Reflections on 2023 from Justin Pringle

2023 – a year focused on people and progress

We’ve had a busy year at Prototype Projects, with new staff, a wealth of training, investments in equipment, and lots of hard work to enhance quality and efficiency. Thanks to some of the foundations we have laid this year, there are exciting developments that customers will benefit from in 2024.

Fun Fact: in 2023, we made:

• 16,355 CNC parts
• 41,466 3D Printed Parts

Team PP

In 2023 we welcomed Nicola Block and Luke Woodford to Team Prototype Projects. Nicola is our new Administration Assistant and is now playing a key role in making sure we do what we need to do, when we need to. Luke joined us in November as an apprentice in the CNC Department and is rapidly learning skills that will stand him in good stead for the future.

We are actively seeking another CNC apprentice and are considering taking on an apprentice in our busy 3D Printing Department as well.

Meanwhile, Shane is continuing with his ACCA Accounting apprenticeship, while Tim, Adam and Glenn have all completed their Fire Marshall training. Hannah has commenced training for a Level 3 CMI Diploma in Principles of Management and Leadership.

Michal, Glenn and Dan in our CNC Department have undertaken training on the five-axis CNC vertical machining centres and robots, and their training is ongoing. In addition, our three team leaders, Adam, Gemma and Greg, have all started a leadership training programme with an external coach, and the management team members are continuing to receive coaching in leadership and management.

Away from the personal development, a big ‘thank you’ goes to Alex Barnett for organising our Summer Sports Day at Royston Heath. This was a huge success and provided an opportunity to enjoy a variety of sports, good food and great company.

To everyone at Team PP, thank you for all you have done this year. There has been a lot going on but thank you for your efforts and good spirits. Every one of you has played a part in the progress we have made in 2023.

Finally, I’d like to congratulate Emily West, who was awarded the 2023 Turner’s Prize of Excellence for surpassing Prototype Projects’ values. This was awarded to Emily because of her considerable growth throughout the year; we are so proud of her achievements. Congratulations also go to the runner-up, Greg Gorman, who has embraced his new responsibilities seamlessly. We also celebrate Dave Jarvis, Dan Summerfield and Luke Webb who were Highly Commended. All demonstrated the qualities for which we remember Gary Turner and in whose memory the Prize was created: accountability, responsibility and ownership.

CNC Department

I know we keep mentioning our two new five-axis machining centres and the robots (named Rocky and Apollo) that tend them, but these have been a very important investment for us this year. They keep working even when we’re in bed, and are equally at home producing one-off Express CNC machining orders or small batches. Indeed, judging by the orders we have received, customers are finding it very useful that we can manufacture small batches of prototype or end-use parts with a rapid turnaround.

When we specified the VMCs and robots, we had in mind that we could increase the size of billets that we handle for the Express CNC machining service. This has been the case and the largest billet is now 100 x 100 x 80 mm, which can be aluminium alloy grade 6082, black or natural acetal, or clear acrylic.

To complement the new CNC machines, and also for parts produced on our other CNC machining centres and lathes, we have installed AquaBlast vapour honing equipment. Vapour honing is similar to the dry bead blasting process we previously used for finishing and deburring CNC machined parts. However, vapour honing is a gentler process that uses an abrasive blast media suspended in water to produce a more consistent finish with a better aesthetic.

3D Printing Department

Sample packs of PµSL parts have been winging their way to customers around the country – and we have been receiving orders for PµSL parts at an ever-increasing rate. Customers are making good use of this unique 3D printing technology for both one-offs and small batches of intricate parts that cannot be made any other way.

For SLA 3D printing, we have been trialling a new material from 3D Systems, AMX-300. This has a high heat deflection temperature (HDT) in excess of 300C, with no need for thermal postcuring, and is suitable for functional prototype and end-use parts. The trial results have been excellent, so we will be offering this as a standard material for SLA 3D printing in 2024. A data sheet will be uploaded to our website shortly.

This year we were asked to 3D print patterns for investment casting using the QuickCast SLA process. We expect to be doing more of this in 2024 and would welcome enquiries for this 3D printing technology from customers requiring investment castings.

Learning Hub

The Learning Hub is something we have been working on behind the scenes and we will launch it officially in 2024. You might have already watched some of the videos on our YouTube channel, in which case you will have seen the digital members of Team PP, namely Monica, Anton, Tony and Alisha. As none of us has the desire (or talent!) to be an Oscar-nominated screen star, we opted to use AI avatars instead.

I won’t say too much about the Learning Hub here, but we believe customers will find it a very useful resource for finding out about technologies, processes and materials for rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing.

Quality

If you have ever been through an ISO 9001 audit, you will appreciate that however much preparation you do, it is still a nervous time. Earlier this year we were delighted that our ISO 9001 surveillance audit was successful, with no minor or major non-conformances being identified. A very big ‘thank you’ to everyone who works so hard to keep continuous improvement at the forefront of their minds.

Another way in which we have sought feedback this year is by adding QR codes to every box that we despatch. Customers have been scanning these and leaving reviews on Trustpilot, and we are very proud of our average score of 4.9 stars (out of 5). Most importantly, however, on the rare occasion we receive fewer than five stars it allows us to look at how we can improve

Coming soon…

Next year we will be launching a facility for online quoting and ordering. Customers frequently ask why we don’t have online quoting/ordering and the reason is that speaking to one of our team often results in a better outcome overall. Nevertheless, there are times when customers know exactly what they need and there is nothing to be gained from discussing the project with one of our experts, so a self-service quoting/ordering portal would save time for both parties. We will explain more when we launch the online quoting/ordering service in 2024 – but please remember that you can still talk to us if you want to discuss a project first!

Staying with ‘the future’, Prototype Projects was thrilled to sponsor the November 2023 Design Truth event in London. It is fantastic to see what this community is doing for industrial design and I’m sure it is having a positive impact. With another Design Truth event coming up in Cambridge in February, it was an easy decision to sponsor that too.

Have a good break

From all of us at Prototype Projects, a heartfelt thank you to our customers, suppliers and collaborators. We have had a great year and we sincerely hope you have too. Whatever you do over the festive period, enjoy it!

We are taking a short break at the end of the year as usual. We will close at midday on Friday 22^nd December and open again on Tuesday 2^nd January.

Best wishes,

Justin
Justin Pringle
Managing Director