Digital manufacturing is at the cutting edge of its industry, and new and innovative ways of doing things are introduced almost monthly. For businesses just entering the industry or looking to branch out in it, Protolabs’ new Insights series is the best place to start.
The idea behind the Insight series is to help people better use digital manufacturing and the company’s services. But rather than just putting out endless white papers or complex blog posts on the topic, the company decided to use video marketing.
Learn the visual way
According to Protolabs, the idea behind creating the Insight videos was to help ‘design better parts for digital manufacturing’ with useful tips to save companies time and money. By making them into videos as opposed to white papers, they can make the content easier to consume and more user-friendly.
The first video in the series walks through how to bridge the gap between prototyping and production. Bridge tooling is a way to get a new product onto the market in a much shorter time frame than would be possible with conventional tooling and to test products in real life with customers. This helps to refine the product at a lower cost than normal.
Pros and cons of digital manufacturing
With their videos, Protolabs is keen to show both the pros and cons of digital manufacturing, although they firmly believe that the plus points outweigh any potential downsides.
For example, they quickly point out that rapid injection molding isn’t identical to traditional production tooling. However, the system is close enough that it is ideal to solve several problems. Most importantly, it dramatically cuts down the time to market, allowing the creation of final steel molds in a much shorter time frame.
Who can use their services?
Protolabs has created its informative video series to cover the burning questions across their industry and focus on the different industries that they work with. This is highlighted by some of the main industries already using their processes.
In the medical industry, digital manufacturing allows the efficient creation of new healthcare products, ranging from connected devices to mass personalisation. Rapid prototyping, bridge tooling, and low-volume production are key for this.
In the aerospace industry, digital manufacturing is being used to create fully functional aerospace components, including early prototyping and design validation. Similarly, automotive companies are testing products such as onboard connectivity, self-driving components, and electric vehicles with digitally manufactured components.
Industry leading information
Protolabs offers industry-leading products and services, and now, with their Insight video series, they are offering extra help or inspiration for businesses seeking to use their systems. The videos are free to view and available on their website, with a new issue released every Friday. You can also visit their YouTube channel to catch the latest video walkthrough.
