Behind these doors is the future!
ProtoCAM is expanding! Since early this year, we’ve been making improvements to increase our space and streamline our workshop design. We opened up a back room area in March of this year to accommodate our new HP Jet Fusion machine and production center.
Now, we’re expanding even further; we’ve just broken through the wall into our new 2000 sq ft space, allowing us many options for creating usable and efficient space in our workshop area and for housing some incoming 3D printers.
Newly opened space
“There are a couple of things I want to do,” Ron Belknap, ProtoCAM owner, says of the new spaces. “I need a room for our production printers, like the HP Jet Fusion and our fused deposition modeling (FDM) machines, and I need space for our machines that make dirt and dust.” When dirt and dust are created during the finishing process via finishing tools like saws and grinders, these particles can fly through the air and land on newly painted parts. The affected parts would then need to be refinished; thus, an area where the particles can be isolated is ideal.
An additional consideration in utilizing the new space is proper heat cycling. “These machines generate heat, and these rooms can only take so much heat load, so I need to make sure the air conditioning is cycling through these new rooms,” Belknap says. ProtoCAM is considering each possibility throughout this process so as to create the most efficient and productive space.
With the new spaces, ProtoCAM is also bringing in some additional printers, including two Fortus FDM machines and a Fortus Finishing Touch Smoothing Station, which were acquired from another service provider whose focus has shifted from plastics to producing metals. These printers, along with our current PolyJet machine, will find a home in our workshop area as ProtoCAM begins utilizing the new areas.
The newly opened spaces will allow us to rearrange the back finishing area and printers in a way that is conducive to productivity and allows us to create an open, inviting touring space. We are also looking to establish a learning center area for presenting seminars, and, with the relocation of our PolyJet printer, we hope to create an additional conference room in our office so as to better welcome guests to ProtoCAM. We hope to have made the final arrangements and incorporated all the new printers by the end of 2017.
Newly opened space
Space added earlier this year housing our HP Jet Fusion
