It’s time for something new; here’s to 2022! We’re preparing for the new year and all it promises, but first we wanted to do a brief review of our 2021! Here at ProtoCAM, we’re always reflecting on what we’ve done in the past in order to improve upon what we produce for the future; it’s part of our ProtoCAM Distinction and our continuous improvement efforts in accordance with our ISO 9001:2015 certification, so that we’re always offering the best to our customers. So let’s reflect back on 2021 to consider all the updates, innovations, and more we’ve experienced throughout this year!
In 2021, we strived to maintain and introduce important initiatives within our facility. We continued our efforts via our environmental initiatives program, which promotes gathering ideas for how to make our facility more environmentally friendly and sustainable. With our environmental initiatives program, ProtoCAM regularly researches and gathers new ideas for how to better facilitate green initiatives within our company, both on a smaller-scale basis in everyday office decisions, and within larger-scale, facility-wide actions.
We also continued to offer and innovate our educational programs for students from elementary school through college and beyond.We’re more committed than ever to publishing new and educational content for both those in the industry and for new customers. To that end, we’ve published several blogs, case studies, and videos this year covering everything from the positive impact the additive manufacturing industry and ProtoCAM are contributing to our environment and world sustainability, to highlighting women, diversity, and people of color making history in the industry, to world-changing innovations made possible via additive manufacturing, to our assistance in helping to create C. F. Martin & Co.’s innovative SC-13E electric acoustic guitar as well as The Tack Shield, to our celebration of all things (and people!) DINO at ProtoCAM. Stay tuned, as we’re always publishing interesting and up-to-date content about what’s happening in the industry!
Also on the education front, ProtoCAM teamed up with Nitschmann Middle School in this year’s 2021 student video contest, “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” In a somewhat altered event for this 2021, local manufacturers worked together digitally with 18 middle school teams from Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon counties to create videos demonstrating how manufacturing can be fun and interesting, as well as a viable career choice.
Following the launch of our newest 3D printing process last year, Carbon® Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS™), we showcased a well-attended webinar featuring the technology, which was presented by additive manufacturing expert Jason Lopes, Carbon’s first beta tester of its technology and former Lead Systems Engineer with Legacy Effects. ProtoCAM’s own Ed Graham, Vice President of Additive Manufacturing, also presented his webinar on the four key changes he prescribes for reorienting the additive manufacturing industry for production, which was released as a four part video series on our website. All these videos and more are available via our ProtoPoints video page.
This year we welcomed a new member to the ProtoCAM customer service team. Robin joined us as Administrative Assistant in our customer service department. With an extensive background managing customer accounts, Robin is our customers’ point of contact for all matters related to customer service and assistance with quotes and projects. Robin embraces her role as a ProtoCAM customer service representative each day by preparing quotes and meeting any and all of our customers’ needs. Stay tuned for a full profile on Robin in the new year!
We also had the pleasure of working with two temporary team members in the form of our summer interns. Tony and Christian joined us as our additive manufacturing interns this year. Tony is a sophomore at Lehigh University with a major in Mechanical Engineering, while Christian is a junior at Wilkes University, also with a major in Mechanical Engineering. We look forward to taking on more interns in the future through Governor Tom Wolf’s State Local Internship Program (SLIP), which provides for summer internships with local employers across Pennsylvania.
We 3D printed for a good cause again this year by producing 3D printed NFL logos for the Ed Block Courage Awards Foundation, and will also contribute in 2022. Through partnership with the NFL, the Foundation cultivates awareness at each child abuse/at-risk youth facility (labeled Courage Houses) and helps to raise funds for their programs and initiatives.
We had the opportunity this year to attend and present at a number of trade shows and events. Some of the highlights include the annual Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference, where we won second place in this year’s Advanced Finishing category of the Technical Competition (check out the winning piece in our Advanced Finishing Gallery!), Mid-Atlantic Design-2-Part in Oaks, PA, and Atlantic Design & Manufacturing in New York, NY, among others. As we begin releasing our 2022 events, we hope to meet with many new and current customers in the new year where possible.
2021 was filled with unique innovations and initiatives within our facility and website, the publication of a variety of blog posts, case studies, and other contributions to our learning center, among so many other things. Most importantly, we were able to continue to provide our unique additive manufacturing services at the high levels we strive for. We’re so grateful to be able to maintain our commitment to producing the highest quality products and services for you, our customers. Thank you for making our year a great one!
In 2022, we’re looking forward to continuing to offer our customers the latest innovations and technology available and to always be continuously evolving in order to provide unmatched quality, customer service, and delivery. We’re ready to see what’s coming in 2022, and we look forward to sharing it with you, our valued customers! Cheers to the new year!
