Atena’s Wisdom
Proto Labs' office in Italy provides customers with expertise and support when using the award-winning, rapid injection moulding service. Like many other manufacturing organisations, vending machine company Atena Spa, is using Proto Labs' services to change the way it develops new products allowing the firm to bring them to market faster and with less capital investment.
Like many recent converts of rapid injection moulding, Mr. Corbelli, founder of Atena first became aware of Proto Labs and its services whilst searching the Internet for inspiration; ways and means to reduce new product development time and costs. Also like many other manufacturing companies, Atena's success depends increasingly on its ability to build products for specific applications; custom designs to meet the particular requirements of a customer. To do so, the company has already invested in four, 3D printers, which although useful during the conceptual stages of a new design, are not able to produce parts with the desired mechanical characteristics, essential during the testing and pre-production phase.
"The main problems we have solved by using the Protomold service," says Mr. Corbelli, "are the reduced delivery time of the finished parts and their accuracy. Previously, we would use traditional mould makers and then later we would commission injection moulding companies to make the production parts. However, this process could take as long as two to three months.
"The online ProtoQuote allows us to optimise the design of a particular part in order to get the best piece at the best price. With our usual providers, it's just not possible to analyse 3 or 4 different solutions in detail, simultaneously. With ProtoQuote, it's easy!"
Each part a customer uploads to the Proto Labs website is analysed by patented software to produce a ProtoQuote® which contains suggestions improving the part to make it easier, faster and lower-cost to manufacture. A customer can upload as many parts as he or she likes, free. Only when the design is finalised and delivery options are specified does the customer finally submit the order.
Atena has already made several parts for its machines using the Protomold® service. Its latest is the body of a peristaltic pump for the dosing of fluids. Atena loaded the CAD model on the Proto Labs website and after a couple of minor corrections to ease manufacturing, Proto Labs produced and delivered an order of one hundred pump bodies, enough for Atena to finish the development of the new system.