Community Interest Company
We are a community of volunteer engineers, makers and 3D printers. Together we deliver open-source solutions and education to people who need it most.
About Us
3D Crowd CIC was founded in March 2020 when the UK faced a critical shortage of PPE. A group of 3D printing enthusiasts realised that a distributed network of home-based makers could provide a stop-gap solution far faster than traditional manufacturing.
Within a week, 8,000 volunteers had signed up. Working from homes, workshops and makerspaces across the country, this community 3D printed and distributed over 200,000 face shields to the NHS and frontline workers — entirely for free. A further 185,000 units were facilitated through our network, bringing the total to nearly 400,000 pieces of PPE.
We were the only voluntary, distributed community manufacturer to achieve CE marking from the British Standards Institution — a testament to the quality standards and governance our volunteers maintained throughout.
Since then, we evolved beyond PPE into open-source engineering projects spanning prosthetics, medical devices, disaster relief and sustainable manufacturing — always led by the same principle: makers solving real problems, together.
After several years operating with a skeleton crew, 3D Crowd is now re-mobilising. The community, the expertise and the infrastructure that delivered at scale during the pandemic are still here — and we are actively rebuilding to take on the next generation of projects. If you have a problem that makers can solve, there has never been a better time to get in touch.
Our model mobilises a nationwide network of home-based 3D printers, coordinated through regional hubs. We go from concept to production in days, not months.
Every product follows documented SOPs with quality control at maker and hub level. Our face shields were CE marked and often exceeded NHS supply quality.
Our community includes professional engineers, healthcare workers, project managers and clinical trials experts — all donating their time and skills.
Beyond the UK, we have provided aid, expertise and prototyped solutions for partners in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ukraine, India and Brazil — from PPE to medical devices and beyond.
Our Projects
What started as a pandemic response grew into a portfolio of engineering projects. Each one applies maker ingenuity and distributed manufacturing to problems that matter.
Our founding mission. In the spring of 2020, with hospitals running critically low on protective equipment, our community stepped up. Using the Prusa RC3 face shield design, thousands of makers printed, cleaned, quality-checked and delivered shields through a coordinated network of regional hubs — with the same rigour you'd expect from industrial manufacturing, but powered entirely by volunteers.
A 3D-printed device that splits a single oxygen supply into multiple outlets, designed for healthcare settings in countries with limited medical infrastructure.
Medical DevicePartnering with the global e-Nable community and Deloitte to produce custom 3D-printed prosthetic hands and arms for children with limb differences.
ProstheticsWorking with Tetra Bio Distributed to develop a four-way ventilator splitter for countries with limited respirator capabilities, enabling one machine to serve multiple patients.
Critical CareAn open-source library of quality-tested 3D printable designs for disaster environments — giving makers worldwide confidence that a design will work when it matters.
Open SourceCollaborating with Bath University to create a 3D-printed bioreactor that uses PET bottles and algae to produce alternative fuel sources — turning plastic waste into energy.
SustainabilityExploring how maker technologies and distributed 3D printing can support disaster zones — from rapid-response field printers to iterative solutions for unique on-the-ground problems.
HumanitarianGet in Touch
Whether you're a maker looking to contribute, an organisation that could benefit from distributed manufacturing, or just curious about what we do — we'd love to hear from you.
3D Crowd is a registered Community Interest Company — a special type of limited company that exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders. Everything we do is driven by social purpose.
Company Number: 12535979
Registered in: England & Wales