The November/December 2008 issue of Time Compression magazine had a special feature on service providers in the rapid prototyping/rapid product development arena. There is a survey of users of rapid prototyping service providers, asking 15 questions about service bureaus, technologies, buying processes, etc.

What really jumped out at me was the first question: “When selecting service providers, how important are each of the following when making your decision?"

The top two most important criteria for selecting a service provider were Speed and Customer Service. Price, Material Selection, and Capacity were also deemed important, while Location and an Online Quotation System were not important.

When we at ProtoCAM read this, we now had real customer survey data that supported the primary tenets of our business approach - that speed and service are the most important things we should provide our customers to make us a top rapid prototyping service provider. And of course, these things are related. We have to have good customer service to provide fast prototype development and production. We have to have good systems and processes in place to handle inquiries and respond quickly. We have specifically chosen that phone calls to ProtoCAM are answered personally by real people, not automated answering systems. We have the engineers on staff who can assist with prototype development, CAD drawing and design, and design for manufacturability issues. And our prototyping production capabilities will support the aggressive time constraints that we often encounter and our customers demand, because we know that time-to-market is often a critical factor in the success of a product development project supported by rapid prototyping.

While we have always believed that our priorities were on target to emphasize customer service and speed in our business philosophy and customer interactions, it was good to see that many customers agree!

In the second tier of important decision criteria, we have the prototype manufacturing capacity to meet demand, we are continually exploring new materials to make better prototypes, and we’ll maintain price competitiveness for quotes with existing customers as well as new inquiries.

We look forward to continuing to emphasize service and speed. Contact us to get a rapid prototyping quote and see service and speed in action!

Labels: protocam, prototypes, rapid prototyping

ProtoCAM offers the ability to produce parts in A6 tool steel using the selective laser sintering (SLS) process and LaserForm™ A6 steel material. Using LaserForm™ A6 offers our customers an alternative to traditional manufacturing techniques such as sand casting, plaster casting or investment casting. The metal parts produced using SLS and LaserForm™ A6 can be polished, welded, plated and machined. Parts must fit approximately within a 12”x10” envelope with the maximum height being between 6” to 7”. Additionally, all part features must be greater than .040”. The “as sintered” hardness of the part is 10-20 Rockwell “C” but can be heat treated to 39 HRc.

The SLS with LaserForm™ A6 process starts by selective laser sintering a blend of A6 tool steel, tungsten carbide and a binder. When finished, the “green” part is infiltrated with bronze yielding a fully dense part composed of approximately 60% A6 and 40% bronze. Using LaserForm™ material is the definitive solution for low volume rapidly produced metal prototypes, parts or tooling inserts for injection molding. Additionally, if your metal part application is not suitable for using LaserForm™, ProtoCAM offers investment casting, plaster casting and sand casting parts.


Please contact ProtoCAM with your application or any questions you might have about LaserForm™ A6, metal prototypes and metal parts.



LaserForm™ is a registered trademark of 3D Systems, Inc.

Labels: LaserForm, Metal Prototypes, Selective Laser Sintering