How much does it cost · metal injection molding (MIM)
A MIM part is costed in five items: feedstock (metal powder plus binder), mold, debinding, sintering, and secondary machining and finishing (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026). Feedstock runs from $10 to $15 per pound for 4140 and 8620 steels to $35 to $50 for titanium, and a sintering furnace costs $150 to $300 per firing, shared among the parts in the batch (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026). On a 17 g AISI 316L stainless part, feedstock accounts for 36% of cost, secondary operations 23% and sintering 20% (source: Pollen AM, accessed October 2026). RFQdecoder costs each item from the drawing, converts dollars at the ECB rate and quotes the mold separately as tooling.
Metal injection molding combines plastic injection molding with powder metallurgy. Fine metal powder is mixed with a polymer binder to form the feedstock, which is injected into a mold; the binder is then removed by debinding and the part is sintered at high temperature to reach its final density and properties (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026). Injecting the feedstock is rather similar to injection molding plastics, notes EPMA, the European Powder Metallurgy Association (source: EPMA, January 2024).
DFMA breaks the cost into five items: feedstock, mold, debinding, sintering, and secondary machining and finishing (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026). Manufacturer XTMIM separates the one-time mold investment from recurring costs: material, molding, debinding, sintering, secondary operations, inspection and yield (source: XTMIM, July 2026). For US manufacturer Advanced Powder Products, the main drivers of part cost are equipment cycle time, furnace utilization and secondary operations (source: Advanced Powder Products, June 2020).
Pollen AM breaks down a 17 g AISI 316L stainless part: feedstock accounts for 36% of cost, secondary operations 23% and sintering 20% (source: Pollen AM, accessed October 2026). Secondary operations can reach 50% of a part’s total cost (source: Pollen AM, accessed October 2026).
Starting from the drawing, the tool counts each process step in turn: the feedstock is injected like a plastic, the binder is removed, then the part is sintered in a furnace. Each item uses the values published by Boothroyd Dewhurst, publisher of the DFMA costing software (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026):
Pounds are converted to kilograms (1 lb = 0.45359237 kg) and dollars to euros at the ECB reference rate of the day. On 2 October 2026, €1 was worth $1.1225 (source: ECB, October 2026). The published feedstock prices (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026) therefore become:
With catalytic as the default, the tool selects the method with the best published yield. DFMA also describes it as the fastest, 2 to 8 h against 8 to 48 h for solvent or thermal, but expensive in equipment and best suited to volumes above 100,000 parts a year (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026). According to EPMA, catalytic debinding of polyacetal feedstock in gaseous nitric or oxalic acid greatly reduces debinding time (source: EPMA, January 2024).
Assumptions (chosen to illustrate, not taken from a source): a 20 g part in 17-4PH stainless; one part per injection cycle; debinding method not specified; two orders, 200 parts sintered in one batch of 200, then 5,000 parts sintered in five batches of 1,000. Within the published ranges (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026), the example uses: feedstock at $25/lb, 10% loss, 45 s cycle at $40/h, furnace at $200 per firing, simple finishing of 3 min at $40/h, inspection at 3%. Each result is rounded to the cent before the next step.
Effect of quantity. Between the two orders, only sintering, and inspection with it, changes: the same $200 firing is shared by 200 parts in one case and by 1,000 in the other. The price per part falls from €4.36 to €3.63, €0.73 or nearly 17% less. Finishing remains the largest item: $2.00 out of $4.89 (41%) and out of $4.07 (49%), within the DFMA range, for which secondary operations usually account for 20 to 50% of total cost (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026).
If a surface must be ground, DFMA allows 15 to 30 min per part (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026): at 15 min and $40/h, finishing rises from $2.00 to $10.00.
For reference, the mold, quoted separately as tooling: as an illustration (amount chosen, not sourced, within the $10,000 to $100,000 range published by DFMA (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026)), a $30,000 mold spread over 5,000 parts would add $6.00 per part, over 50,000 parts $0.60.
Two items stay out of the part price, and the quote says so:
Published thresholds vary with the complexity and size of the part:
In the price calculated by RFQdecoder, quantity acts on how the furnace firing is shared; the mold, quoted separately as tooling, has to be set against the total quantity planned.
According to DFMA, from $10 to $15 per pound for 4140/8620 steels up to $35 to $50 for titanium; $12 to $18 for 316L/304 stainless and $20 to $30 for 17-4PH. Converted, that is $22.05 to $110.23/kg, or €19.64 to €98.20/kg at the ECB rate of 2 October 2026.
Catalytic debinding, when the drawing or the request does not specify the method; the quote says so. DFMA gives it a yield of 95 to 99%, against 90 to 95% for solvent and 85 to 92% for thermal.
No: RFQdecoder quotes it separately as tooling. DFMA puts a MIM mold at $10,000 to more than $100,000, for a life of 200,000 to more than 1,000,000 shots.
Published thresholds range from about 5,000 to 10,000 pieces a year (Advanced Powder Products) to 10,000 parts and more against machining of complex geometries (DFMA). According to XTMIM, below about 3,000 pieces MIM is usually not a cost-driven choice.
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