Company Profile: Proto Labs Inc.

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For Proto Labs, a quick-turn manufacturer of customer parts and prototyping based in Maple Plain, MN, speed has always been a key part of the company’s success, both in terms of its own growth and providing services to its customers. Over the past decade and a half, the company has expanded from a provider of plastic injection-molded parts to an international presence with a wide variety of parts and prototyping services and materials, including a new additive manufacturing division.

Proto Labs offers CNC machining services. Image: Proto Labs

“Strategically, we’re focused on rapid growth through three basic avenues,” says president and CEO Vicki Holt. “Those are acquiring new customers, broadening our envelope to include more complex parts and materials, and adding new processes to our offerings.”

Customers have guided the company into new areas such as offering liquid silicon rubber and metal injection molding.

In fact, customer requests led Proto Labs’ recent move into additive manufacturing. Earlier this year, the company acquired FineLine Prototyping, an additive manufacturing service provider in Raleigh, NC. FineLine specializes in stereolithography, selective laser sintering, and direct metal laser sintering services for corporate customers in the medical, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, and industrial machinery markets.

“We evaluated developing our own capabilities organically, and we looked at several acquisitions,” Holt says. “We determined that an acquisition at the right price with the kind of company that fit our business model and culture would accelerate our growth in a fast-growing space.”

The company was founded as The ProtoMold Company in 1998 by entrepreneur Larry Lukis. At the time, Lukis was involved in the design of a new printer. Shocked by the time and cost involved in getting injection-molded parts, he came up with a software-driven, automated process to create plastic parts cheaper and faster.

The company expanded with the Firstcut CNC Machining service in 2008, and eventually opened shop in Europe and Asia. “Those businesses ran parallel until 2009, when we integrated under the Proto Labs identity,” says Stacy Sullivan, communications manager at Proto Labs. “The entire goal is to bring machine and injection-molded parts to designers and engineers at a quick turn rate, and speed product development.”

Proto Labs recently moved its CNC milling operation from Maple Plain, MN, to a new 166,350-sq. ft. facility in Plymouth. At the beginning of the year, Holt took the reigns as CEO, replacing Brad Cleveland. Holt was previously the CEO at Spartech, a plastic and polymer processor.

The company works across most vertical industries, and has clients that range from hobbyists all the way through the Fortune 5000. “If they have a 3D CAD model, we can make parts for them,” Sullivan says.

According to Holt, 70% of Proto Labs’ customers also use additive manufacturing services for product development, so the company expects a significant amount of business from its existing accounts.

“We plan to use the sales and marketing engine we’ve built in Proto Labs to add additive manufacturing services as another offering for our clients,” Holt says. “We have injection molding, we have machining, and now we have additive manufacturing.”

FineLine was quickly identified for acquisition because of the company’s focus on development engineers and industrial customers. “They also have a culture focused on speed, just like ours, and they are technically very strong and very good at high-resolution additive manufacturing,” Holt says.

Proto Labs has acquired FineLine Prototyping, which specializes in high-resolution additive manufacturing. Image: Proto Labs

Moving forward, the company expects to expand the additive manufacturing business through organic growth, and possibly more acquisitions.

Holt says with the new service, Proto Labs can serve clients from initial concepts through finished parts and injection molding for large-scale manufacturing.

“Our strategic vision is around what we can do for the development engineer across our whole portfolio,” Holt says. “We feel strongly we’re in a position to make a difference for companies looking to accelerate innovation and become leaders, and help them bring products to market faster.”

Sources: Interviews with the company, press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.