Digital manufacturing firm Prototek has completed the acquisition of 3D printing service provider ProtoCAM, which will be merged into Midwest Prototyping.
Midwest Prototyping was acquired by Prototek in July 2021 and has reinforced its commitment to additive manufacturing with this second takeover. Terms of the ProtoCAM transaction have not been disclosed.
As it continues to expand its additive manufacturing capabilities, Prototek has added QuickCast technology for the creation of investment casting patterns for quick-turn metal part production to Midwest’s comprehensive 3D printing capabilities. It also provides an increase in capacity to Midwest’s core 3D printing technologies, which include HP Multi Jet Fusion, Carbon DLS, Stereolithography and Fused Filament Fabrication technologies.
Though Prototek has been merged with Midwest Prototyping, the company will continue to operate in all current locations – with 300 employees working on more than 240,000 square feet of manufacturing workspace in ten facilities – and founder Ron Belknap and his management team will continue to oversee day-to-day operations at its Allentown, Pa facility. Nate Schumacher, Director of Strategy and Integration at Midwest Prototyping, and Ed Graham, Vice President of Additive Manufacturing at ProtoCAM, will lead the combination of business operations.
“Ron and his team at ProtoCAM are a great fit for our ongoing additive division,” commented Prototek CEO Bill Gress. “They have been a fixture in the Northeast 3D printing space for nearly 30 years and have built a business centred on meeting customer needs and producing great parts. I’m very happy to welcome ProtoCAM to the Prototek team.”
“We’ve been successful in steadily growing our business for years, but I knew that to grow the company the way I wanted to offer my team more career opportunity, I needed a strategic partner,” added Belknap. “I’ve admired Steve [Grundahl, Vice President of Additive Manufacturing, Prototek] since first meeting him over 20 years ago. We’re ‘Old Dogs’ in this business and share a passion for additive manufacturing and for our customers, so when Steve reached out to me about joining Prototek with Midwest, I knew it was the right move. I’m excited to see where we go from here.”
