Engineering news
The digital manufacturer of custom prototypes and low-volume production parts is building a bespoke 4,645m2 extension at its Halesfield facility in Telford. It will house at least 50 additional CNC machines and a further 20 additional injection moulding presses.
Protolabs works with thousands of product designers and engineers across Europe every year. This investment will help meet growing demand for ‘speed to market’ from clients across the automotive, aerospace, medical, electronics and heavy industry sectors, the company said. Over the course of the next two years, it will also create 60 new high-skilled jobs in Shropshire.
The foundations for the extension are in place, and the project is set for completion by early 2020.
“The focus now, more than ever, is on speed and making sure new products and components are either first to market or ready when the end customer needs them,” said Bjoern Klaas, vice-president and managing director of Protolabs Europe.
“We are ideally set-up to meet this requirement, with a combination of our design and analysis team, bespoke production software and, once the expansion is complete, around 300 CNC milling, CNC turning and plastic injection moulding sampling and production machines at our disposal.
“Then we have our state-of-the-art 3D-printing facility in Germany – all of this gives us the capacity to turn jobs around in as fast as one day.”
He continued: “Despite uncertainty surrounding Brexit, we are confident that our recent growth will continue… the expansion of our factory gives us an additional 16% capacity and, importantly, the level of technology we need to help us reach our five-year target.
“At the moment, we employ over 440 people in Telford and we expect to reach more than 500 employees between now and the end of 2021. We are actively seeking people with the right skills that fit the Protolabs culture.”
General manager Lee Ball said: “The expansion will give us the platform we need to deliver our on-demand manufacturing offer to more customers, as well as providing improved welfare rooms for our employees as part of creating an even better working environment.
“It is the latest development in what has been a very busy 2019, with secondary services added to make sure we are keeping up with what the market requirements. These include detailed measurement and inspection reporting and anodising for CNC machined parts.
“We’ve also added new materials, including inconel 718, maraging steel 1.2709 and copper to our growing list of metals for 3D printing. It’s all about giving our customers what they want and making sure we can meet their ‘need for speed.’”
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.