An Overview of Our Industrial 3D Printing Services
Hello everyone, I’m Madeline Curti, Content and Creative Specialist at Prototek Digital Manufacturing. Today is the second episode of Prototek Pros Podcast. Prototek Digital Manufacturing specializes in industrial 3D printing, CNC machining, and sheet metal fabrication, offering over 100 materials, 40 finishes, and certifications under ISO 9001, AS 9100, and ITAR. Today I’m chatting with Ed Graham, the VP of Additive Manufacturing
He has great insights on 3D printing. Ed would you like to introduce yourself?
Hello everybody. My name is Ed Graham. I’m the Vice President of Additive Manufacturing here at Prototek Digital Manufacturing. I’m heading into my 30th year in the additive manufacturing space. I really enjoy helping scale additive from prototype into reliable, repeatable production through strong quality systems, automation, and operational excellence.
That’s great. That’s a lot of experience in additive manufacturing. Can you tell us what industrial 3D printing services are offered at Prototek Digital Manufacturing?
We offer a full suite of industrial additive manufacturing services, including SLS, MGF, SLA, FDM, and DLP. We offer large-format polymer printing. What differentiates us is not just printing, but our ability to have value-added services in finishing, bonding, painting inserts, and light assembly all done under one roof. This allows us to support everything from early-stage prototypes to full production programs with controlled quality systems and scalable workflows.
How do you decide which materials and processes to invest in or develop further?
We make investment decisions on material and processes based on application, demand, repeatability and production scalability, not just what’s new in the market. Industry trends are parts that we evaluate aerospace, defense, medical margins, sustainability, automation, compatibility, and the ability for the technology to go through our workflow seamlessly. If a material or process supports reliable, repeatable production aligns with our target industries, it becomes a strong candidate for investment.
Are there some industries that really benefit from 3D printing?
Yes, there are industries that really benefit from 3D printing, especially industries that value customization, weight reduction, low to mid-volume production, and rapid iteration. We see strong adoption in aerospace and defense. Lightweighting structural components, ducting, UAV applications, medical custom enclosures, device housings, industrial equipment, complex housings, fixtures, tooling, robotics, and automation.
These industries benefit most when additive is applied strategically to the right application, not as a replacement for everything, but as a complement to traditional manufacturing.
Can you give me a few examples of projects we’ve been working on lately?
I would love to be able to give specific examples of projects we’ve been working on lately, but in the additive space, the coolest things that we’re working on are also the things that we’re not allowed to talk about.
We do do a lot of work in the aerospace and defense industry, you know, special ducting and structural components that require painting and bonding. We do also a lot of, work in the UAV and autonomous vehicle space, the medical space, improving the quality of life for all of us with some of the, interesting programs we’ve been working on there.
And then motorsports is another hot area, and these parts are used in production. They’re not, prototype application. They’re production. We really enjoy transitioning from prototype into low-volume production, where consistency and documentation are critical. Additionally, we’re helping customers consolidate assemblies into single printed parts, reduce and weight part count, and assembly time. These projects highlight how additive becomes more powerful when integrated into a broader manufacturing strategy.
Like with anything else, there are advantages and disadvantages to producing parts with additive manufacturing. Do you have any advice to offer engineers and designers looking to get into additive manufacturing?
If you’re an engineer or designer looking to try 3D printing for producing your components, one thing I would recommend is always look at the application, make sure that the application fits what you’re trying to do, not the other way around.
At Prototek Digital Manufacturing or technology agnostic, we have all of the 3D printing technologies to help fit the right application versus trying to fit a technology into an application. There are big advantages of using additive, part consolidation, weight reduction, complex geometries, fast iterations, digital inventory opportunities. And there’s also some things that we should, take into consideration, like surface finishes, tolerances, post-processing and production scalability.
Engage with Prototek Digital Manufacturing early as possible. The earlier we can collaborate on design for additive manufacturing, the more value we can unlock together.
Thanks for chatting, Ed. That was Ed Graham, VP of Additive Manufacturing at Prototek Digital Manufacturing. Thanks for listening to Prototek Pros Podcast. For more information on our capabilities or value-added services, please visit prototek.com.
Need custom parts faster than brewing your morning coffee? Prototek’s 3D printing services have you covered from prototypes to production parts. We’re so quick you’ll think we’ve got a time machine prototype where quality innovation meets scale and speed. Visit prototek.com today.