Videos
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Differences in major material types
Creating parts using 3D printing is easier than ever before, and prototyping and making design changes is fast, affordable and intuitive. The process offers a range of material types, from resin to plastic parts that are coated in metal, combining strength with lightness and flexibility.
Our ability to use Direct Metal Laser Sintering allows us to offer high-strength and temperature-resistant metallic parts quickly and cheaply, with the precision and quality you’ve come to expect from Protolabs.
Discover more about the materials we offer with this short video.
3D Printing Technologies for Plastics
Plus, with our technical support team on call, we can talk to you about your designs and help you to choose the ideal production solution for your needs, and show you just what we can do to help you reach your creative vision.
Want to find out more about our cutting-edge plastic technologies? Watch this video
Multi Jet Fusion: What is it used for?
For fast, quality results, Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) is unparalleled as a 3D printing process. It’s able to produce functional nylon prototypes and end-use production parts in a single day, featuring quality surface finishes and fine feature resolution. It also offers more consistent mechanical properties than similar processes like selective laser sintering.
Using an inkjet array to repeatedly apply fusing agents across a bed of nylon powder, followed by fusion into a solid layer via heating elements, MJF is able to offer complex and detailed features. Protolabs offers a commercial-grade unfilled Nylon 12 material to create durable parts.
Multi Jet Fusion offers a fast and advanced way to create parts on demand.
Why is 3D Printing for me?
3D Printing is creating a whole new world of manufacturing, with the ability to create complex designs with quality and precision and deliver faster, more affordable results. Here at Protolabs we use the latest 3D printing technology, including stereolithography, selective laser sintering and direct metal laser sintering to build parts in resin, thermoplastics and metal.
Art to Part
Watch an initial concept for a product move from sketch to 3D CAD model to final part. Once a design is uploaded at Protolabs, we provide an interactive quote with real-time pricing information and manufacturability feedback within hours. Product designers and engineers can choose from various injection moulding, CNC machining and 3D printing processes—all built to produce quick-turn parts in as fast as 1 day.
Injection Moulding
Protolabs’ rapid injection moulding service provides you with on-demand production of parts in 15 days or less. We can mould hundreds of thermoplastics, liquid silicone rubber materials, and even produce two-material overmoulded parts.
CNC Machining
Protolabs isn’t your average machine shop. With automated design analysis, we can produce machined parts in as fast as 24 hours. Our capabilities include 3-axis milling, 5-axis indexed milling, and turning with live tooling. Designers can choose from more than 30 engineering-grade materials including titanium, aluminium, stainless steel, and more.
Industrial 3D Printing for Prototyping and Production
3D printing experts at Protolabs share how to best leverage 3D printing during product development. Learn how we achieve precise and repeatable results across our industrial 3D printing processes: stereolithography, selective laser sintering, and direct metal laser sintering.
ProtoQuote with Design Analysis
Product designers and engineers can upload a 3D CAD model online at any time to receive an interactive ProtoQuote® with free design for manufacturability (DFM) analysis and real-time pricing information within hours. The DFM analysis helps eliminate potential problems like sink, challenging undercuts or walls that are too thin or thick. Once a part design is ready and a quote approved, production begins almost immediately. Upload a part today for a ProtoQuote with design analysis.
Lean Manufacturing in a Digital Age
Damian Hennessey, Director of Global Sales Operations - Protolabs, speaks to The Engineer about why that decades-old buzz-phrase "Lean Manufacturing" has been made doubly relevant by the advent of digital manufacturing techniques and processes.