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ProtoCAM: Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping.

Mid-2019 Review: What We’ve Been Up to This Year

July 9, 2019
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  • Testimonials

    • "The Carbon [Digital Light Synthesis] 3D printing process was the perfect half step between late-stage functional prototyping and production. Aesthetics were crucial, and unless told otherwise, no one was able to identify the product was 3D-printed. [The process] accelerated business development and helped reduce risk as we approached tooling." — Michael DiCanzio, independent
    • "ProtoCAM has been most helpful in responding to our needs. Their knowledge of stereolithography and CAD, and their application of these technologies has helped us reshape our ideas to reality in the shortest possible time frame." — Kenneth Raines, B. Braun Medical
    • "As an emerging 3D modeling student at DeSales University, it was an incredibly valuable opportunity to learn more about the new innovations in 3D printing technology and how ProtoCAM couples its technical expertise with artistic value such as custom finishing to deliver a final product that exceeds the client's expectations." — Austin Kaplan, Desales University
    • “ProtoCAM's best attribute is their attention to detail and customer service. Their willingness and desire to keep in touch with me is impressive, and physical walkthroughs ensure quality standards are being met.” — Todd Frick, Versatek
    • “ProtoCAM's turnaround times are exceptional, and their prices compared to others are always better. There's a lot more value added in working with ProtoCAM.” — Matthew Bellenoit, B. Braun Medical
    • "Our first experience with ProtoCAM last month was excellent. Quoting was prompt, engineering emailed and we spoke on the phone about a potential issue with the geometry of the parts so there were no surprises, the service was fast and delivery quick, the printed parts were of excellent quality, and all of the staff I dealt with were courteous and professional. You guys knocked it out of the park!" — Chris Davenport, RPC

mid-2019 review

We’re halfway through the year, and still celebrating our 25 years in business while taking a moment to reflect on what we’ve accomplished so far!

This February, ProtoCAM teamed up with Catasauqua Middle School in this year’s Dream It. Do It. PA’s 2019 student video contest, “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” Local manufacturers worked together with 26 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. Upon completion, the videos were then put to a public vote and judged on a number of categories. ProtoCAM was also tasked with producing a prize for the nominees for best videos in the state as part of the Best of PA awards this year.

We were honored to recruited by the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation, Inc. to 3D print the logos of all 32 National Football League (NFL) teams for the annual Ed Block Courage Awards Gala in March. The award recognizes one player from each NFL team for their demonstrated courage and inspiration throughout the season. The Ed Block Courage Award Foundation, Inc. is dedicated to supporting the well-being of abused, neglected, and at-risk children throughout their Courage House National Support Network for Kids.

We love showing guests around our facility, especially students, and we had the opportunity to showcase what we do to several different groups this spring! We were visited by a Product Design class from Lehigh University back in April, who toured our facility as inspiration for their final 3D-printed projects. Also in April, several culinary students from Lehigh Career & Technical Institute visited with us. In May, engineering students from Lehigh University learned all about 3D printing at ProtoCAM.

Our annual picnic at Coca-Cola park to watch the Lehigh Valley IronPigs was in June. The game featured the IronPigs vs the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, and this year, the whole office showed their team spirit with matching T-shirts! Tons of fun was had with mascots FeRROUS and FeFe on hand, lots of pictures, loads of great food, and the whole ProtoCAM team!

We’re committed 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 so far this year covering everything from 3D printing and the environment, to Industry 4.0, to in-depth employee interviews in our ManuFeaturing video series. Stay tuned, as we’re always putting out interesting and up-to-date content about what’s happening in the industry.

We welcomed some new members of our team this year! Jessica joined us as our administrative assistant, while Dave serves as an additive manufacturing technician and specialty finisher in our workshop. Jessica’s extensive and varied administrative experience and Dave’s ample experience in art, design, and finishing allow them each to excel in their positions here at ProtoCAM. We also took on a summer intern this year in June—Nick! Nick will be with us through the end of August and is supervised by our Vice President of Additive Manufacturing, Ed Graham, as well as our additive manufacturing technicians as he hones his engineering skills. We’ve loved seeing Nick grow so far as he learns all about the industry, and we can’t wait to see what he pursues next in his career!

We’ve attended TONs of tradeshows, and still have a bunch to go. Some of the highlights include the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) SHOT Show in Las Vegas, the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference in Chicago where we presented on our award-winning project, Design2Part in Atlanta, and the Atlantic Design & Manufacturing (ADM) event in New York. We’re still looking forward to the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors (MAPP) Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference, SOUTH-TEC, and the Investment Casting Institute (ICI) Technical Conference and Expo, all in October. We hope to meet with many new and current customers at these upcoming events!

More recently, we just brought in a new HP Multi Jet Fusion printer and a new material – HP High Reusability PA 12 Glass Beads. The PA 12 Glass Beads material can be used to create stiff, functional parts with dimensional stability along with repeatability. The material is ideal for applications requiring high stiffness like enclosures and housings, fixtures, and tooling.

We’re also working towards ISO 9001:2015 certification, and have successfully passed our pre-audit and Stage 1 audit. The ISO 9001:2015 program specifies requirements for a quality management system when an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

There’s always something happening at ProtoCAM, and we love to share what we’re doing with our valued customers! Be sure to check out our learning center to always see the latest happenings around our facility. A couple upcoming events you can already look forward to are our various upcoming tradeshows and our Manufacturing Day event in October, the latter of which will feature a tour of our facility, with our additive manufacturing experts on hand to answer any and all questions. We’re looking forward to continuing to participate in new and exciting events this year, and we can’t wait to share it all with our customers!