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3D scanning
Capturing what’s actually there — the part as it was made, worn, modified or repaired. Colour texture too, if the shape isn’t the whole story.
3D scanning service · UK
We can scan your parts anywhere
Send the part to our office in Cheshire, or we bring the kit to your factory floor. Either way you get measured, usable data back — not a pretty picture. Five millimetre insert or thirty metre structure, same team.
From 0.05mm
typical accuracy, small parts
On site
anywhere in the UK
3–5 days
typical turnaround on data
Two ways to get it scanned
Send the part to us
Post it, courier it or drop it off at Whitchurch. We scan it in the studio where the lighting and the fixturing are already right, then send the data back and the part with it.
Best for anything you can lift into a box
Cheapest option, no travel on the invoice
Data back in 3–5 working days, or next day if it’s urgent
We come to you, on site
For anything bolted down, too big to move, or still in production. We work around your shift, bring our own kit and leave with the data. Site inductions and RAMS are no problem.
Plant, tooling, fixtures, vehicles, buildings
Nothing comes off the line for longer than it has to
Day rate, quoted up front with travel included
What we use it for
Scanning is the easy bit. What matters is what happens to the data afterwards, and that depends on what you’re trying to do.
Reverse engineering
Turning that data into CAD you can work with — parametric solids with proper features, so your designer can change a wall thickness instead of pushing triangles around.
Inspection
Measuring the part against the drawing or the original CAD, and telling you where it’s out. Colour deviation maps, GD&T, first article reports your customer will accept.
How big is it? That decides the kit
We own the scanners rather than hiring them in, so we pick the right one for the job instead of making one do everything.
Small volume
Up to 100mm
Inserts, connectors, jewellery, dental, coins, turbine blade tips.
Medium
100mm – 1m
Castings, manifolds, seats, helmets, body panels, hand tools.
Large
1m – 5m
Vehicles, press tools, fixtures, boat hulls, machine frames.
Extra large
5m and up
Production cells, buildings, aircraft sections, heritage sites.
Accuracy figures are typical, not guaranteed on every part — surface finish, colour and access all move the number. Tell us the tolerance you need and we’ll say honestly whether we can hit it.
What lands in your inbox
Four levels of deliverable. The further down you go, the more engineering time goes in — so only pay for what the job actually needs.
Level 01
Point cloud
The raw measured points, aligned and cleaned. Nothing interpreted, nothing smoothed away.
Level 02
Polygonal mesh
A watertight triangle model, holes filled and noise removed. What you need if it's going to be printed.
Level 03
Rapid surface model
Auto-surfaced NURBS that follows the scan closely. Opens in CAD, but the shape is inherited rather than designed.
Most asked forLevel 04
Parametric solid model
Proper CAD: sketches, features, a history tree. Nominal geometry where the part was meant to be nominal, so you can edit it.
How a job runs
01
You tell us the problem
A photo and a sentence is usually enough. What the part is, what you need to do with it, what tolerance matters.
02
We quote, fixed price
Scanning, engineering time and the deliverable level, itemised. Usually back the same working day.
03
We scan it
Here or at yours. Shiny or dark surfaces get a coat of self-vanishing spray first — it's gone within hours.
04
You get the data, and a call
Files over WeTransfer or your own system, then five minutes on the phone to walk through what we found.
Questions we get asked
If yours isn’t here, ring 0330 229 0175 and ask for the scanning team. No sales script.
Ask us insteadCan you scan shiny or black parts?
Yes. We use self-vanishing dulling spray — AESUB or ATTBLIME — which sublimes off in a few hours and leaves no residue. On parts that can’t be coated at all, we switch to the blue-laser measuring arm instead.
Do I need CAD, or is a mesh enough?
If you’re printing a copy, a mesh is enough and much cheaper. If somebody needs to change the design, machine from it or make tooling, you want the parametric solid model. We’ll tell you which before you commit.
How much does a scan cost?
Small single parts sent to us start in the low hundreds. On-site work is a day rate. Reverse engineering is priced on the engineering hours, which depends far more on how complex the part is than how big it is.
Is my data confidential?
Yes, and we’ll sign your NDA or ours before you send anything. We don’t publish work or use it as a sample without written permission.
Can you print the part as well?
That’s usually the point. Scan, fix, print — all in the same building, so nobody’s arguing about whose file broke. See the materials we print in.
Tell us what needs scanning
A photo, a rough size and what you need out of it. We’ll come back with a fixed price and a date — and if scanning isn’t the right answer, we’ll say so.
CALL
0330 229 0175EMAIL
sales@europac3d.comPOST IT TO
The Old Piggeries, Combermere,Whitchurch SY13 4AL