Hi, first time poster! I run a niche company that designs and manufactures custom products in the electronics and automotive space. And when I say niche, I mean we ship in the low thousands of units a year.

We've started exploring custom plastic products, but the volumes required by even plastic blow molding were too high for our business. Which leads us to explore 3D printing.

I have a couple questions, hopefully someone can give me answers that are not related to.. "use search"!

- How much does it cost to in materials to fabricate a plastic widget? What I've seen in my research points to $20-$25 per pound of product (excluding waste)

- Any recommendation for printing larger 3D items? What's a good printer? How long do these things last?

- Whats the story around intellectual property? As someone who sells stuff to put food on the table, protecting what amounts to "inventions" is an important part of the equation. Are 3D designs copyrightable?

Thanks, and hopefully in time I can contribute to this forum!