UK-made mould tool is 10,000th in Europe for Proto Labs

John Tumelty, managing director of Proto Labs in Europe, said: "The manufacture of the 10,000th mould tool in Europe represents an important milestone and demonstrates the dynamism of Proto Labs, which has had a presence in Europe for eight years." The 10,000th mould tool, produced in the UK at Proto Labs Ltd, was created for Raphaël Lanez, head of the helmet development unit at PETZL, in order to carry out tests to measure the effect of chemical products on the materials of which the protective helmets are made. Test pieces needed to be produced quickly in order to expose them to complex environments and observe the impact of those environments on the mechanical properties of the materials used. Mr Lanez explains: "The test piece to be used for our tests was produced very rapidly in CAD and then the parts were delivered in record time by Proto Labs. I don't know what technology Proto Labs uses to manufacture moulds so quickly; their service is simply incredible." Before discovering Proto Labs' Protomold service, Mr Lanez used to produce prototypes by sintering. "Today, thanks to the 'production-intent material' prototype parts supplied by Protomold, we are saving a huge amount of time - around two to three months - for validating the tests. Proto Labs' services have enabled us to create a validation protocol, something that we could not have done previously. For us, it was the key to solving our problems." Bernard Faure, Proto Labs in Europe technical sales manager responsible for France added: "I am truly delighted that this 10,000th mould has been produced for a firm that is a leader in its field, based in the Rhône-Alpes region just half an hour away from our office here in France." Based in Shropshire in the UK, Proto Labs Ltd has changed the economics and lead times associated with the production of prototype and low-volume parts for European manufacturers. The company has two service offerings: Firstcut delivers machined parts (ideal for quantities of 1-10 parts) in over 30 production-intent materials, including aluminium and brass, while Protomold delivers injection-moulded plastic parts (ideal for quantities of 10-10,000+) in just about any production-intent material. Using an 'ultra-fast' compute-cluster Proto Labs offers a web-based quoting system that includes a detailed manufacturability analysis and an accurate all-in production price in just hours and can ship orders in as little as one business day. Proto Labs was founded in the US as The ProtoMold Company in 1999 by Larry Lukis, a successful entrepreneur and computer geek. He previously was co-founder of a successful $100 million company that wanted to design a better printer—and was floored at the time and money it took to get injection moulded parts. His answer was to develop an automated process for producing injection moulded parts in a fraction of the time and cost it had taken before. With a stated mission "to radically reduce the time it takes to get prototype injection moulded plastic parts" and "to make plastic injection moulding a practical option for products not requiring large quantities of parts" Protomold was off and running. Video shows US presentation of company capabilities