Most buyers ask the wrong question first. They ask "how much is the machine?" when the number that decides whether a project works is "how much is each printed bottle?" A machine price is a one-time figure. Cost per print is the figure that sets your quotation, your margin and your break-even volume. Get it wrong and a well-chosen machine still loses money.
This guide gives you the calculation, the line items people forget, and a worked example you can adapt to your own numbers. Every figure below is illustrative — substitute your own ink price, labor rate and volume.
The formula
Cost per printed bottle = (ink + screen amortization + labor + waste + overhead + machine depreciation) ÷ good units produced
Two things matter about this formula before you touch a calculator:
- The denominator is good units, not total units. If one in fifteen prints is rejected, your real cost is spread over fourteen, not fifteen. This single correction is where most manual cost sheets understate cost.
- Everything is per shift, not per machine. A machine idling half a shift carries the same depreciation but produces half the good units, so its cost per print doubles.
Line 1: ink and consumables
Ink consumption on cylindrical and flat screen printing is small relative to labor, but it is not negligible, and it varies with mesh count, coverage area and colour count.
Measure it rather than guess:
- Weigh the ink container before and after a production run of known quantity.
- Divide the weight difference by the good units printed.
- Multiply by your ink cost per kilogram.
Add thinners, retarders and cleaning solvent to the same line. Solvent used for colour changes is a real per-changeover cost, and short runs pay it more often.
Line 2: screen amortization
Each colour needs its own screen, and each screen has a finite life. The cost is:
Screen cost ÷ prints per screen life
A screen used for a long run spreads its cost across tens of thousands of prints. A screen made for a 2,000-unit cosmetic order may only survive a fraction of that, so the per-print share rises sharply. This is the main reason short runs are expensive per unit, and why it is worth deciding early whether you make screens in-house or order them.
If the design changes frequently — seasonal SKUs, private-label work — screen amortization can overtake labor as the largest line. Track it per job, not per month.
Line 3: labor, including indirect labor
Count everyone whose time the job consumes, not just the operator standing at the machine:
- Operator(s) running the machine
- A helper loading and unloading if the machine is not fully automatic
- Time for screen mounting, registration and colour matching at setup
- QA checks and rework
Setup is the invisible half. A four-colour job with tight registration can consume far more setup time than run time on a small order, and setup time is paid whether or not a single bottle comes out good.
Line 4: waste and rejection
Track three kinds of waste separately, because they have different fixes:
| Waste type | Typical cause | Fix direction |
|---|---|---|
| Setup waste | Registration and colour matching before steady state | Better fixtures, faster registration aids |
| Random reject | Ink transfer, surface treatment, curing drift | Process control, operator training |
| Rework | Partial print defects on expensive bottles | Inspection station, touch-up SOP |
Setup waste happens once per run; random reject scales with volume. Confusing the two leads to buying the wrong improvement.
Line 5: overhead and floor space
Allocate rent, power, compressed air, supervision and administration per machine-hour. Air consumption is easy to overlook: pneumatic machines draw continuously, and on high-cycle machines the compressor load is a visible cost line. Servo-driven machines change this profile — worth modelling if you plan multi-shift operation.
Line 6: depreciation
Machine landed cost ÷ total good units over its service life
Use landed cost, not FOB: freight, insurance, duty and installation all belong to the machine. Then spread it over realistic lifetime output — not the brochure speed. If you expect to run 60% of available hours, depreciate over that, or your per-print cost will look better than your bank account.
Worked example (illustrative figures only)
Assume a single-colour job on round bottles, 30,000 good units per month, two shifts:
| Line | Monthly amount | Per good unit |
|---|---|---|
| Ink + solvent | 900 | 0.030 |
| Screens (8 screens, replaced monthly) | 480 | 0.016 |
| Direct labor (2 operators) | 2,400 | 0.080 |
| Setup labor (12 changeovers) | 600 | 0.020 |
| Waste (5% reject, absorbed) | 750 | 0.025 |
| Overhead allocation | 1,500 | 0.050 |
| Depreciation | 1,200 | 0.040 |
| Total | 7,830 | 0.261 |
Now move the same job to 12,000 units per month. Ink, waste and some labor fall proportionally, but screens, setup labor, overhead and depreciation largely do not:
| Line | Monthly amount | Per good unit |
|---|---|---|
| Ink + solvent | 360 | 0.030 |
| Screens | 480 | 0.040 |
| Direct labor | 1,600 | 0.133 |
| Setup labor | 600 | 0.050 |
| Waste | 300 | 0.025 |
| Overhead | 1,200 | 0.100 |
| Depreciation | 1,200 | 0.100 |
| Total | 5,740 | 0.478 |
Same machine, same job, same people — cost per bottle rises 83% purely because volume fell. That is the number to bring to a pricing conversation, and the reason volume commitments matter when you negotiate with a brand owner.
Where buyers most often get it wrong
- Quoting from the brochure speed. Rated speed assumes ideal bottles, ideal ink and no stops. Plan on a realistic efficiency factor and re-check it after the first month.
- Ignoring setup on small orders. If average order size is under a few thousand units, setup economics decide profitability — sometimes more than the machine choice itself.
- Forgetting surface treatment. PP and some PE bottles need flame or plasma treatment for adhesion. That is equipment, gas and time, and it belongs in the cost sheet.
- Treating rework as free. Touch-up labor on a premium bottle can exceed the original print cost.
- Comparing machines on price only. A cheaper machine with slower changeover can carry a higher five-year cost than a more expensive one with quick-release fixtures.
What to do before you request a quotation
Prepare five numbers and any supplier can give you a defensible answer instead of a guess:
- Bottle material, diameter range and shape (round, oval, tapered)
- Colours per design and print coverage
- Target output per shift and shifts per day
- Average order size and changeover frequency
- Your acceptable reject rate
With those, ask two questions: what is the realistic good-unit rate on my bottle, and what is the changeover time per colour? Suppliers who answer both with numbers are the ones worth shortlisting. Our automatic CNC bottle screen printing machine page lists the specification baseline, and the bottle screen printing machine price guide explains which machine features move the purchase price.
FAQ
Does cost per bottle go down with more colours?
No. Each colour adds a screen, a print station, registration time and reject risk. Cost per bottle rises with colour count while cost per design stays roughly fixed for setup.
Is a fully automatic machine always cheaper per bottle?
Only above a volume threshold. Fully automatic machines win on labor and consistency but carry higher depreciation and longer changeover. Below a few thousand units per run, semi-automatic often has the lower total.
How do I get a real ink consumption figure?
Weigh the container before and after a known-quantity run. Nothing else is as reliable, and it takes five minutes.
Should I include freight and duty in the cost?
Yes. Landed cost is the only figure that reflects what you actually paid, and it directly changes depreciation per unit.
Next step
If you send your bottle specification, colour count and target volume, we can return a realistic good-unit rate and changeover estimate for the screen printing machine range that fits — that turns this model into a quotation you can defend.
