Greater Manchester’s 3D Printing Bureau, Based in Wigan
Wigan is one of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, so for businesses elsewhere in the county we are a local 3D printing bureau in the most literal sense. Our FDM workshop prints prototypes and production parts for customers from Bolton, Bury and Rochdale to Stockport, Trafford, Oldham and Salford, as well as Manchester itself.
How working with us works
Five steps take a job from your screen to your desk:
Send your file
Upload an STL, STEP or 3MF file through the quote form, with the quantity, material and colours you want.
Get a quote
We check the design will print well and send a price, including delivery. Nothing is printed until you agree.
We print it
Your parts are printed in FDM in our Wigan workshop, from the files you approved.
Post-processing
Supports are removed and each part is cleaned up and checked before it is packed.
Delivery
Finished parts go out by courier to your address.
Why a bureau in the same county helps
Proximity matters most when a design is still changing. A prototype that comes back quickly can be tested, marked up and revised while the problem is fresh, and the next iteration is not held up by a parcel crossing the country. Within Greater Manchester, parts go out by courier with the delivery cost set out in your quote.
What gets printed across the boroughs
Greater Manchester’s economy covers almost everything — engineering and manufacturing in the boroughs, product design and digital studios in the centre, research at the universities, and logistics along the motorways. The common thread in the work a print bureau sees is parts needed in tens or hundreds rather than tens of thousands: enclosures, mounts, brackets, fixtures, display pieces and design models.
Capabilities at a glance
The essentials, for anyone in Greater Manchester weighing up a print job:
- Process
- FDM (fused deposition modelling)
- Materials
- PLA — Display pieces, models and indoor parts where crisp detail and colour matter more than heat resistance.
- PETG — The general-purpose workhorse — tougher than PLA, handles moisture and moderate heat, good for functional parts.
- ASA — Outdoor and vehicle parts. UV-stable and weather-resistant, so it will not go brittle or fade in sunlight.
- TPU — Flexible parts — gaskets, bumpers, grips, protective sleeves and anything that needs to bend or absorb impact.
- Max build size
- 420 × 420 × 500 mm — large parts in a single piece
- Colours
- Up to 8 colours in a single part
- File formats
- STL, STEP and 3MF
- Job types
- One-off prototypes and repeat production runs
- Turnaround
- 3–5 working days for standard jobs. Lead times for bulk jobs are quoted on request.
Prototype first, then batch production
The sensible route for most new parts is one or two prototypes, a round of changes, then a production run. We handle both ends of that from the same files, so nothing is lost in translation between the sample you approved and the batch that follows.
Greater Manchester print bureau FAQs
Are you actually based in Greater Manchester?
Yes. Our workshop is in Wigan, one of Greater Manchester’s ten boroughs. We are a workshop rather than a shop, so enquiries come through the quote form or by email rather than over a counter.
Which Greater Manchester towns do you serve?
All ten boroughs — Wigan, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham, Tameside, Stockport, Trafford, Salford and Manchester — with finished parts sent by courier and delivery included in the quote.
What turnaround should I expect?
3–5 working days for a standard job. For bulk orders the lead time depends on the quantity and the size of each part, so it is quoted on request.
How many colours can one part have?
Up to 8. Multi-colour printing lets logos, labels and colour-coding be built into the part itself instead of being painted or stuck on afterwards.
Get a quote from a Greater Manchester print bureau
Upload your file or describe the part. We will reply with a price and any design notes before anything goes on a printer.
Request a quote