TN23 / TN24 · Kent
3D printing in Ashford
Ashford is the most commercial work we do: contract manufacturers and assemblers ordering jigs, fixtures and locating plates in tens and hundreds, then reordering six months later against a file that has to produce the same part.
Ashford is the one place on this list where the work is predominantly commercial, and where the argument for printing is a straightforward piece of arithmetic. The town holds the largest concentration of business parks and distribution space in this part of Kent: Eureka Park, Orbital Park, Sevington and the estates off the ring road, and the businesses in those units run quantities that sit in an awkward gap: too many to make by hand, far too few to justify a mould tool.
A mould is a four-figure commitment before the first part exists. Printing has no tooling cost at all, so ten parts cost about ten times one part less the batch discount, and a design change costs a slice of machine time rather than a new cavity. Very roughly, printing wins below a few hundred units and moulding wins above a few thousand; in between it depends on the part, and anybody who gives you a precise crossover without seeing the geometry is guessing.
The other thing an Ashford customer buys is repeatability. We hold the material, layer height, wall count, infill and orientation against your file, so batch two matches batch one and a reorder in six months is an email rather than a fresh conversation.
Ashford holds the largest concentration of business parks and distribution space in this part of Kent: Eureka Park, Orbital Park, Sevington and the estates off the ring road: plus the international station and the outlet. The customers here are the most obviously commercial we have: contract manufacturers and assemblers, e-commerce and fulfilment operations, engineering consultancies, and product businesses running short production runs. Their quantities sit in exactly the window where tooling cannot be justified and hand-making cannot keep up, which is the window small-batch printing exists to fill.
Working with a business twenty-five minutes away
Delivery to business addresses is arranged rather than scheduled: we agree a day, and larger orders go by courier where that is faster. Small items go first class. There is no delivery charge and no distance loading in the price.
For anything repeating, say that it repeats at the quote stage. Settings are held against the file, so the second batch is identical to the first and reordering is a single email. That matters more than the unit price on any part that goes into a product.
Your files are never shared and never reused for anyone else. The instant quote tool analyses the geometry in your own browser, which is why a price appears before you have sent us anything: useful when the drawing is under NDA and procurement wants a number this afternoon.
What Ashford businesses print
- Contract manufacturers
Production jigs and assembly fixtures
Drill guides, alignment blocks, soldering fixtures and test cradles: the shop-floor hardware that turns a fiddly assembly step into a repeatable one. Usually PETG or PETG-CF, so they survive being dropped.
- Product and e-commerce businesses
Small-batch runs of 10 to 200
The quantity where moulding cannot be justified and hand-finishing cannot keep up. Batch pricing steps at five, ten, twenty-five and fifty units; at fifty or more the per-part price is three-quarters of the single-unit rate.
- Brand and packaging teams
Packaging inserts and product samples
Form models to test in a box, in a hand or on a shelf before committing to a mould. Print, review, revise, print again: usually two or three rounds inside a fortnight.
- Fulfilment and retail operations
Retail display and point of sale
Stands, risers, hook rails, header brackets and product cradles printed to match the product rather than a generic shelf. Short runs, quick revisions, no tooling.
- Maintenance and engineering teams
Spares for production equipment
The obsolete moulding on a machine that is otherwise working perfectly. Reverse-engineered from the broken original and printed in something tougher than the original was.
Choosing a material for production use
Jigs and fixtures live a rough life and want stiffness: PETG for most, PETG-CF where a fixture must stay dimensionally honest under repeated clamping. Display and prototype work usually wants surface finish and low cost, which points at PLA, and matte PLA photographs particularly well.
Where a part goes into a product rather than a process, the question becomes where the product lives. Warm environments and sunlight rule out PLA; genuinely outdoors rules out everything except ASA.
The limits are worth having in front of you before a project plan depends on them. Typical FDM tolerance is around ±0.3 mm, so this is not a substitute for machining a precision fit. Parts over 256 mm are split and bonded or redesigned. We do not take food-contact, medical or safety-critical work. And past roughly five hundred units, we will tell you moulding is cheaper.
Every filament we stock, with the price per kilogram and what each one is actually for, is listed on the materials page. If you are not sure which one a Ashford job needs, tell us where the part lives and what it has to survive.
Service area
Ashford to the workshop, and back
Ashford is 16 miles from the machines by road, west-north-west on the M20. Everything is printed in Folkestone and travels out from there. There is no second site and no subcontracting, which is why a reorder six months later comes off the same machines with the same settings.
- Sellindge, TN25, 9 miles by road from the workshop, west-north-west of Folkestone.
- New Romney, TN28, 13 miles by road from the workshop, south-west of Folkestone.
- Ashford, TN23/TN24, 16 miles by road from the workshop, west-north-west of Folkestone.
- Canterbury, CT1/CT2, 17 miles by road from the workshop, north-north-west of Folkestone.
Questions from Ashford
Three things businesses here ask first
Very roughly, printing wins below a few hundred units and moulding wins above a few thousand. In between it depends on the part.
The structural difference is that a mould tool is a four-figure commitment before the first part exists, whereas printing has no setup cost. If your volumes are heading past about five hundred a run, we will say so rather than quote you for it.
Yes, with your permission, along with the exact settings used. A reorder then takes one email and the second batch is identical to the first.
We do not share files and we do not reuse them for anyone else, ever.
Yes, by arrangement and at no extra charge: Eureka Park, Orbital Park, Sevington and the estates off the ring road are all straightforward.
Small items go by post where that is faster than waiting for a delivery run.
There are more answers on the frequently asked questions page, the full pricing model is written out on the pricing page, and what we will and will not take on is set out on the capabilities page.
What we can print for a business in Ashford
Iterate in days
Rapid prototyping
Hold the revision before you commit to tooling, a supplier or a production run. First iteration on the plate within one working day of the file arriving.
From £30.00
10 to 200 units
Small-batch production
Repeat runs of ten to two hundred identical parts from one held file, with no tooling bill and a per-unit price that steps down at 5, 10, 25 and 50 units. Small-batch 3D printing for UK businesses, printed in Kent and posted anywhere.
From £30.00
Shop-floor tooling
Jigs, fixtures & tooling
Drill guides, assembly fixtures, alignment jigs, gauges and mounts, made to the dimensions of your bench rather than to a catalogue's.
From £30.00
Discontinued components
One-off & replacement parts
The component that failed on a machine the manufacturer stopped supporting. Measured with callipers, corrected where the original was weak, and reprinted.
From £30.00
£42 per hour
3D design & CAD
For businesses with an idea, a sketch or a sample but no model. £42 per hour, quoted against an estimate before work starts, and you own the files.
£42.00 per hour
Nearest areas to Ashford
Every area page covers a different local trade. The service area index lists all 14, with distances, postcodes and how parts reach each one.
Next step
Drop an STL or 3MF into the quote page and you get a price and a lead time straight away. The file is read in your own browser: it is not uploaded unless you send it with an order, which matters if the drawing is confidential.