Midlands 3D opens new automated 3D print production facility

A company based in Stone has opened what it says is the most automated polymer 3D print production facility in the UK. Midlands 3D, located on Stone Business Park, marked the opening with an industry event at its new headquarters, which is around five times larger than its previous site.

The firm began in 2018 in founder Paul Moloney’s garage before moving to a small industrial unit. Its early work focused on models and custom one-off items. It has since grown into full-scale manufacturing and now supplies sectors including automotive, defence, motorsport and electronics.

The new site contains three HP Multi Jet Fusion machines with a combined value of £1.5 million, along with 55 smaller printers. These are supported by automated systems designed to allow a new build to begin within minutes. The setup enables continuous running and is intended to improve efficiency, reduce operating costs and shorten lead times for larger orders.

Paul said: “We’ve gone from producing one or two items to orders of thousands at a time. The technology lets us switch from printing orthotics for shoes to motorbike parts without a break.

“Customers like the flexibility – they don’t have to hold stock or order thousands of items from abroad to get a cheap price. We can supply five or 5,000, whatever they need.

“Someone who has come up with something and just needs 10 or 20 items is equally exciting to us as working with global household names.”

Midlands 3D remains a family-run business, with Paul, his wife and their two adult children working as part of a 13-strong team that includes students from the JCB Academy and Leicester University. The firm has invested around £1 million per year for the past four years to scale its capability.

The new facility also includes DyeMansion’s Powerfuse vapour smoothing system for automated finishing, which produces smoother, stronger, scratch-resistant and waterproof parts, as well as deep dye colouring and surface texturing.

Paul said: “It’s really just being in the right place at the right time, and being in the Midlands is a terrific location to support UK manufacturing. Everything we do is confidential – we work with household names and global companies, producing parts that haven’t even reached shelves yet.

“If companies of any size think they could use this technology for their manufacturing, please get in touch to explore the potential and have a look around our site.”

Image source: Midlands 3D