10 to 200 units
Small-batch 3D printing production in Kent
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.
- Turnaround
- 5–10 working days depending on batch size and part footprint
- Price
- From £30
- Files
- Yours, and confidential
What this is
Small-batch production: what you are actually buying
This is the work the business is built around: a known file, a known material, a quantity you can sell through, and a repeat order in six months that has to match the first one.
There is no tooling invoice to amortise, so the decision is not a capital one. You order what you can move, and you change the design between runs without writing off a mould. Split deliveries are normal: we hold the file and print against a schedule rather than dropping two hundred units on you at once.
Parts are nested across the plate and run as one job, which is where the price break comes from: setup is paid once and shared across the batch rather than charged per piece. The calculator applies that automatically at 5, 10, 25 and 50 units.
Repeatability is a process, not a promise. The file, material batch, layer height, wall count, infill and orientation are all recorded against your job, so run two is printed from the same recipe as run one. If we have to change anything (a material discontinued, a filament reformulated) you hear about it before the parts ship.
Above roughly 500 units, injection moulding is cheaper per part even after tooling, and we will tell you that rather than quote for it. Printing is the right answer while the design might still change or the volume does not justify a mould.
Who it is for
Product businesses, small manufacturers and operations managers who need tens or hundreds of a part on a schedule they control.
What you get
- Per-unit price steps down at 5, 10, 25 and 50 units
- No tooling, no setup fee and no minimum run beyond the £30 order minimum
- Print recipe recorded per job so a repeat order matches the original run
- Scheduled or split deliveries so you are not holding all the stock
- Honest limit: over about 500 units, moulding beats printing and we will say so
What we need from you
- A settled file: batch work is not the place to still be iterating
- The quantity, and whether it is a one-off run or the first of several
- Any dimension that has to be held, so it goes on the check list
- Your delivery schedule, if you would rather not hold all the stock
How it runs
The process for this specific service
In order, with what each stage actually decides. Lead time runs from the point the design is agreed, not from the point the enquiry lands.
The file is proved once
First runBefore a batch runs we print a small number of pieces and check the critical dimensions with callipers. Finding a problem on part three is cheap; finding it on part ninety is not. On a first run for a new customer this is where most of the value sits.
Parts are nested across the plate
Sets the priceHow many of your part fit on one plate is worked out from its footprint, not its volume. That number decides how many plate changes the run needs, and plate changes are most of what a batch actually costs. It is why a wide flat part and a tall narrow one of identical volume can differ by a factor of ten on labour.
The run is scheduled, not dumped
5–10 working daysA hundred parts is several days of continuous machine time. We schedule it around the plate count and tell you the real completion date up front. Split deliveries are normal: we hold the file and print against your schedule rather than handing you all the stock at once.
Every piece is checked before it ships
Per partSupports off, brim trimmed, critical dimensions spot-checked. Anything that misses is reprinted rather than shipped with an apology, and on a long run we check the first pieces off each plate so a fault costs one part, not fifty.
The recipe is recorded for the reorder
RepeatabilityMaterial, colour, layer height, wall count, infill and orientation are all stored against your job. Run two is printed from the same recipe as run one, and a reorder is a one-line email quoting the job reference and a quantity.
Example jobs
Work of this kind we have taken on
- 120 cable clips for a cabling contractor, delivered in three weekly drops
- 60 branded badge holders in PLA Matte, printed for a conference date
- 40 alignment jigs for an assembly line, printed in PLA-CF
- 200 tent-peg toppers in PETG for a Romney Marsh campsite, repeated the following season
Materials
What we would normally print this in
PETG HF
£16.00/kgThe default for functional batch parts: tough, weather-tolerant and reasonably priced.
PLA Matte
£15.00/kgBatches a customer will see and hold. Finished appearance with no per-part sanding cost.
ASA
£19.00/kgRuns destined to live outdoors for years: signage fixings, marine and coastal mounts.
TPU 95A
£25.00/kgGaskets, bump stops and protective sleeves produced in quantity.
Not sure which applies to your part? Compare all nine materials or describe where the part will live and what it has to survive.
5–10 working days depending on batch size and part footprint
Express brings it down to 2–3 working days, for 35% more.
From £30
minimum order: per-unit cost falls sharply with quantity
£30 minimum, no VAT
Invoiced on completion, 14-day terms for account customers.
Questions
Small-batch production: what buyers ask
The published multiplier steps down at 5, 10, 25 and 50 units, reaching 25% off at fifty or more. That is the visible part.
The larger effect is structural: labour is charged per plate rather than per part, so the setup, loading and clearing time is shared across everything on the plate. On a small part that nests dozens to a plate, the per-unit price between one and two hundred can fall by a factor of twenty. On a large part that is one per plate, it falls much less: footprint is what decides it.
That is what the recorded recipe is for. Material, colour, layer height, wall count, infill, orientation and support settings are all stored against the job, so the second run is printed the same way as the first rather than merely similarly.
Expect about ±0.15 mm of variation between runs on the same settings. If anything has to change (a filament reformulated, a colour discontinued) you hear about it before the parts are made.
Comfortably up to about 200 units. Between 200 and 500 it is still possible and worth a conversation first. Above roughly 500 identical parts, injection moulding is cheaper per unit even after paying for the tool, and the moulded part is stronger and more consistent.
We will say so rather than quote for it. Printing is the right answer while the design might still change, while the volume is uncertain, or while the tooling cost cannot be justified, not as a permanent substitute for moulding.
It is reprinted at our cost and the delivery date holds wherever possible. A failure allowance is built into every quote openly rather than buried in the margin, precisely so that a failed print is our problem rather than a conversation about who pays.
If a fault is systematic rather than random. The geometry is marginal, or a wall is thinner than it should be: we stop the run and call you rather than producing ninety parts with the same flaw.
The rest of what we do
Other services
The four other things we do, and where each one is the better answer.
- 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 - 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 - 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 - £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 per hour
Next step
Send the file and get a price in a minute
Drop in an STL or 3MF and the estimate is worked out in your browser, from your geometry, at your quantity. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose to send it with an order.
Instant estimate. We confirm the price once we've sliced your file.