Capabilities
What we can make, what we can make it out of, and where the limits are. If your part falls outside all of this, send it anyway and we will let you know if we can make it.
Materials
Material gets picked per part, from what the part actually has to survive: load, heat, cleaning chemicals, sunlight, and whether it needs to be stiff or forgiving. Tell us what the part does and we will tell you what we would make it out of.
| If the part needs to be | Typical uses |
|---|---|
| Hard and rigid | Brackets, mounts, housings, standoffs. Takes a load and holds its shape. |
| Tough | Anything handled, dropped, or knocked in service. Gives before it cracks. |
| Heat or chemical resistant | Parts near warm equipment, or wiped down with harsh cleaners. |
| Flexible | Gaskets, bumpers, grommets, feet, and grips. |
| Clear | Windows, lenses, light pipes, and sight glasses. |
| Metal | For the parts where plastic is not the answer. Tell us what it has to do and we will tell you whether it is worth doing. |
If you already know the material you want, name it in your request and we will confirm it or suggest something better for the job.
Size
Most of what we make fits comfortably in a shoebox, which covers the large majority of equipment parts. Larger parts get split and joined, or made on a bigger machine. If yours is oversized, ask before assuming it is out of reach.
Getting from what you have to a file
Reverse engineering is most of the work, and you do not need the part in hand to start. Any of these is a starting point:
- The physical part, if you still have it. Broken, worn, or intact, and even in pieces. It ships back to you with the replacement.
- Photos. Straight on, flat background, with a ruler or calipers in frame for scale. Include the equipment label.
- Existing CAD. STEP, STL, or a drawing, if you already have one.
- On-site measurement. For Los Angeles area equipment that cannot be taken out of service or taken apart.
- Nothing but the gap. If the part is lost, or never existed in the first place, tell us what it has to do, what it mounts to, and what it has to clear. We design from there.
Fit
Every part is measured against the original before it ships. If a dimension has to land inside a specific window, say so in your request and it gets checked against that number rather than against the sample. Call out the ones that matter, usually a bore, a bolt pattern, or a mating face, and those get verified rather than left to chance.
What we do not do
- Anything patient-contact, implanted, or sterile-field. Not a capacity question. It is outside what this shop is set up to be accountable for.
- Certified or cleared parts. No quality system certification, no regulatory clearance, no biocompatibility or sterilization claims. If your procurement process requires those, we are not the supplier.
- Volume production. We work in small batches. Past that, injection molding gives you a better part for less money, and we will say so rather than take the order.
Send us the part number and a photo.
We will tell you what we would print it in, and what it would cost.
M3D Parts makes non-patient-contact, non-implant parts for medical, laboratory, and industrial equipment. We are not a medical device manufacturer. We hold no quality system certification and no regulatory clearance, and we make no biocompatibility or sterilization claims. Validating a part for your application is your call to make. That scope is deliberate. The documentation and validation regulated manufacturing requires is real work with real cost, and not carrying it is what keeps our price and our turnaround times down.