3D Printing FAQ

Upload your CAD to the instant quote tool, choose the process, grade and quantity, and you get a price there and then — on anything up to 100,000 parts. Non-standard work such as bonded assemblies beyond the build envelope, machining to a drawing or a specific inspection regime is quoted by an engineer instead. See pricing & lead times for how the number is calculated.

No. We will print one part, and we will print a hundred thousand. Bear in mind that unit cost falls as quantity rises, because on the powder processes you are effectively buying a share of a build — so a single prototype carries more of that build cost than the same part does in a batch of five hundred.

Contact us if you are working to a longer procurement cycle and we will confirm what we can hold and for how long. Material costs move, and we would rather tell you that than let a stale figure into a budget.

Yes. Post us the part and we will 3D scan it on site and reverse-engineer a printable model — that is how a lot of obsolete and heritage components get remade. Get in touch before sending anything so we can advise on what we need.

Both, though the bulk of what we do is industrial and production work. The same instant quote, the same processes and the same quality system apply whether you are a manufacturer running a vehicle programme or one person with a single part.

Broadly: MJF for repeatable end-use nylon parts at volume, SLS for production nylon including filled grades and where you need express turnaround, FDM for large parts up to 500 × 500 × 900 mm and fibre-reinforced structures, and SLA for the finest surface and specialty resins. Tell us what the part has to do and we will pick — the design review is free.

500 × 500 × 900 mm in one piece on large-format FDM, which is the biggest single-piece envelope we run. Above that we split the part, print it in sections and bond and finish it in-house — we have taken parts well beyond that size this way, including a full show-car body.

No. We are a polymer bureau, and everything we produce is plastic. Fibre-reinforced nylon replaces metal in a great many brackets, housings and ducts, but where the safety case genuinely demands metal we will say so rather than sell you a polymer part.

Not in full colour. Parts come out in the natural colour of the grade, and the main colour option is black dyeing on SLS and MJF nylon, which is included at no cost. For other colours the route is painting, which we do in-house to A-class standard.

Both fuse nylon powder without supports, and for many parts either would work. MJF tends to give a finer surface and very consistent repeatability at volume; SLS offers a wider range of filled grades, a large-format option at 490 × 490 × 740 mm in PA12-CF, and express turnaround — which MJF does not have. If your deadline is tight, that difference usually decides it.

Twenty-four production grades across the four processes — ten FDM filaments, five SLS powders, three MJF powders and six SLA resins. Every one has a downloadable datasheet with ISO or ASTM methods cited and XY and Z values published separately. Browse them on material datasheets.

For a great many applications, yes — we have over 2.5 million parts in service across 25+ vehicle programmes, including load-bearing brackets, ducting and housings. What matters is choosing the right grade and orienting the part against the load. Treat published datasheet values as a benchmark from test specimens rather than design allowables, and for anything safety-related, test the actual part.

ASA is the UV-stable choice on FDM and the usual answer for anything that lives outside. PA11 also performs well and is bio-based. Tell us the exposure — UV, temperature range, moisture, chemicals — and we will recommend against it rather than guess.

Yes to both. On SLA we run a flame-retardant resin rated UL 94 V-0 at 3 mm, and an ESD-safe static-dissipative resin at 10^5 to 10^8 ohm/sq surface resistivity. On FDM there is PC-FR, a flame-retardant PC/ABS blend. Note that flame ratings depend on wall thickness — always design to the thickness you need the rating at.

Yes. We print in bio-based PA11, derived from castor plants rather than petrochemicals, and use recycled polymer pellets where the application allows. Additive is inherently leaner than tooling-based manufacture too: no tooling to write off, no minimum run to overproduce against, and material used only where the part needs it.

A STEP file (.step or .stp), every time, if you have one. It holds exact geometry and units, so we can mesh at the resolution the process needs rather than printing whatever your STL export happened to use. We accept STL, 3MF, OBJ and IGES as well. Full explanation on file preparation.

Yes, free with every quote. An engineer reviews wall thickness, drain holes, clearances, orientation and grade suitability against your geometry and tells you what we would change. We would rather flag a problem at quote than deliver a part that fails.

We optimise parts for additive manufacture as standard, and we can reverse-engineer from a physical component. For full design work from a brief, talk to us about what you need — tell us the application and we will be straight about whether it is something we should take on.

They vary by process and by grade, so a single figure across twenty-four materials would be misleading. For SLS the full set is published on our SLS design guide — 0.6 mm vertical walls, 0.8 mm pins, 1.0 mm holes, 3.5 mm drain holes and the rest. Guides for the other processes are in preparation; ask us in the meantime.

Yes. We are Cyber Essentials certified across the whole organisation, files stay inside our own systems, and nothing is brokered out to a third party because everything happens in our own facility. Much of our automotive work runs under confidentiality agreements we still honour years later. Ask and we will put an NDA in place before you send anything.

Standard tolerance is ±0.3 mm for parts up to 100 mm, then ±0.3 mm for the first 100 mm plus a further ±0.1% for every 100 mm after that. Tighter fits are achieved by printing near-net and machining the critical features. The full working, including a table by dimension, is on tolerances & accuracy.

ISO 9001:2015 under BSI certificate FS 830495, Cyber Essentials across the whole organisation, and PPAP level 1 to 4 approval for automotive production part approval. We have also won two King's Awards for Enterprise — Innovation in 2024 and International Trade in 2026. Certificate numbers and dates are published on quality & certifications.

No. We produce parts used in aerospace, UAV and prosthetics applications, but we do not hold the aerospace or medical device quality standards. If your programme requires either accreditation from the supplier itself, we will tell you at enquiry rather than at audit.

Tell us what your process needs at quote and we will confirm what we can provide before you commit. Where you have marked critical dimensions on a drawing, those are the features we inspect and report against rather than a general sample.

Powder-bed parts are depowdered and shot blasted as standard, at no extra cost, which gives a clean and even matte surface. Black dyeing on SLS and MJF nylon is also included at no cost — so a uniform black part costs the same as an unfinished one. Everything available is on finishing.

Shot blasting and black dyeing are free. Beyond that, every option is a percentage of the part cost: threaded inserts 5% for up to 10 per part, vibro polishing from 10%, vapour smoothing 25%, and A-class painting 25 to 50% depending on part size and finish. Full table on pricing & lead times.

Yes, to varying degrees. Vibro polishing improves consistency across a batch, vapour smoothing reflows the surface to a sealed semi-gloss, and A-class painting delivers a show surface to automotive standard. For a part that needs to be smooth or clear straight off the machine, SLA is the process rather than a finishing step.

Yes, in-house. Heat-set threaded inserts give durable metal threads rather than tapping into polymer, and we fit bonded fixings too. Design the boss and we will do the rest — see threaded inserts & bonded fixings.

It depends which one. Black dyeing adds no measurable thickness, which is why it suits parts that still have to fit something. Vapour smoothing reflows the surface. Painting adds a physical layer to every coated face. Tell us the finish and the critical dimensions together at quote so we can account for it.

Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire — RYSE 3D Ltd, Unit 1, Tilemans Lane, CV36 4HP. Everything is printed, finished and inspected at that one 8,000 sq ft site on over 100 machines. Nothing is offshored and nothing is subcontracted.

Yes. Our primary shipping is UK-wide with fast tracked delivery, and we export internationally too — that is what our 2026 King's Award for International Trade recognised, with growth into markets including the US, Denmark and Latvia. Tell us the destination and we will confirm options and lead time.

Yes, by appointment. Call or email ahead and we will show you round the shop floor — useful if you want to see a process in person before committing to a programme. We are not set up for drop-in visits, so please book before you travel.

Yes, free. A datasheet gets you to a shortlist; a part in your hand gets you to a decision, because surface finish and stiffness are difficult to judge from numbers. Request a sample pack and we will send it out.

Yes. If you order regularly we will set up an account with a dedicated account manager and part history held against it, so repeat batches do not need re-quoting or re-specifying from scratch. Call or email to open one.