Here are 11 reasons why Protolabs is a good fit.
1. Competitive Pricing
Competitive and accurate pricing is available with your quote in a matter of hours. Production pricing is also available for injection moulding, CNC machining, and additive manufacturing. Plus, our applications engineers are always available to discuss key cost trade-offs for designs.
2. Quality Assurance
Unlike quality measures of traditional manufacturing systems—usually conducted at the end of the production chain—our quality system is embedded throughout the entire process. Traceability and transparency of projects are found every step along the way.
Injection Moulding - Process development reports and basic inspection reports are included with each order, and enhanced inspection reports, like FAIs, are available upon request.
CNC Machining - All machined parts are inspected for cosmetic conformance to workmanship standards and dimensional conformance on at least three dimensions (typically X, Y, and Z), and with production parts for machining through our network, we also provide conventional inspection reporting like FAIs, Certificate of Compliance (CoC) documentation, and additional certifications like ISO 9001 and AS9100.
3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing - To ensure high-quality parts, we offer powder analysis, material traceability, process validation, and inspection reporting on printed parts, and our metal 3D printing process is ISO 9001 and ISO 13485-certified, our network also offers AS9100D certification. With metal 3D printing, you’re also able to choose from several secondary processes like post-process machining, tapping, and heat treatments that produce end-use production parts.
View all of our facility certifications here. And Network certifications here.
You want capacity? With more than 1,000 pieces of automated manufacturing equipment that run at 80% capacity to avoid production delays, you'll always be at the front of the line.
3. Quoting and Manufacturing Speed
We provide interactive quotes with free design analysis within a few hours and have expedite options across all four of our manufacturing service lines, so we can ship parts in as fast as day.
4. Production Scheduling
Automated algorithms have been programmed to help prioritise and streamline ordering and scheduling processes to accelerate the manufacturing process. This is a key element in the digital equation that allows us to ship parts in as fast as 24 hours.
5. Capacity
You want capacity? With more than 1,000 pieces of automated manufacturing equipment that run at 80% capacity to avoid production delays, you'll always be at the front of the line.
6. Equipment
We’re technology agnostic with many different equipment providers, so we're not reliant on one OEM. And when we add new machines to our manufacturing floors, they are typically customised for speed and accuracy like our existing equipment.
7. Security
All proprietary 3D CAD files, intellectual property, or customer information is protected. And server redundancies are in place, so data is protected and backed up. We also prohibit photo, video, and audio recording from visitors in our offices and manufacturing facilities.
8. Material Inventory
You can choose from more than 100 different thermoplastic and elastomer materials for moulding and more than 30 plastic and metal materials for CNC machining. With 3D printing, we have 20+ plastic resins and metal powders for both prototyping and production-grade, end-use parts.We also accept customer-supplied materials for moulded parts. Essentially, we have a variety of materials that can meet nearly any project requirement.
9. Extensive Manufacturing Experience
We have experienced engineering, quality, and procurement teams and highly skilled machine and press operators overseeing pre-production, production, and post-production activities. With additive manufacturing, for example, we’ve seen over 1 million 3D-printed part geometries over the past 20 years. And if you have any manufacturing or procurement questions, you can talk with an in-house applications engineer at any time. We have extensive digital manufacturing experience, from knowledgeable design analysts to highly skilled machine and press operators overseeing all production activities.
10. Single Supplier
We manufacture all parts in-house for consistency, speed, and reliability. But we also serve as your single contact for things like quality control and finishing options in-house—or with a trusted third-party vendor—to ensure you are getting end-use parts as fast as possible.
