Proto Labs, which claims to be “the world’s fastest manufacturer of CNC machined and injection moulded parts”, has announced the production of its 10,000th mould in Europe. This 10,000th mould has been produced for the French company PETZL as part of the group’s Protomold injection moulding service.
John Tumelty, Managing Director of Proto Labs in Europe, commented: “The manufacture of the 10,000th mould in Europe represents an important milestone and demonstrates the dynamism of Proto Labs, which has had a presence in Europe for eight years.”
Bernard Faure, Technical Sales Manager responsible for France added, “I am truly delighted that this 10,000th mould has been produced for a firm which is a leader in its field, based in the Rhône-Alpes region just half an hour away from our office here in France.”
Founded in 1976 in Crolles, PETZL is a family business employing around 500 people. The company designs tools and accessories for sportsmen, women and professionals, enabling them to tackle the most inaccessible vertical environments, by day or night. This includes equipment such as protective helmets, lamps, harnesses, carabiners, etc., used in sports such as rock climbing and mountaineering and also by professionals working at heights – such as tree surgeons, rescue personnel, oil platform workers, and utility company operatives.
PETZL’s first contact with Proto Labs was in 2011, via one of the group’s partners, an external design office. Since then, the firm has regularly used Proto Labs’ Protomold service.
The 10,000th mould manufactured by Proto Labs in Europe was created for Raphaël Lanez, head of the helmet development unit at PETZL, in order to carry out tests to measure the effect of chemical products on the materials of which the protective helmets are made. Test pieces needed to be produced quickly in order to expose them to complex environments and observe the impact of those environments on the mechanical properties of the materials used.
Raphaël Lanez said: “The test piece to be used for our tests was produced very rapidly in CAD and then the parts were delivered in record time by Proto Labs. I don’t know what technology Proto Labs uses to manufacture moulds so quickly; their service is simply incredible.”
Before discovering Proto Labs’ Protomold service, Raphaël Lanez used to produce prototypes by sintering. He added: “Today, thanks to the “production-intent material” prototype parts supplied by Protomold, we are saving a huge amount of time - around two to three months - for validating the tests. Proto Labs’ services have enabled us to create a validation protocol, something that we could not have done previously. For us, it was the key to solving our problems”.
“The Proto Labs team in France is very efficient, very on the ball, very professional and, at the same time, they are friendly people to work with. I have particularly appreciated their customer service, their flexibility and obviously the quick turnaround. I have already called upon Proto Labs for other projects, and will not hesitate to use their services again.”
Proto Labs’ online quoting system ProtoQuote (for injection moulded parts) and FirstQuote (for CNC machined parts) deliver a cost and manufacturability analysis quotation accessed via the group’s websites. After loading a 3D CAD part, the customer receives a non-technical quote, incorporating costs, material choices and (where appropriate) suggestions for changes to parts in order to improve manufacturability and/or tooling and part cost.
