Industry
3D printing for product designers & D2C brands.
From first sketch to consumer-holding-it in weeks, not months. Appearance models, functional prototypes and pilot batches — without the wait for injection tooling or the risk of committing before market validation.
1 to 500+ units
- 1NDA + upload CAD or sketch
- 2Process recommendation + quote in <24h
- 3Print, finish, dye, paint
- 4QC + ship or drop-ship worldwide
Quick answer
To get product design prototypes 3D-printed, upload CAD (STL/STEP) or even a sketch to 3DadditHub — we sign an NDA first. Our engineers recommend the right process for your stage (SLA for looks-like, PA12 MJF for works-like, dyed PA12 for pilot batches) and quote in under 24 hours. Standard prototypes ship in 24-72 hours; finished appearance models in 4-7 days; pilot batches of 50-500 units in 5-15 days.
What we manufacture
Parts we print every week for product design teams
Concrete examples of what product designers, D2C founders and industrial design studios send us.
- Appearance models for design reviews, photography and investor decks (SLA polished, painted)
- Functional prototypes to test snap-fits, hinges, buttons and mechanisms (PA12, PC, ABS)
- First pilot batches of 50-500 units before injection tooling is committed
- Ergonomic mock-ups for handles, grips, wearables and consumer product bodies
- Feasibility rigs to test whether a mechanism, geometry or assembly is buildable at all
- Master patterns for silicone moulding and low-volume urethane vacuum casting
- Packaging inserts, custom trays and protective components for D2C shipping
- Colour-matched pilot units in Pantone or RAL for marketing photography before launch
- Multi-part assemblies (housings, buttons, lenses, gaskets) delivered as a full working sample
How teams use us
From sketch to launch-ready in four stages
NDA + CAD
Send NDA + CAD (or sketch / reference). Tell us where you are: concept, review, functional test, or pilot. That single input shapes everything downstream.
Process recommendation
An engineer recommends the smallest step that unblocks you — SLA for looks-like, MJF for works-like, or a hybrid. Firm quote in under 24 hours.
Iterate
Print, review, revise. 24-72 hours per iteration cycle. We keep your project open with versioned files and only re-quote what changed.
Scale or hand off
Pilot batch of 50-500 units for pre-launch, or a finished master file ready to hand to your injection moulder. Direct-to-warehouse or direct-to-customer fulfilment on request.
Materials & processes
What we would suggest at each stage
Process choice is driven by the question you are asking of the prototype.
- Early concept (throwaway): FDM PLA or PETG. Cheapest, fastest. €25-80 per part — see /technologies/fdm
- Looks-like / appearance model: SLA standard or clear resin, polished and painted — /technologies/sla
- Ergonomic / handling model: dyed PA12 MJF or SLA tough resin. Feels representative — /technologies/mjf
- Works-like / functional test: PA12 SLS or MJF for snap-fits and hinges — /technologies/sls
- Coloured mock-ups for marketing: dyed PA12 (black, dark grey, red, blue) or painted SLA to Pantone
- Pilot batch 50-500 units: PA12 MJF, vapour-smoothed for consumer-grade finish
- Elastomeric parts (grips, buttons, gaskets): TPU 95A or SLA elastomer resin
- Master patterns for urethane vacuum casting: SLA smoothed, ready for silicone mould
Typical case
D2C consumer product, 5 iterations to Kickstarter launch
A two-person D2C startup was preparing a handheld consumer device (140 x 60 x 22 mm, PA housing + TPU grip + acrylic lens). They had SolidWorks files but no budget for €22k of injection tooling before validating demand on Kickstarter.
Over 7 weeks we ran 5 iteration cycles: v1 in FDM PETG to check proportions (€55, 48h), v2 in MJF PA12 to test snap-fits and grip fit (€190, 72h), v3 with dyed PA12 in brand green + polished acrylic lens (€340, 4 days), v4 painted to Pantone with vapour smoothing for photography (€480, 5 days), v5 pilot batch of 80 units for Kickstarter reward fulfilment (€14 per unit, 9 days). Total pre-launch cost: €2,200 in prototypes vs. €22k in tooling that would have been wrong on iteration 2.
Common pain points solved
Before us vs. with us
Before
- • Iteration takes weeks — external vendor requotes every round.
- • Cost of injection tooling can't be justified pre-launch.
- • Office 3D printer output looks like an office 3D print.
- • "Looks-like" and "works-like" get conflated into one bad prototype.
- • No path from prototype to pilot batch without a full production setup.
- • MOQs of 500+ block the "test the market with 80 units" move.
With 3DadditHub
- • 24-72h per iteration. Versioned files, no re-quote friction.
- • Pilot batches of 50-500 units at €4-25 per unit.
- • Consumer-grade finish: dyed, painted, polished, vapour-smoothed.
- • Process matched to the question — looks-like vs. works-like called out.
- • Direct path from prototype to Kickstarter / D2C fulfilment.
- • MOQ = 1 unit. Scale up only when the design is proven.
What we don't do
Honest scope
We are a manufacturing partner, not a design agency. We do not do UX research, industrial design ideation, branding, or product strategy. If you need a designer, we can point you to studios we work with regularly — but the value we bring is turning a good design into a physical part faster and cheaper than the alternatives.
We also do not run injection tooling in-house. When your design is locked and you need 5,000+ units of a plastic part, we can quote short-run bridge production in MJF and hand off the CAD to a tooling partner. Full-scale injection production sits with them.
FAQ
What product designers and D2C founders ask us
Yes, always for pre-launch consumer products. Send your NDA with the RFQ and we counter-sign before opening any file. If you do not have one, we send our mutual NDA template — it typically takes under an hour to close. Files stay on our internal servers, are not shared with third parties, and are deleted on request after the project closes. For early conversations (feasibility, process selection) we can talk under NDA before you send CAD.
Send CAD (or a sketch). NDA + quote back in under 24 hours.
Tell us where you are — concept, design review, functional test, or pilot batch — and we recommend the smallest step that unblocks you, with a firm price and lead time.