CT16 / CT17 · Kent
3D printing in Dover
Salt air and engine heat decide nearly every specification that comes out of Dover. The port's workshops and freight yards order in ASA and PETG-CF, because PLA does not survive a winter on the quayside.
Dover is a working port before it is anything else, and the businesses around it are port businesses: freight forwarders, hauliers and their workshops, customs agencies, ships' agents and chandlers, the marina trade in the Western Docks, and the engineering and handling firms that service all of them.
Two environmental facts govern almost everything they order. The first is heat: the inside of a cab, a container or a parked van in summer routinely exceeds the roughly 55 °C at which PLA begins to soften, so PLA is simply not an option for anything that travels. PETG copes to around 75 °C and is the working default. The second is salt. Ultraviolet and salt spray together break PLA down fast (chalking within months, brittleness within a year) and ASA is the answer, because it is what genuine outdoor automotive trim is made from.
Above the port there is a second economy at the castle, the Western Heights and Samphire Hoe, buying display mounts, handling replicas and retail pieces in short runs. Different work, same argument: at these quantities nothing else is cheaper.
Dover is a working port before it is anything else, and the businesses around it are port businesses: freight forwarders, hauliers and their workshops, customs agencies, ships' agents and chandlers, the marina trade in the Western Docks, and the engineering and handling firms that service all of them. Two environmental facts govern everything they order: cab and container heat, and salt. Above the port sits a separate visitor economy at the castle, the Western Heights and Samphire Hoe, which buys display mounts, handling replicas and retail pieces in short runs where printing is cheaper than any alternative.
Port town, castle town
- Marina trade, chandlers, boat owners
Marine and quayside fittings
Cleat pads, fairlead inserts, vent covers, cable clips and enclosure lids for anything within reach of the spray. ASA holds its colour and its impact strength through ultraviolet and salt; nothing cheaper does.
- Hauliers and fleet workshops
Vehicle and trailer fittings
Trim clips, cable saddles, mounting cradles and cover plates for vehicles that spend their working lives being loaded, unloaded and parked in the sun. PETG as a minimum, ASA where the part lives outside or under a bonnet.
- Port services and hospitality
Spares for handling and catering equipment
Handles, knobs, dispenser parts, shelf clips and the small mouldings that fail on commercial equipment and are then quoted at absurd prices by the manufacturer, if they are available at all.
- Engineering and product businesses
Prototypes, jigs and fit checks
Assembly fixtures, packaging mock-ups and form models for the firms around the port and the seafront, printed in days rather than ordered in weeks.
- Heritage and visitor sites
Display mounts and handling replicas
Cradles that hold an object safely in a case, replicas visitors can pick up, and mounts shaped around one specific artefact rather than bought off a shelf.
Heat and salt, in that order
PLA is out for anything that travels or anything within reach of the water. PETG is the default working material and covers most of the inside-a-vehicle and inside-a-building cases. ASA is the specification for outdoors, quayside and under-bonnet, and it runs enclosed, so mention it at quote stage and we will schedule the right machine.
For parts that must stay dimensionally honest under repeated clamping or constant load, PETG-CF is worth the higher price per kilogram. It is markedly stiffer and creeps far less than unfilled PETG.
Two limits stated plainly: typical FDM tolerance is about ±0.3 mm, and we do not take on safety-critical work of any kind. No brake, steering, suspension, lifting or restraint components, and nothing a person's safety depends on at sea.
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 Dover job needs, tell us where the part lives and what it has to survive.
Fifteen minutes down the A20
Delivery to the door in Dover or collection from Folkestone, whichever suits. There is no delivery charge and no distance loading in the price. Standard turnaround is three to five working days, express is 48 hours, and next-day is available subject to the queue.
For anything fleet- or fitting-related, print one before you print ten. A single sample costs a few pounds, proves the fit, and turns a batch into a repeat rather than a gamble. We keep the exact settings so the batch matches the sample.
Files sent to us are never shared and never reused for anyone else. The instant quote tool reads your geometry inside your own browser, which is why a price appears before you have sent us anything at all: for a business with confidential drawings that is the difference between getting a number and not.
Service area
Dover to the workshop, and back
Dover is 8 miles from the machines by road, east-north-east along the coast. 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.
- Cheriton, CT19, 2 miles by road from the workshop, west-north-west of Folkestone.
- Hawkinge, CT18, 3.5 miles by road from the workshop, north of Folkestone.
- Dover, CT16/CT17, 8 miles by road from the workshop, east-north-east of Folkestone.
- Deal, CT14, 16 miles by road from the workshop, north-east of Folkestone.
Questions from Dover
Three things businesses here ask first
Interior fittings, trim, mounts, covers and non-structural exterior parts, yes.
Nothing safety-critical, no brake, steering, suspension or restraint components. That is a hard line rather than a disclaimer.
Printed in ASA, several years without meaningful degradation.
Printed in PLA, one summer if you are lucky. If a part is going outside in Dover we quote it in ASA and say why on the quote.
Yes, to the door, at no extra charge.
Collection from Folkestone is equally straightforward. It is fifteen minutes along the A20.
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 Dover
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 Dover
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.