Are you a designer looking for a 3D bureau to print a prototype product? Or are you a manufacturing engineer looking for some support for low volume production runs? Look no further. Laser Lines has one of the UK’s largest FDM 3D printing capabilities at its headquarters in Banbury and through its network.

Here are the top five reasons why you should speak to Laser Lines about your 3D printing requirements.

1. Laser Lines has 18 3D printing systems at its base in Banbury: 15 Fortus FDM systems and three Polyjet systems. With these machines, customers can print with all Stratasys materials, including 12 different types of thermoplastics. It also has access to 140 other systems through the Stratasys network so can print objects from 405 x 355 x 405mm on the smallest machine and 900 x 600 x 900mm on the largest.

2. Turnaround from CAD files to finished product is usually five working days. Most of the work produced in the bureau comes from the UK currently although there are International customers too. One of our largest clients is based in the Philippines. You can submit CAD data or STL files from anywhere – all you need to do is click the get a quote button.

3. The bureau can offer one-off prototypes and also low volume production runs of up to 500 or 1000 units. Dave Price, manager of the 3D printing bureau unit, says: “Quite often, for low volume runs, it’s more cost effective for us to print items than to use injection moulding. Where this is the case, we often print one part and send it back to the client for approval before we do the whole print run. The FDM systems are great for printing jig and fixture parts in particular. We do a significant amount of work for companies in the aerospace, defence and automotive industries.”

4. Laser Lines has extensive experience in 3D printing and has a team of four application specialists manning the bureau. Dave says: “Part of the service we offer is consultancy as we have so much experience in this area – Laser Lines has been working with 3D printing for 20 years! Much of the work we do is printing items that have been reverse engineered, so we have helped enthusiasts print parts for their vintage cars and helped many companies with replacement parts for legacy products that are no longer in production. Many customers are still unsure about what they can – and can’t – print and also on the types of materials available. With the range of systems that we have access too, we can advise on the best materials and technology for each project, whether they are printed in engineering grade thermoplastics, fine detail, rigid, clear or in colour.”

5. The strangest thing the bureau has been asked to produce is a model of a deceased dog (from a 3D scan) and the most fun thing was a series of video game characters that were 300 mm high. Dave says: “I love the bureau work as it is so varied. We can print work from all sorts of CAD files including STL, IGIS, STEP and SLDPRT. We have software that checks that the file quality is good enough and we can often do a quick fix for minor problems. We’re also getting more items that have been taken from Thingyverse CAD files.”

If you have any 3D printing questions call Dave and his team on 01295 672500. To get a quote, all you have to do is submit the artwork files by filling in the form on this page and one of the team will get back to you within 24 hours.