I’m thinking about where our industry was a year ago, where we are now, and how incredibly fast the landscape has changed.

Just a few months ago it seemed like businesses were holding their breath as the economy teetered on the edge of the cliff.

And then…the worst did not happen. We backed away from the brink, got on the road to recovery and (at least from our perspective) that road is looking more like a major highway. All that bottled-up demand is uncorked, orders are flowing in and projects that were on hold are barreling forward. Things are moving again. And nobody wants to be left behind.

Which may explain why we’ve been running full throttle at Proto Labs. We’re once again growing at a record pace, with companies coming to us with bigger orders, for more complex parts and more parts at a time. Design engineers are discovering the advantages of pairing our quick-turn CNC machining capabilities for 1–10 functional prototypes with our rapid

injection molding service for larger quantities of parts—a combination nobody else can offer. The response to the addition of aluminum to our list of First Cut material capabilities has also been very strong, and you’ll see some additional metals being added in the coming months.

Meanwhile, as Paul Midler points out in ‘Poorly made in China’ (see page 6), a lot of companies are reassessing the option of getting parts made in China. Yes, you can get stuff cheap. But in too many cases things don’t turn out as you expected with respect to quality, delivery or price. And that’s a risk a lot of businesses have lost their appetite for.

Things change in a hurry, which is just fine with us. Fast is good. And as long as there’s a need for speed, we’re here for you.

Brad Cleveland, CEO brad.cleveland@protolabs.com

How are we Doing?“You guys do a LOT of things right.

The entire design and build

process went great.”

— Todd Mason, Jabil Circuit, Inc.

“The parts turned out really nice. They

are exactly what I was looking for

and they are working out great.”

— Jason Woods, Tyco Electronics

“I really appreciate the engineering

support I received while finalizing

the design of our part.”

— Beth Hunter, CaridianBCT, Inc.

“This was my first time using

Proto Labs and I am very delighted with

the results. I have actual parts

in hand to show off; they look

wonderful, are exactly what I was

looking for, and were delivered on time.

Thank you for making this

project a prototyping success!”

— Joseph C. Celmer,

Karl Storz Endovision, Inc.

“Our parts look great. You did

a great job and exceeded my

expectations for a low volume

injection molded prototype part.”

— James Lee, NuVasive, Inc.

“You’re unbelievably fast. How could

we not use Proto Labs for parts that

are within your capabilities?”

— John Howard, John F. Howard Design

We would love to hear from you! Send us your comments at news@protolabs.com.

Proto Labs is running fuLL throttLe.

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> wHat’s up?

Tunebug Vibe™ and Tunebug Shake™

Sometimes you want nothing more than to clamp on your headphones and tune out the world; chatty airplane seatmate, obnoxious cube neighbor, project status meetings, but other times that kind of isolation isn’t desirable, or even safe. And for those situations, you reach for the Tunebug Vibe or the Tunebug Shake. Ultra-portable sound generators that can be connected to mobile devices, MP3 players or laptops, the Shake and the Vibe allow sound waves to pass through surfaces, turning them into flat speakers. The Shake can be used wirelessly with Bluetooth, and mounted on a helmet for an awesome surround sound experience on the move.

www.tunebug.com

dotz

Who knew cord organization could add fun to your life? The people at dotz have come up with a whole line of groovy products for ending cord chaos once and for all. You’ve got your cord identifiers, cord straps and cord wraps, all in colors that’ll make you feel festive about getting that jungle under the desk in order. Cool website too!

www.cordotz.com

nPower® PEG(Personal Energy Generator)

Thanks to Cleveland-based Tremont Electric, if you’ve got energy, so do your mobile devices. All you have to do is move, and the nPower PEG (personal energy generator) harvests your human kinetic energy to power up your devices. Just plug the PEG into your phone or MP3 player while you’re walking, running or biking, and you’ll never lose battery power again. Just one more reason to get ourselves off the couch, people!

www.npowerpeg.com

The wonders of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)...

At 1–20 nm in diameter, they are 15,000 times smaller than a human hair. They conduct electricity better than copper, conduct heat better than diamond and have higher tensile strength than steel. Taking these miracles of science and putting them into a polymer is a challenge. Entegris’ TEGO™ polymers business unit has developed the technology to disperse CNTs into thermoplastics which helps retain the optimal polymer properties along with the added benefits of the CNTs.

www.tegopolymers.com

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> Cool stuff

It stands to reason that a company with speed in the DNA does not like to stand still. That’s why, here at Proto Labs, we are reflexive envelope-pushers, continually moving our capabilities beyond where we were yesterday. That means larger and more complex parts, and more material choices than ever before.

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> Cover story

But what it will never mean is slowing down.

Driven by the need for speed, Proto Labs started by deconstructing injection molding—and later CNC machining—processes, streamlining them to their most essential elements. This leaner, meaner breed of manufacturing, propelled by serious computing power, enabled Proto Labs to do what nobody could before: create real, functional parts using conventional manufacturing processes in unheard-of time frames.

Over the years we’ve beefed up our capabilities. For Protomold, we’ve added side actions, steel cores, pick-outs and selective EDM; for First Cut, 3-axis machining from up to six sides and internal threads—in metal as well as plastic. We’ve also increased the size of the parts we can make, and the quantity of the parts we can do at once. But the litmus test is always speed. If we can’t make it faster than anyone else in the world, we won’t do it at all.

This ability to do bigger, better parts, in more materials with ever-shrinking time frames, opens new possibilities for our customers.

Pedal to the metalKroll associates, a product development firm, was working to perfect the design of the ratcheting elbow on a robotic arm. Time was very tight, naturally. They had already used Proto Labs’ First Cut machined plastic prototypes for earlier versions of the elbow. But as the project evolved, demands on the elbow part increased. When David Kroll went back to First Cut to obtain a quote for parts in a high-strength resin, he noticed that they now offered parts in aluminum. “I was elated” he says. The aluminum prototypes turned out to be just what they needed. After proving the parts, they had the aluminum parts die-cast for production, but it was First Cut’s aluminum prototypes

that gave Kroll Associates the confidence to go ahead. “With three-day turnaround on the prototypes, it’s a proven way to be sure things will work before committing to the cost of production.”

Moldability 911Sometimes, “better” means just that. In the case of tensys Medical, the challenge was to prototype functional parts for their new TL-200 T-line blood pressure monitoring system. Neither SLA nor FDM could produce “real” parts, and traditional methods of prototyping injection molded parts were too expensive and took too long. Protomold worked with the engineers at Tensys to create fully functional parts in a matter of days, saving Tensys months in the development cycle and thousands of dollars in tooling costs. When First Cut announced its 1-day machining service,

Proto Labs was able to satisfy virtually all of their prototyping needs, saving Tensys even more time and money. Today, the system is used in operating rooms nationwide. Protomold now supplies production quantities of virtually every molded part in the TL-200 system using the same molds that were originally used for prototyping.

Polished results, presto It’s tough to get faster than one business day. But Proto Labs is making more complex parts, and sending them out the door in time frames that would have been impossible even for us just a short time ago. Being in the fast-moving LED market, Lighting science group develops products at a punishing pace—products involving parts with exacting requirements. Proto Labs has played a key role in creating the prototypes and bridge tooling for numerous products, including aluminum heat sinks for the Definity series of lamps, with its close-spaced, deep-cut fins; and the prismatic acrylic surfaces of several molded lenses.

Proto Labs recently molded parts for four different lenses needing three different parts each, all optically clear to an SPI-A2 polish, in 10 days flat.

You can be sure that Proto Labs will keep on pushing the pace of innovation—while keeping our place as the fastest in the world.

TL-200 sensor for the Tensys Medical T-Line system. The fully integrated system also includes a wrist positioner, bracelet, and a monitor.

Lightning Science Definity lamp

Prototype part for a robotic arm project.

5

Poorly Made in China

Author: Paul Midler

Publisher:John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2009 ISBN 978-0-470-40558-1

Paul Midler writes like what he is, a consultant trained and skilled in the ways of business. His examples are straightforward and his analysis is tidy, but there is nothing neat or simple about the relationships he describes. As a China-based specialist helping Western customers interact with Chinese manufacturers, he has seen dozens of eager importers and outsourcers arrive with samples or specs in hand, establish promising connections, and only later realize that they “aren’t in Kansas anymore.” China may be the ultimate low-cost producer, but business there does not follow the logic of business in the West (and this goes

well beyond the highly publicized issue with intellectual property theft).

Seduced by terms and prices that, in hindsight, were literally too good to be true, customers find their product specifications being gradually degraded without consultation and prices being hiked at agonizingly inconvenient times. In episodes worthy of Through the Looking-Glass, buyers are urged to believe that brown is actually yellow and that refusal to accept substandard product will cause the manufacturer inexcusable “loss of face.” This is followed by the realization that they have no legal recourse and that changing suppliers, if it were even possible, would cost them months of delay and almost certainly end in the same excruciating cycle.

Ironically, many of Midler’s clients find that they have no choice but to remain in the partnerships they’ve formed, painful though they may be, and learn to accept new and unfamiliar rules. The reader finds some relief when, toward the end of the book, one long-suffering buyer manages to turn the tables on his

tormentors and gain, at least for a while, the upper hand in the relationship. Overall, however, because the game is played in China it is played by Chinese rules.

The Western reader cannot help but empathize with the stunned, often helpless buyers, but Midler makes clear that what may appear to be plain cruelty on the part of manufacturers is simply an established, if unfamiliar, way of doing business. Chinese manufacturers take a “no money down” approach to bringing in customers knowing that there will be numerous ways to make the arrangement profitable later. As a result, buyers trained to expect their costs to go down over time are astounded to find that, in China, they do exactly the opposite. In the meantime, Chinese manufacturers have learned from their customers and become, if anything, even more powerful players in the relationship. In the near term, Midler sees no clear path to equalization of power, but his insights offer Western contestants a chance to learn the rudiments of the game so they can survive long enough to, with luck and perseverance, become competitive players.

> protoCulture

The Wild, Wild East: a Cautionary TaleBook Review By: bill Dietrick, Vice President at Proto Labs, inc.

DiD you Know?Proto Labs’ First Cut CNC machining service provides the ability to easily add threaded holes to your plastic and aluminum parts. Our service supports UNC and UNF threads from #2 up to 1/2", and metric threads from M2 to M12. Because of the lack of standards between CAD packages for specifying threads, we decide where to put threads by looking for holes that could be pilot holes that are suitably oriented. Don’t model in internal threads; it will confuse First Cut’s pilot hole finder. Our process uses 3-axis milling, so holes can only be milled and threaded if they align with one of the three cardinal axes.

When you receive your FirstQuote®, the interactive quote’s 3D display will show a graphic of your part and a list of threadable holes. The fast, easy way to assign threads to holes is to use the “options” dropdown to assign our best guess thread to each hole (you pick UNC, UNF, or metric). Or to individually tweak each hole, clicking on a listed hole in the table will prompt the display to zoom in on that hole and drop down a menu of threading options. You can also move from hole to hole using the “previous” or “next” buttons. When finished making selections, click on the “save current selections” button to complete the process. If your firewall prevents you from downloading the interactive viewer, a 3D PDF is also available. The PDF is not interactive, but selections can be made in FirstQuote. (This approach is as effective as interactive ProtoView, but not as much fun.) Once you have placed your order you will receive, by email, an order confirmation which includes your selected thread sizes. Be sure to review the confirmation for accuracy.

If you have additional questions or need assistance, contact Proto Labs at 877.479.3680. •Fordetailedinformationonmodelingthreadedholes,gotowww.firstcut.com/threadedholes.

•Foradetailedtableofthreadoptions,gotowww.firstcut.com/threadedholes.aspx#table1.

•ToseeaFirstQuotepartsamplewiththreadedholes,visitwww.firstcut.com/firstquote-threaded-holes.

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genesisteK, LLC

firm-at-a-glance:Cutting-edge Minneapolis/St. Paul- based design shop with a focus on simplicity, aesthetics, and quality at a reasonable price, offering premium customer service and support.

Zen:E-approachable and down-to-earth, with a laid back vibe that belies serious commitment to awesomeness.

Projects profile:Running the gamut from consumer products (a one-inch toy baby bottle comes to mind), to medical devices, to security and defense-related technologies for government contractors.

sweet spot:“Short-term projects? Call us on a Friday and get designs by Monday. Who else does that?” Exactly our kind of guys!

Why they’re hot:Because they’ve got a thing about education. Not satisfied to take the drawing and run, they take the time to help customers—from start-up entrepreneurs to major manufacturers—understand the

ins and outs of creating a molded part. And that pays off in better products, better customer satisfaction, and a better time had by all.

Dream project:“Hmmm, we like them all. We like getting up in the morning and having no idea what’s coming in the door. But maybe motorcycle or guitar components. Especially if we get to go out and test them!”

Why Proto Labs? “There are so many entrepreneurs out there who have been sitting on a great idea for years, thinking they’ll have to break the bank to get it made. But with First Cut and Protomold, that’s just not true. For a surprisingly low cost—as little as a few hundred dollars—they’ll get very, very functional parts for you. So you get the part in hand and bring the product to market—really, really fast. They can even be a good option for larger runs. A lot of our customers who are ready to go into bigger-scale production choose to stay with Proto Labs, because they’re so happy with the product.”

genesisteK, LLC Minneapolis, MNPhone: 763.657.1669Email: lgonier@genesistek.us or tbottger@genesistek.usWeb: www.genesistek.us

Hot sHop

If you have a design firm that you’d like featured in our Hot Shop area, or to be put into the lottery for a free ad, please contact us at news@protolabs.com.

www.MechanicalEngineeringPros.com

(888)585-6419

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free CnC MaChining tiPs

Want expert advice about designing parts for CNC machining? You’re in luck. Sign up for the First Cut Machining Tips e-newsletter, and once every quarter a motherlode of tips and techniques for efficient, cost-effective machined prototype parts will arrive in your inbox.

Subscribe today at www.firstcut.com/MachiningTips

it’s CoMPLiCateD! fast Does not haVe to Mean siMPLe.We’ve created the Protomold Torus to demonstrate a few of the more interesting and complex features you can design into your Protomold injection molded parts. The Torus comes with an informative key describing the techniques we used.

Get your free torus* at www.protolabs.com/Parts Enter code PLJ10

CatCh us at these traDeshoWs

MicronoraSeptemer 28–October 1, 2010 Micropolis/Parc des Expositions Besancon, France

DMs KansaiOctober 6–8, 2010International Exhibition Center OsakaIntex Osaka, Japan

MD&M MinneapolisOctober 13–14, 2010 Minneapolis Convention CenterMinneapolis, MN, United States

tCt Live 2010October 19–20, 2010 Ricoh ArenaCoventry, United Kingdom

K 2010October 27–November 3, 2010 Düsseldorf FairgroundsDüsseldorf, Germany

Midest 2010November 2–5, 2010 Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition CentreParis, France

bioMeDeviceNovember 10–11, 2010 San Jose McEnery Convention CenterSan Jose, CA, United States

Manufacturing innovations—MedicalNovember 3–4, 2010 International CentreMississauga, ON, Canda

USAProto Labs, Inc. 5540 Pioneer Creek Dr. Maple Plain, MN 55359 United States

877.479.3680 phone 763.479.2679 fax info@protolabs.com www.protolabs.com

eUropeProto Labs, Ltd. Unit A, Hortonpark Industrial Estate Hortonwood 7, Telford Shropshire TF1 7GX United Kingdom

+44 (0) 1952 607 447 phone +44 (0) 1952 677 126 fax info@protolabs.co.uk www.protolabs.co.uk

jApAnProto Labs K.K. 729 Nakano Ebina City, Kanagawa 243-0425 Japan

+81 (0) 46-237-3951 phone +81 (0) 46-239-1932 fax info@protolabs.co.jp www.protolabs.co.jp

CnC Machining Service

© 2010 Proto Labs, Inc.

> tHe speeDway

A quick look at what’s new from Proto Labs

Join the discussion! Email article ideas, cool projects or great design stories to the editor at stacy.sullivan@protolabs.com.

*At this time, we are shipping The Torus in North America only.

Injection Molding Service

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