A Maple Plain, Minn., company that prepares prototypes for the injection molding industry is expanding its 3-D printing capabilities.
Proto Labs announced last month at the Advanced Design & Manufacturing (AD&M) show in Cleveland that its 3-D printing services now include Polyjet technology, as well as stereolithography, selective laser sintering and direct metal laser sintering.
Manufactured by Stratasys, Minneapolis, Poly-Jet printers can be used to make elastomeric parts. The printers can handle overmolded parts, as well as complex shapes, and are popular for prototyping products such as gaskets, said Eric Utley, a Proto Labs applications engineer.
As part of its printing service, the company operates about 80 printers, with an average project turnaround time of about three days. Major clients include medical molders.
