Proto Labs? What's That?
If you've already got it figured out feel free to skip this part, but for those who haven't, Proto Labs, Inc. is the newly named parent of the Protomold and First Cut Prototype divisions. Protomold is still your rapid injection molding supplier and the First Cut Prototype division is there for you if you just need 1-10 parts made by CNC machining.
Our new headquarters in Maple Plain, MN
New HQ
Our old facilities, despite recent expansion, were bursting at the seams. So when a big, modern building just two blocks away became available, we jumped at the opportunity. We've been up and running there — both offices and manufacturing — for several weeks, and we love the space and the location. We now have room to double our current size under the new roof and enough property to build out and double again to meet future needs.
At the rate we've been growing, the new space won't last forever, but it's nice to have all of our offices back together again with only steps between our developers and customer service groups. If you’d like to see more pictures of the new place, visit our web site.
View photos of the new location
Service Reps in the Pool!
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Ever try to reach your assigned customer service rep and find that he or she is on another call, out sick, or away on vacation? We know it can be frustrating, especially when you're in a hurry, so we've reorganized customer service to create pools of reps to support customers in a more reliable manner.
You'll still have a single assigned sales rep, and service reps will be linked with a shared database of customer information to help them respond to your questions or problems as effectively as possible. Service hours have been expanded to 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM, CST. What this all means to you should be shorter waits, faster answers, and, if needed, access to more specialized knowledge.
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When the Flow Gets Slow ...
When a mold has design or gate placement problems, they often show up in the form of voids or knit lines that can weaken the resulting part. You can't watch resin flow inside a mold — even if you could it would be too late to correct the problem except by remilling — but at Protomold we can produce an amazingly good simulation before we've even begun the make the mold.
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ProtoFlow® is a proprietary program we've developed that simulates mold filling. It helps us determine where to place gates, and it points out areas of a CAD model that could be difficult to fill. When such a problem is found, we're now able to embed the ProtoFlow analysis in your ProtoQuote®, pointing out the problem and what can be done to correct it. Like the rest of ProtoQuote, ProtoFlow is a free service designed to help Protomold customers design the best, most manufacturable parts possible.
Watch a video demo of the new ProtoFlow
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Still the biggest and fastest growing ...
 Proto Labs (under its former name Protomold) has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies. We were honored to be on the Inc. 500 for two years in a row and now we've again been recognized by Inc. magazine. Our ranking of 1069 means Protomold is still the largest and fastest growing rapid injection molding business in the world, and we thank you for your support. |
For Design Tip Devotees
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 A while back we noticed that some of our favorite web comics are available for purchase in pricey compilations. That gave us a great idea for our monthly Design Tips (except for the "pricey" part). We've compiled several years of tips into free downloadable compilations you can take home for late night browsing or keep on an office shelf for reference. They can be found on our web site. And while they may not be as exciting as Arcturan Bounty Hunter Comix, you never know when one might help with the side panel for that high-capacitance ion agitator you're working on.
Download the first three compilation volumes of Design Tips for Rapid Injection Molding
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New and Improved ProtoView®
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If you already have downloaded our ProtoView software for use within your ProtoQuotes, you can keep using it for the time being, but soon we will need you to download a new version that incorporates some enhancements, the most obvious of which is an improved visualization of sliding shutoffs, allowing us to place a planar indication showing problem areas where metal will slide on metal. Other changes are "behind the scenes" to support some very cool new features in the coming months.
Download the new and improved ProtoView
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