Prototek has added a production line to their sheet metal and machining prototype manufacturing plant

Prototek is known for their rapid production rates of sheet metal, machined metals and plastics, and stereolithography parts. But now, after moving to a new 40,000 square foot facility, they are building an additional 30,000 square foot building! This new building will be for the rapid production line Prototek hopes to incorporate into their head-of-the-industry business.

Prototek has always been able to handle the rapid prototyping of parts in a matter of days. In fact, it's their specialty. But as they are growing, as are their customers, new demands are placed on the production of large quantity jobs for the military, medical society, pharmaceutical, and the like. “We've taken on most production jobs, but we always have to push the ship date back to ensure our specialty of rapid prototypes go out the door. If we want to produce rapid production parts, we're going to basically need a whole new facility to keep the jobs separated. We have a close to perfect systematic process for everything, and that of production is far different than prototyping,” stated Nick Isabelle, programmer and SLA director at Prototek.

Some of these changes would require a laser/punch combo all-nighter manufacturing cell. It would have a self loader connected to all the racks of sheetmetal. No human control is required for days, as the machine would pull sheet metal off the rack, punch it, laser cut it, tap, countersink, and bend it, then stack them on a conveyor belt . Prototek would need at least three more brakes. The ones being researched now have a robotic arm with “teach” mode. This allows the brake operator to hold the part with the robotic arm while bending the first part, and the robot will do the rest! The same concept applies to the state-of-the-art robotic welding cells and their teach mode, which Prototek is also seriously looking into getting for their new building. Prototek is adamant about producing the parts customers expect, at an unprecedented rate, and Prototek is the fastest producers of sheet metal and machined parts in the country, and quite possibly the world.

http://wwww.prototekmanufacturing.com