Promoted content: How Proto Labs helps meet the need for speed

You’ve got a great idea for a new product. You’ve researched the market, and you know you have a commercial winner. But you don’t have much time.

If you’ve secured funding for the venture, your investors will want to see quick progress. And if you’re putting your own money in, you’ll want – and probably need – a speedy return.

Even if you’re a nimble start-up business, it can take up to nine months to get from concept to finished prototype using traditional methods. And for larger companies, the same process can take years – and significant financial resources.

Fortunately, for many industries, there’s now an alternative. 3D printing in plastics and metals can slash lead times to mere days (and to just one day for less complex items). Plus, when the prototype’s agreed, the technique can bring further time savings in product testing and manufacturing.

Opportunities we could only dream of

It’s the flexibility of 3D printing that makes it so useful in product development. Because it starts from nothing and builds up objects in layers, it can create outputs of almost infinite variety. You can experiment with multiple versions of an item, quickly and cost-effectively, perfecting your design in a way that – until just a few years ago – was possible only with the most generous budgets and elastic timescales.