How You Can Become Authorized to Use a 3D Printer

Authorization is a print-readiness gate, not a certificate. The gate opens when three things line up: a watertight mesh the slicer accepts, a material that matches the service temperature and load, and a build envelope that fits the part without splitting it.

In practice you clear the gate by submitting the model for review. Send the STL or STEP with the load case and we return marked-up notes on thin walls, support placement and holes below the drill minimum. Once the geometry is corrected, every later run of that part is a known build.

STL is the usual print format, and STEP is better when the part may end up machined instead, because STEP keeps true arcs and hole diameters. Keep units in millimeters and avoid scaling on export.

If your CAD only writes OBJ or a mesh format, send it anyway. We can repair open edges and flipped normals during the DFM pass, though a repaired mesh sometimes shifts a surface by a few hundredths of a millimeter.

For a 0.6 mm nozzle, keep walls at 0.8 mm or thicker. A 0.4 mm wall on that nozzle either prints porous or disappears from the tool path. Small features such as ribs and snap hooks should be sized to the nozzle, not to the CAD grid.

If the wall must stay below 0.8 mm, we either switch to a smaller nozzle, which raises build time, or move the part to CNC machining where a 0.5 mm wall in aluminium 6061 can be cut with light passes.

Printing loses when a feature carries a precision fit or a repeated load. A bearing bore, a press-fit pin, a thread under clamp load or a sealing face all need metal-grade tolerance, and printed polymer will not hold ±0.005 mm across temperature cycles.

The same applies above roughly 150 °C service, where only PEEK-class material survives and the cost climbs. In those cases we quote the part in aluminium, stainless or steel and machine it instead. We will tell you which route is cheaper before you commit.

Yes, and that is the common path. The printed piece proves the form and the fit. The machining quote uses the same CAD model, so the metal part keeps the interface dimensions the prototype validated.

We hold ±0.005 mm on machined features and inspect 100% before shipment, with reports on request. A single prototype and a 10,000-part run use the same inspection route. There is no minimum order quantity.

Quotation and free DFM analysis come back within 12 hours of upload. Production can start within 24 hours of release, and parts ship in 3–5 days.

That timing assumes the file clears review on the first pass. If the DFM notes need a CAD change on your side, the clock restarts when the corrected model lands. Our historical late-delivery probability stays below 2%.

Yes. Uploads are kept secure and confidential, and we sign a non-disclosure agreement on request before any file reaches the shop floor.

If your model carries a customer drawing number or a controlled interface, tell us in the message. We keep the document set separate and release it only to the engineers quoting the job.

Yes. There is no minimum order quantity, from one prototype to 10,000+ part runs. A single printed mockup or one machined sample is a normal order.

For batch production we provide a free sample for check before mass production. That sample runs on the same machines and inspection route as the full order, so the check is meaningful.