A 3D printing workshop has opened in Carlisle, allowing businesses to produce bespoke items and low-cost prototypes.

Office equipment company Tech4 is offering the services to businesses and schools, colleges and universities.

The firm, which employs four people and has been running for six years, has just moved to The Old Warehouse in Lorne Street, Denton Holme, from its previous base on the Rockcliffe Estate, Kingmoor Park.

Manager Paul Thorburn said: "I would think we are the first in Carlisle.

"It is definitely not something I have heard of elsewhere. We are self-funding. We are not getting any help from Sellafield or any other business."

"There will be an interest because whenever I talk to people and whenever people see it they love it.

"We can make it available to people who maybe can't afford a 3D printer but they can come here to do it."

Tech4 will continue to provide sales and support for photocopiers and printing equipment, alongside the new service.

Mr Thorburn added: "We will still do all the copiers and the printers but 3D is a bit of a buzzword at the moment.

"We are interested in taking orders for modelling, prototyping and from colleges and universities."

This kind of facility is sometimes called a fabrication laboratory, or fab lab, a small-scale workshop with computer-controlled tools that can make almost anything from a digital design in a matter of minutes.

They are low cost in comparison with traditional tooling methods.

That makes them ideal for producing prototypes or bespoke items unsuited to mass production.

The first UK fab lab opened in Manchester in 2010.

There are two fab labs in west Cumbria - at Createc in Cockermouth, which opened in January 2014, and West Lakes Academy in Egremont.

Much of the funding came from Britain's Energy Coast.

There have already been benefits to business.

Earlier this year Smurfit Kappa Composites was able to bring a manufacturing process from China to the UK after it produced a packaging prototype for a customer at the Cockermouth lab.

At present Tech4 has six printers, four of which are at The Beacon Museum in Whitehaven as part of an exhibition.

More purchases are planned.

The printers make use of fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology, which sees material put down in layers.

Tech4 also plans to invest in powder printers, which use a different process. The full facility is expected to be up and running by September.

"The stuff we have got at the moment is great and it is easy to use," Mr Thorburn added.

Tech 4 is sharing its new premises with Mr Thorburn's partner, Caroline Nash, who runs a pottery business.

For more information visit www.tech4office.co.uk or call 07779 608415.