Atlanta, GA, January 27, 2009 - (Quickparts) - Quickparts (http://www.quickparts.com), one of North America's largest providers of custom designed parts, from rapid prototyping to production parts, announced the recap of 2008 which was a very impressive year. This was a year that offered many new products, materials and services for the product development community.
7 New Materials Offered by Quickparts
On April 10th, Quickparts released its ABS-M30 material for fused deposition modeling (FDM). The new material was added to Quickparts’ existing line of FDM products including ABS, Polycarbonate, PC/ABS, and ABSi. The new material is considered to be 25 to 75 percent stronger than other ABS materials. It also has stronger tensile, impact and flexural strength.
May 1st saw the launch of a new polycarbonate ISO FDM material. The new material is an industrial thermoplastic compliant with ISO Standard 1099-3 and Class VI classification used in medical and packaging products.
Also in May, the company released a pair of new medical grade prototyping materials. The materials include Duraform PA for the SLS process and RC-79D for Cast Urethane Molding.
Duraform PA is a nylon-based material and qualifies for USP Class VI. It has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use in creating materials intended for processing, handling and packaging non-alcoholic food.
RC-79D is an accepted material for use in numerous medical applications such as MRI coil housings and is registered as a UL 94VO flame retardant polyurethane.
August 5th saw the release of two new ABS-like stereolithography materials, Accura Xtreme and Protogen 18920. The two materials are designed to imitate the look and feel of molded plastic and to be impact resistant. They also were made to feature lower viscosity, higher processing speeds and for generating master patterns for RTV/Silicone molding.
Soon after, on August 28th, the company announced its TangoPlus rubber-like material. TangoPlus features improved elongation at break, strength and resistance to tearing. It can be used in a number of applications requiring rubber-like flexibility and durability, including gaskets, hoses, seals and athletic toys.
Building Great Relationships
In the month of May the X-PAK, created by RedXDefense, appeared on an episode of “CSI: Miami.” In the episode “Tunnel Vision,” the device played a key role in solving one of the crimes of the week. The X-PAK is a device used in explosion detection by the United States Military and Department of Homeland Security. It was made with parts manufactured by Quickparts.
During the month of June the company announced a relationship with National Geographic, a company known for such film projects as “March of the Penguins” and “Wild Chronicles.” National Geographic uses a tool called the “Crittercam” that is a device worn by an animal to record audio, video, temperature, depth and acceleration data of animal behavior without the risk of human interface affecting the results.
National Geographic was looking for a way to create a lighter and smaller version of the Crittercam. The production engineer needed to brace and center the controller board that was already connected to the back plate of the Crittercam and served as the supporting structure for the camera mounting.
Because they only needed a small quantity of parts and were hoping for delivery in a week or less, they decided on creating the part with selective laser sintering. In the end, the company used Quickparts’ rapid quoting system to receive a cost and time estimate to then rapidly create the necessary parts.
4 Additional Awards and Recognitions
On March 6th, Quickparts announced that Mr. Daniel Ng, CAD Engineer for Quickparts, had won First Prize in SolidWorks reseller ModernTech Mechanical’s inaugural Customer Design Contest. Winners were selected based on creativity, complexity and overall design.
In June, Quickparts announced Dr. Ronald L. Hollis had been recognized with the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from the University of Alabama in Huntsville for his ability to apply his education to the success of his business.
With his educational foundation, he has been able to lead the growth of Quickparts.com, Inc. into one of the largest providers of custom parts to the product development community. Dr. Hollis is the inventor of the recently patented online instant quoting system known as QuickQuote®, used for quoting custom parts over the World Wide Web, which Quickparts has leveraged to become a world-class leader.
On July 17th, the company was involved in manufacturing parts for the award-winning POWRsyringe Injector. The POWRsyringe is an ergonomic system for hand-held injection of fluids for use in medical applications.
On September 4th, Quickparts, who was a member of the Inc. 500 in 2004, announced that it had been named to the second annual Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country.
2 New Ways for Revolutionizing Product Development
On March 19th, Quickparts announced the long anticipated launch of their latest ecommerce storefront that now gives users greater ability to: create multiple quotes from multiple processes using their new shopping cart, view images and dimensions of the files they want to quote, and utilize the new lead time calendar that allows them to choose when their part ships. Plus they can easily edit, delete, print and email quotes from within the same interface.
On October 28th, Quickparts launched their MyQuote3D .STL file viewer and 3D quoting system all in one. The system allows users to view .STL files without having to access a CAD system. The desktop application also allows users to access Quickparts’ QuickQuote system, a tool for rapidly analyzing .STL files and creating immediate quotes for rapid prototyping and manufacturing.
The analysis capabilities include the ability to detect thin walls, bad edges and flipped triangles. It can also develop quotes for individual parts and assemblies as well as adding text annotation to a file.
The quotes produced by MyQuote3D are binding and easy to submit. All that is necessary to submit the file to Quickparts is for the user to click the “BUY” button.
Finally, on December 9th, Quickparts released a new service for the product development community called Design For Manufacturing (DFM). The new DFM service allows customers to take advantage of the vast manufacturing experience and knowledge of the dedicated Quickparts manufacturing team.
The service (valued at $300) is offered free of charge to customers working with Quickparts on new rapid prototyping and injection molding projects. A comprehensive DFM report is available on the website which includes process flow details, expectations for the build, and final DFM recommendations.
“At Quickparts we strive to be the Product Development Community’s resource for all things related to rapid prototyping through production parts. That is why we added 7 new materials, developed brand new tools and are recognized by members of our industry and the business community as innovators and leaders,” said Ron Hollis, CEO and President of Quickparts. “Our goal is to be the single source for custom parts for the product development community,” he continued.
About Quickparts
Quickparts provides custom manufacturing services for engineers and designers who want to create plastic and metal parts from 3D CAD (computer-aided design) models. Using patented QuickQuote technology, Quickparts is able to provide product designers with an ‘instant online quote’ for the manufacturing of their custom parts from prototype to production.
Quickparts custom manufacturing services include: Rapid Prototypes (SLA, SLS, FDM, PolyJet), Cast Urethanes, Injection Mold Tooling and Parts, Sheet Metal Parts, and CNC Machined Parts.
For more information about Quickparts, visit www.quickparts.comor call 877.521.8683.
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Contact:
Art Siegert
Quickparts – Director of Marketing
770.901.3200
asiegert@quickparts.com