Rapid, a Protolabs Company, Wins The Fabricator Magazine's 2019 Industry Award

The award recognizes Rapid’s quick-turn production capabilities, its lean manufacturing efforts, and the company’s overall evolution over the past year.

Rapid, a Protolabs company, has won The Fabricator magazine’s 2019 Industry Award. The award recognizes Rapid’s quick-turn production capabilities, its lean manufacturing efforts, and the company’s overall evolution over the past year.

“Rapid and Protolabs are all about accelerated manufacturing — creating high-quality parts quickly,” says David Puleo, Rapid’s director of sheet metal operations. “The merger gave our team the chance to do a deep dive into our process and workflows. By using lean methodology and tools to make data-based improvements, we transformed our business, preparing us for the launch of our new offer to the market. It’s wonderful to be recognized for our efforts!”

Founded in 2001, Rapid is a New Hampshire-based sheet metal fabrication and machining company that specializes in custom prototyping and low-volume production parts. Rapid was acquired in 2017 by Minnesota-based Protolabs, a leading digital manufacturing source with facilities in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. In addition to sheet metal and machining, Protolabs also has injection molding and 3D printing services.

The Fabricator magazine is published by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International (FMA), which serves company and individual members in the metal processing, forming, and fabricating industries. Each year, FMA presents its Industry Award, which recognizes exceptional performance. The award is open to companies or individuals in fabricating industries that have successfully improved operations, attained business success, and contributed to local and industrial communities.

As the magazine’s article on the award in the February issue reports, Protolabs is continuing to invest into further improving and digitizing Rapid's online-based quoting and fabrication services. Since the acquisition, Rapid is looking to further increase its capacity, automate its processes, and offer an expanded set of capabilities in order to provide its customers with a cost-effective way to source sheet metal components on-demand.

“We are excited about this industry recognition for Rapid,” says Jamie White, associate product manager, sheet metal, Protolabs. “The award is yet another example of how Rapid and its employees align with Protolabs and our overall mission and commitment to continue to digitize manufacturing in order to help our customers accelerate product development and increase supply chain efficiencies.”

White added that he expects Protolabs will continue to optimize Rapid’s operation into the future, working to further transform it into a state-of-the-art digital manufacturing facility.

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