Rapid Prototyping
Services UK
High-quality, cost-effective prototype manufacturing that gets your concept in-hand quickly. All done within our UK facilities.
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High-quality, cost-effective prototype manufacturing that gets your concept in-hand quickly. All done within our UK facilities.
The Benefits
Rapid prototyping is used to produce premium quality, low-cost prototypes from CAD data sources quickly and efficiently. This highly effective process enables you to:
A part you can hold shows up fit, form and ergonomics that a model on screen can hide, so you can assess the product design properly before it is fixed.
Proving the design early, then moving the same part straight into production, takes time out of the route from a concept to a product you can sell.
Once the design is signed off, the same data drives rapid tooling in our own tool room, so a proven prototype can be moulded into the finished product.
Because prototypes are quick and low-cost to produce, you can make changes, iterate across versions and develop the product further before committing to steel.
Why Gemini
Where many rapid prototyping companies stop at the prototype, we do not. Because tooling, moulding and machining sit in the same building, the work that proves your design also feeds straight into production. There is no handover to a separate supplier, and no redrawing to suit a new process.
That continuity is why customers use our rapid prototyping service for parts they intend to make, not just to look at. When the design is signed off, we can move it into tooling and injection moulding without changing hands.
We support low to medium volume runs as well as higher volumes, so a proven prototype can scale into a production batch on the same site.
26+
Years in business
4.7★
Rated on Google
ISO 9001
Certified quality
100%
Made in the UK
Prototyping Methods
Case Studies
Sample packaging parts of good quality, at an affordable price and a quick turnaround, across several prototyping technologies.
Read Case Study
Turning an early-stage product team’s objectives into parts — becoming, in their words, an extension of the team.
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A pair of HDPE “Bowls Royce” wheelchair tyres — cut from sheet, plastic-welded, and approved by the bowling authorities.
Read Case Study
Blow- and injection-moulded parts treated as production by Toyota — strong quality and timing, in a six-week turnaround.
Read Case StudyFAQ
Rapid prototyping is a fast way to turn a design into a real, physical part so you can check form, fit and function before committing to production tooling. At Gemini we prototype by 3D printing, vacuum casting and machining from billet, choosing the route that suits your part and what you need to prove.
3D printing in PLA and resin for fast concept models, SLA and SLS for finer detail and stronger functional parts, vacuum casting for low-volume polyurethane parts, and CNC machining from billet in a range of plastics and metals. All chosen to match the part.
Plastics through our 3D printing and vacuum casting, and a range of ferrous and non-ferrous metals and engineering plastics through CNC machining from billet, so a prototype can be made in a production-representative material when you need to test real-world performance.
Often yes. Where a prototype needs a real engineering material and closer tolerances, we machine it from solid billet, giving you a part in a production-representative material rather than a print that only proves shape.
A CAD file (STEP or IGES is ideal), a sketch, or a sample. If you only have a concept, our in-house CAD studio can take it from there.
Send us your part and we come back with a quote and a fixed lead time within one business day.
Yes. We run prototype batches from a single part up to 500, and vacuum casting is well suited to small production runs of prototype parts.
If you want to produce the prototype at volume, the same team takes it into rapid or production tooling in the same building, so your design moves into production without a handover and without starting again with a new supplier.
Send us your enquiry and we'll get back to you within one business day. When we have all the details we need we'll provide you with a free quote soon after.
Share your drawings, specifications, or simply an idea, whatever stage you're at.
Our team reviews your requirements and comes straight back with any questions.
Clear pricing and realistic lead times, with no obligation to proceed.
