Need a postage stamp fridge magnet? Royal Mail now offers '3D printing' to consumers and small businesses

Royal Mail will begin offering ‘3D printing’ to consumers and small businesses from today in a radical departure from its traditional business of delivering parcels and letters.

The technology uses specially-designed printers to create exact replicas of existing items out of plastic.

Although they are not yet widely available, 3D printers have been used to create everything from nuts and bolts to artificial joints and even an entire working car.

3D products: Prices start from £5 for a postage stamp fridge magnet and rise to £45 for a wine cooler, with a golden Postbox pen pot priced at £25

3D products: Prices start from £5 for a postage stamp fridge magnet and rise to £45 for a wine cooler, with a golden Postbox pen pot priced at £25

It is thought the technology could replace conventional manufacturing techniques in years to come.

Royal Mail expects the technology to take off, and had today begun a trial to test the waters among individuals and small firms.

Its central London delivery office on New Cavendish Street, near Oxford Street, will become a shop for anyone interested in buying printed items, and to watch the process of 3D printing.

Customers will also be able to order 3D printed items from its website.

It offers a range of pre-designed products – including an iPhone cover, a business card holder and a Postbox-shaped pen pot – or customers can choose to make their own.

ROYAL MAIL 3D PRINTING SHOP

What can you buy?

Royal Mail golden Postbox pen pot - £25

Stamp magnet - £5

Hex pen holder - £15

Business card holder - £15

iPhone case - £15

Model of the Shard - £20

Bust of Nefertiti (Pharaoh’s wife) - £25

Prices start from £5 for a postage stamp fridge magnet and rise to £45 for a wine cooler. All the prices include delivery.

But personally designed items are likely to fetch much more as they will involve collaborating with a professional 3D printing designer.

Royal Mail has the technology to create 3D items from a series of photographs, or from taking its own measurements of objects.

The trial, which launches this morning, is expected to last for several months while the company tests the appetite for the technology.

It will then decide whether to roll out the operations across its national network of 1,400 delivery offices.

While 3D printers are currently very expensive and slow – printing any single item can take hours as the machine builds up the layers of plastic to create the printed object – the costs and time taken are expected to fall significantly as the technology improves.

Royal Mail hopes to combine printing operations with its postal service to offer delivery of parts that are specially ordered.

It is likely that orders will take up to two days from ordering to delivery.

It has teamed up with 3D printing company iMakr in order to offer the service.

In 3D: Royal Mail's central London delivery office on New Cavendish Street, near Oxford Street, will become a shop for anyone interested in buying printed items, and to watch the process of 3D printing

In 3D: Royal Mail's central London delivery office on New Cavendish Street, near Oxford Street, will become a shop for anyone interested in buying printed items, and to watch the process of 3D printing

Mike Newnham, a director at Royal Mail, said: ‘3D printing is an emerging technology that has many applications and offers an innovative way to create unique or personalised objects.

‘It can be prohibitively expensive for consumers or small businesses to invest in a 3D printer, so we are launching a pilot to gauge interest in 3D printing to sit alongside Royal Mail’s e-commerce and delivery capability.’

The radical move underlines the company’s concerns over the decline in its traditional businesses of delivering letters and parcels.

It comes only days after the Royal Mail was told by the regulator it would not be protected from stronger competition.

The number of letters being sent is in decline, while the company’s share of the parcel delivery market is being squeezed by Amazon and other firms.

It has also lost out to rival Whistl – formerly called TNT Post – on delivering business post such as bills or letters in urban areas.

The company complained to regulator Ofcom that it needed these lucrative areas in order to subsidise the cost of delivering to sparse rural areas.

But Ofcom last week told Royal Mail that ‘competition is likely to provide Royal Mail with a further incentive to become more efficient’.