Protolabs Adds Carbon Technology to Its 3D Printing Service

Digital manufacturer Protolabs has added the Carbon platform to its portfolio of production-grade additive manufacturing technologies. With Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS), the goal is to enable Protolabs’ customers to move into production faster and more cost-efficiently with 3D printing, the companies say.

“We recognize that market demand for additive manufacturing has moved beyond prototyping and is being leveraged to create fully functional parts at much larger scale,” says Greg Thompson, Protolabs’ global product manager for 3D printing. “We are committed to supporting that demand in a technology-agnostic manner so that our customers get the best possible parts from the best possible 3D printing technology.”

Protolabs is a large supplier of custom 3D printing services, producing more than 100,000 printed components every month across six different additive manufacturing technologies. 

“We’re very excited about the manufacturing options the Carbon technology offers to our customers,” says Vicki Holt, president and CEO at Protolabs. “It provides a cost-effective production solution for geometric complexities that cannot be molded or otherwise fabricated. We are committed to maintaining our market leadership in being a single source supplier for on-demand services across a multitude of manufacturing methods, and Carbon will help us do that.”

Carbon DLS is used for designs that can be challenging to mold and 3D printed components for end-use applications. Protolabs is offering materials comparable to ABS and polycarbonate, which have consistent mechanical properties akin to injection molding. 

“An important part of Carbon’s strategy is to empower engineers around the world to design and bring to market better products made with Carbon's Digital Light Synthesis technology. We're proud to partner with Protolabs, a key player in the industry, to make the Carbon Platform accessible to its customers,” says Phil DeSimone, Carbon’s chief customer officer and co-founder.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.