The Upload

Making nylon parts stronger isn’t difficult. All it takes is the addition of glass to your base material. Explore the pros and cons of glass-filled nylon.

Stereolithography advantages and disadvantages

You know about black swan events: those unpredictable forces that can lead to potentially devastating consequences. They’ve been swooping in with disturbing regularity. Past trade wars with and tariffs on China. The lingering pandemic. The stuck container ship blocking the Suez Canal. Clogged ports. Container shortages. Trucker shortages. Geopolitical uncertainty including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Surging inflation. Ongoing natural disasters and climate-change factors.

Choosing to use ABS, polycarbonate (PC), or combining them is a popular way to get strong machined, printed, or molded parts. There are a lot of similarities, but also some significant differences that might help you find just the right one for your parts.

Industry 4.0. is unfolding in real time and the conversation on digitization, automation, and the present and future state of manufacturing is generating quite a buzz. Let’s unpack some common buzzwords we hear on the subject and how they relate to digital manufacturing.

Despite their widely varying applications, many electronic devices have at least one thing in common—the circuit boards and other components that make them work are all in an enclosure.

When comparing potential manufacturing processes against criteria like price and lead-time, there are many things to keep in mind. Different processes require different processing times, different types of materials, and most likely, different part design requirements and considerations. Today, we’re going to cover part design cost drivers.

The automotive industry’s accelerated move to a future of software-based, battery-powered, electric and autonomous vehicles (EVs, AVs) has been well documented.

When it comes to getting a fabricated sheet metal part that is consistent with a complex set of technical requirements, ensuring that a supplier has all the necessary information to generate an accurate quote is the first (and most important) hurdle to cross.

Protolabs also won a Leadership Award in the “Collaborative Ecosystem” category, specifically honoring our new digital quoting platform and revamped digital thread.

Thin walls in injection-molded parts can present a variety of issues. Dive into these considerations to ensure optimal part molding and performance.

Hey! Who’s a fan of organic chemistry? [crickets] OK, you may not have liked studying it, but without those chains of carbon-based molecules life would be rough. So here at Protolabs we’re all about paying our respects to those special groups of bonded atoms called polymers.