Custom Parts UK — Prototype to Production

Surface Scan's 3D scanning starts from £70 for small, simple parts; 3D printing has a £10 minimum order for FDM (£30 for SLA and SLS). These are starting points only. What drives the cost: part complexity (geometry, size, surface finish), volume (a single prototype vs a batch of 500), material choice (PLA is cheaper than nylon PA12 or carbon-fibre composites), turnaround (next-working-day delivery adds a surcharge), and whether mobile scanning is needed (travel is quoted by postcode). Send a file or a photo for a specific quote. Most quotes land within one working day.

Surface Scan turns most 3D scans around in about a week from the day the part arrives or the site visit completes. 3D print orders placed with a completed file before noon ship next working day in standard FDM materials. SLS and large-format jobs run longer (two to five working days in print, plus cure and shipping). Product design and development projects run from a few weeks for a simple brief to several months for full concept-to-production work. Every quote includes an expected delivery date.

No. Surface Scan works from any starting point: a physical part, a rough sketch on paper, a verbal brief over the phone, a set of photographs, a dimensioned drawing, or a ready-to-print CAD file. If you don't have a file, the team either scans the object to create one, or designs from scratch with Toby (our Product Design Engineer) leading the work. Most clients arrive with a broken part or a concept sketch and no engineering drawing in sight. That's how most projects start here.

Yes. Surface Scan offers UK-wide mobile 3D scanning with the Scanology NimbleTrack (0.020mm accuracy for parts and vehicles) and the FARO Focus (up to 70m range for buildings and large infrastructure). Mobile jobs need around 3 metres of clearance around the object, mains power, and ideally a space under cover. Travel is quoted by postcode and included in the written quote. Typical mobile jobs: classic cars, large installed machinery, heritage interiors, and parts that are too fragile or too bolted-in to travel.

Surface Scan draws a clean line between the two. 3D scanning captures the surface of a physical object as a digital mesh: a triangulated shell describing the geometry as-is, including wear and casting imperfections. Reverse engineering takes that mesh and rebuilds it as parametric CAD: an editable, dimensioned model with clean features (holes, fillets, threads, drafts) that an engineer can modify in SolidWorks or most CAD packages. A scan is a record. Parametric CAD is a working drawing. Many clients need both.

Both. Surface Scan runs a 50+ machine print farm at the Ramsgate facility, handling batch sizes from a single unit through to 10,000+ on the same files. Volume discounts start at 5% for 2-9 parts and scale to 35% at 1,000+ units. Files are held on record for call-off orders, so repeat runs don't need re-uploading or re-quoting. Consistent quality across runs comes from the multi-machine fleet: if one printer drops out, another picks up the job. Common use cases: custom components in a wider assembly, branded items, pilot production before injection moulding, and seasonal peaks.

Surface Scan's facility is at Unit 4 Little Cliffsend Farm, Ramsgate, Kent, CT12 5HP. Mobile 3D scanning covers anywhere in the UK, with travel quoted by postcode. 3D prints ship UK-wide, and orders placed with a finished file before noon go out for next working day delivery as standard. International shipping is available for larger orders on request. The workshop is a real building you can walk into. Visits are welcome by appointment, and most enquiries get a direct reply from the people who'll actually be doing the work.