Increased demand for low volume production drives expansion for UK’s leading SLS 3D
printing service provider
26 th February 2020; London, UK: 3DPRINTUK, a leading service provider of the polymer selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing process for manufacturing applications, is delighted to announce that the company has completed the transition to its new purpose-designed facility. Based within the Leyton Industrial Village in North London, 3DPRINTUK made the move at the end of 2019 to accommodate its current and future expansion plans.
The new facility boasts almost 10,000 square feet of space, providing an increase of 8,000 square feet compared with the company’s previous location. The new building has been custom designed to house 3DPRINTUK’s growing fleet of EOS polymer SLS machines and to fully accommodate all the necessary ancillary and post-processing capabilities that the company offers clients as part of its service. This includes two rooms fully dedicated to post processing operations for cleaning and dyeing, as well as a dedicated break down room that is fully sealed from external environmental effects and to avoid powder contamination.
Since it first launched its service in 2011 with a single EOS machine, 3DPRINTUK has gone from strength to strength by sticking to its core strengths and developing unprecedented expertise with the SLS process. Today the company offers true manufacturing capability for a range of key applications across an array of industrial sectors, providing clients with real cost and time efficiencies compared with more traditional manufacturing methods for low volume batch production. As one of its core competencies, 3DPRINTUK is able to offer a reliable and flexible manufacturing service that bridges the huge gap that exists between prototyping and injection moulding in a highly efficient way, overcoming the limitations that alternative processes such as CNC machining and vacuum casting present. To date, the company has produced in excess of 1 million 3D printed parts.
3DPRINTUK’s printing capacity has increased year on year, and the machine room at the new facility currently houses seven EOS Formiga P1 Series systems and one EOS P3 Series machine, all of which are capable of running 24/7. The company plans to further increase the size of its fleet in 2020 to meet increasing customer demand.
Post processing services are also offered for all orders, including polishing (if required) and dedicated dyeing capabilities. 3DPRINTUK was the first company in the UK to install a DM60 system from Dye Mansion into its process chain, enabling any 3D printed parts to be post processed to add solid colour (carbon black), which does not affect the tolerances of the part, but adds a more durable finish than painting.
Whilst being a proactive advocate of 3D printing technology, one of the core principles of 3DPRINTUK’s founder and Managing Director, Nick Allen, is a pragmatic and honest approach. “At 3DPRINTUK we are able to work with our customers — and potential new customers — to illustrate when and why the SLS process will work for them. But we are not afraid to tell them when it won’t, either. This is really important to us, and something the industry at large is not very good at confronting. I think this approach has contributed to our growth, which has been organic year on year, and the new premises are testament to that. We are still settling in, but the printers have been working non-stop since we got here and we are looking to further expand our capacity in the near future.”
3DPRINTUK offers a useful cost comparison tool for anyone considering SLS 3D printing as an alternative to injection moulding, including comparable unit costs. A sample pack can also be requested from the company.