are used as final parts in products, machines and vehicles every day. We print in real engineering plastics, check every part before packing and hold a general tolerance of ±0.5% with a lower limit of ±0.5 mm.
From one part to runs in the thousands. Up to 100 of a part is priced instantly online. Every run over 100 parts is custom quoted for your part, material and schedule.
One part. A single prototype and a production run are set up the same way, so you can start small and scale the same part.
First parts are printed in 2–3 business days. The schedule for the full run depends on print time per part and quantity and is written on your quote. Runs can ship in stages, so you receive parts while the rest are printing.
The whole run prints from the file, material and settings you approved on the first part. Moisture-sensitive materials are dried before printing, every part is checked by eye before packing, and the dimensions you flag are measured with calipers.
PETG, PETG Matte, TPU 95A, TPU 90A, ABS, ASA, PETG-CF, PA6-CF, PAHT-CF. PETG suits most indoor parts, ASA handles sun and weather, ABS handles heat, TPU is flexible, and carbon-fiber nylon is for stiff, load-bearing parts.
In the USA. We print in San Diego, California, and we have started setting up a new 5,000 sq ft production facility in Yuma, Arizona. Lower energy costs there let us offer lower prices and faster turnaround on production orders, and large production runs will ship from Yuma.
Yes. We sign and return an NDA within one business day, before you send files. Files are priced on our own server with no internet connection, and our printers run on a segmented network under our own internal control and storage systems, not a cloud printing service.
Yes, on request. Parts are manufactured in the USA, US-made PETG, ABS and ASA filament is available for orders that need domestic material, and we supply a signed certificate stating the place of manufacture and the material's origin.
Yes, for approved business accounts. Tell us on the quote request, or use Pay by purchase order on the instant quote page.
Fill in the form on this page with the part, the quantity and when you need it, or email [email protected]. You get a price per part and a schedule within one business day. For 100 parts or fewer, the instant quote page prices your file in seconds.
Related: how repeat runs work · FDM spec sheet · PEEK and high-temperature printing · large-format printing up to 1 meter · materials and prices · Southwest shipping · jigs and fixtures · 3D printed in the USA and certificates of origin · NDAs and confidentiality · 3D printing vs injection molding guide