Part Cost Estimator
Background information and instructions for using the Synthesizer tool's Part Cost Estimator, with links to more details about the underlying model.
This document is only available to customers with an Ansys ID.
The cost of a manufactured part or component is dependent not only on the material cost, but also on the complete processing chain. It is affected by the choice of material, part size, part complexity, batch size, processing methods, recycling of waste material, among others. All these contributions, and more, need to be considered when evaluating the cost per unit of engineering function (e.g. stiffness, strength) of a component.
The Part Cost Estimator in Granta Selector draws on information from different sources within Granta Selector (such as material datasheets, ProcessUniverse processes etc.) to evaluate the total cost of a component. The total part cost estimate can be plotted on a chart for easy comparison between different processing methods, or to understand how one particular phase of the production chain affects the overall part cost.
The Part Cost Estimator is suited for use in the early stages of component development, where multiple materials and processing methods are under consideration, and the details of the design have to be finalized. It is particularly effective at comparing materials of different classes, for example replacing a metal component with an injection molded plastic or composite.
The emphasis of the cost model is to compare different processes by predicting the relative cost of each process (to ±20%), rather than achieving high precision (±3%) for each individual process.