COVID-19 | business updates

Now that lockdown restrictions have been lifted and businesses have returned to a ‘new normal’, this page will not be updated again.

We wish to thank our customers, most sincerely, for their continued business throughout lockdown. We look forward to continuing working with you.

We’ve expanded our CNC team to enable us to enhance our CNC service levels.

Click here to read more about CNC.

As part of our 40th anniversary celebrations, we had four Take The Tour events planned throughout 2020. Understandably, we have had to cancel the first two tours.

We hope we can still run our September and November events, but in the meantime, we’ve produced a virtual tour.

Click here to take your virtual tour of our facilities!

2020 marks 40 years in business for Prototype Projects. To celebrate this milestone, we had arranged four Take The Tour events throughout the year. Unfortunately, we have now cancelled our second event (8 July). We remain hopeful the our two other events will still go ahead as planned:

• Friday 18 September: 10.30am – 11.30am (Not local? Add a free IWM ticket and see preparations for the Battle of Britain Air Show – subject to the show going ahead at IWM)
  
• Wednesday 4 November: 10.30am – 11.30am

To find out more and to book your place, please click here.

Buy one SLS or SLA part on our Express service, and get a duplicate part for a colleague for 50%.

Following on from Justin’s video about Vacuum Casting, we have pulled out the key parts to explore: how does vacuum casting work.

Click here to read the article about Vacuum Casting.

In our latest video, Justin Pringle (Managing Director of Prototype Projects) talks about the vacuum casting process.

Click here to watch the latest video.

In response to increased customer requirements, we have expanded our Engineering Solutions service, which is led by experienced engineers, Richard Merriam and Gordon Lamb.

As 2019 rolled into 2020, we were looking forward to a year of celebrations for our 40th anniversary. While we’ve not been able to celebrate as we hoped (so far, anyway), we’ve continued with our series of ’40 years in the making’ articles.

Read our latest article to find out how a small project yielded big changes for our company.

The huge efforts and achievements of all those involved in the Ventilator Challenge will not be soon forgotten. Our latest article recognises the united effort of our local community in the project. 

Click here to read more about the Ventilator Challenge. 

Andrew Hayward, our Business Development Manager, is reaching out to contacts old and new on LinkedIn. Why is it more important than ever? And what does he want to talk about?

Whether you’ve returned to the office or continue to work from home, we’re still here to help bring your next prototype project to life.

Often, customers want to meet to discuss their project but that’s a bit tricky right now! However, we’d still like to help you get the best results.

If you’d like a virtual meeting (via Zoom or similar), please get in touch. Justin Pringle and Gary Turner are more than happy to talk to you and your team.

Contact us on 01763 249760 to arrange your virtual meeting.

How do you work when you have a full house? As Justin and Vikki embrace new ways of working from home, you would be right to wonder who bagged the office, and who has had to hot-desk round the house.

Read our latest article to find out.

As well as SLS parts, you can now also get instant quotes and order SLA parts made with Accura Xtreme.

We have simplified the information about our service levels and dispatch methods so you know what is available in terms of our 3D printing solutions.

Our RP Unit 2 team, separated from their Unit 1 colleagues, have embraced the challenges of long-term self-isolation. Find out more about how they have overcome the challenges and achieved success as a team.

Click here to read more about Self Isolation.

Meet our Rapid Prototyping Unit 1 team and find out more about their work in these business-as-(un)usual times, including the vacuum casting of COVID-19 testing equipment.

Click here to read more about Vacuum Casting.

We’re running two special offers throughout May.

WFH Teams

Order one SLS or SLA part, and get 50% off of duplicate parts for your colleagues:

• Dispatch of duplicates to multiple addresses, i.e. each duplicate must be sent to a different address
• Basic level finishes (B1, B2, B3) and standard level finishes (S1 and S2)
• Available on orders placed on or before 31 May 2020
• Use discount code: WFH2020

Click here to request your WFH Teams quote.

FDM/Polyjet

Pay £75 plus materials per platform and fill with as many parts as you can:

• Pay £75, plus materials, per platform (it’s usually £100, plus materials)
• Fill an FDM or Polyjet platform with as many parts as you can
• Available on orders placed on or before 31 May 2020
• Use discount code: PLATFORM2020

Click here to request your FDM/Polyjet quote.

In these difficult times, it’s always nice to see a smiley face. We’re delighted to say that Martyn Clarke, our RP Technician/Delivery Driver, is back on the road making local deliveries to business addresses. Naturally, he’ll observe the social distancing requirements, but he’s very happy to be out and about.

We know we’re not alone in the ongoing struggle that COVID-19 presents from a health, work and life perspective. It is a difficult time for us all, but we wanted to take a moment to recognise and congratulate our CNC team who have faced adversity and risen to the Ventilator Challenge regardless.

Click here to read the full article.

You wouldn’t be alone in wondering how our Sales team is supporting the Ventilator Challenge efforts, but their work is just as crucial as everyone elses. Why? Read the full article to find out…

Click here to read the full article.

As you may be aware, 2020 marks 40 years in business for Prototype Projects. To celebrate this milestone, we had arranged four Take The Tour events throughout the year. Unfortunately, we have had to cancel the first event (22 May). We remain hopeful the our three other events will still go ahead as planned:

• Wednesday 8 July: 10.30am – 11.30am
• Friday 18 September: 10.30am – 11.30am (Not local? Add a free IWM ticket and see preparations for the Battle of Britain Air Show)
• Wednesday 4 November: 10.30am – 11.30am

I would like to thank all our clients who are still working with us, we will continue to support you with your project requirements.

We announced last week that, whilst we are operating all our services, we will have to change our order cut off from 5pm to 3pm for Express (Next Day Dispatch) orders as we have had to alter our working hours to protect our staff. I hope this has not caused anybody any problems and I appreciated your understanding.

From today, 25th March, we will not be delivering orders ourselves, unless they are urgent and related to the high priority medical device projects currently being worked on. These will be be delivered by us if within our normal local delivery routes. Instead, we will be using the Royal Mail services that are available. Please check the Royal Mail website for their latest updates.

Obviously, as a business we want to operate as normally as possible to ensure that the business can carry on well past this Global crisis. Naturally, I hope that the 40th year of business is not the last, but more importantly, we want to stay operational so we can support our clients that are working on the important projects of the moment. We have had many requests to support the design effort, so that is why it is important we stay operational.

Internally we have created four separate working zones within our buildings, with the team split across those four zones, to maintain distancing, as much as possible. In addition, those who can, are working from home. Obviously, the health and safety of our team is paramount; we are monitoring the temperatures of the team daily before any work is started.

Should our circumstances change, or we have further instructions from the Government, we will update you as soon as we can.

Thank you again for your continued support.

Justin Pringle
Managing Director

As announced in our update on 16 March 2020, we are continuing with business as usual. Naturally, though, adjustments in these troubling times are necessary to ensure we can continue this.

Our staff are our top priority and, as such, we have worked as a team to ensure we minimise contact, both within the workshops and our office team.

As you may know, our premises are comprised of two units. We have now separated our teams across those units as follows.

Unit 1 team

• Half of our Rapid Prototyping workshop team are on the first floor of Unit 1 and are self-supporting in terms of equipment
• Half of our office team are also on the first floor in Unit 1
• Our CNC team are on the ground floor of Unit 1

Unit 2 team

• The other half of our Rapid Prototyping workshop team are managing the machines within our 3D printing suite in Unit 2. They pass printed parts through to the Unit 1 RP team for post-processing
• The remaining members of our office team are also in Unit 2

Justin and Vikki are both able to work from home, and are both contactable through email and via the office team on 01763 249760.

By minimising contact in this way, we are hopeful that we will be able to continue providing the 3D printing and CNC services that you, our customers, need.

Express Service

We are still running our Express (next day dispatch) service on 3D printing. From Monday 22 March 2020, all orders and final data for Express must be with us no later than 3.00pm. Any orders and final data received after 3.00pm will be processed the following working day.

Contact us

Please continue to contact us on 01763 249760 to discuss your next prototype project.

It goes without saying that our thoughts are with everyone affected by coronavirus. Naturally, we are monitoring the situation closely. We are supporting our team to ensure they stay healthy and to self-isolate if needs be.

We are continuing to deliver our services and have adopted a business as usual approach.

Free local delivery service

If you currently benefit from our free delivery service, I am pleased to say this will continue to operate as normal. If you have specific requirements for our driver when he delivers your orders, please let us know and we will happily accommodate your wishes.

Dispatch via Royal Mail and couriers

Any orders which are dispatched via Royal Mail or a courier will be delivered as per their own operational guidance.

Please do not hesitate to contact us on 01763 249760 if you have any queries.