Stan_L

Proto Labs does more than just take your CAD designs, machine your parts, and ship them back to you. This company is filled with talented, passionate engineers who strive to optimize your design, save you money, while providing a meaningful customer experience. Not only did I feel that I was getting all the support and services I needed, but knew that the price point was right on par with what I was expecting. Proto Labs also provides intuitive, and easily to understand, up-to-date educational materials related to design, material selection, rapid prototyping, and other engineering functions.

Strengths: Incredible customer service and relatively quick turn around time. Over the phone, and online engineering recommendations about your project help drive your work to be the best it can be, while making the most of your time. They understand your time is valuable and you need your parts ASAP.

Needs to improve: The only downside of using Proto Labs, like most other outsourced prototyping services, is that it is outsourced and not in-house. Having to deal with the lag time related to fulfillment and delivery of parts is an annoyance to design engineers actually trying to "rapid prototype".