History of the rapid tool industry
Between 1983 and 1993 I was Managing Director and owner of ‘Styles Precision Components Limited’, a 10 person precision machining work shop. You know the kind of place: some lathes from Bridgeport and some from Colchester! My little team was great but the business was stuck in the 1960s. I had grown the business from £50,000 a year to around £500,000 a year, but in 1993 business in the North East of England was terrible. STYLES front closure.
I had two options: go bankrupt or do something spectacular. I find it ‘spectacular’ (to a small extent).
In 1980, when I was about 15 years old, I vividly dreamed of a machine that could build a metal component into an ultraviolet cabinet. Small particles seemed to collide with a small bead on the end of a vertical stick. Over time, the particle grew until there was a component at the end of the stick. It was one of those dreams that are not forgotten.
In 1989 I saw a short program on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World about the first stereolithography machine to be installed at BAe Systems. I watched as an ultraviolet laser passed through the surface of a vat of acrylic resin, turning liquid plastic into a solid. As each layer sank, another layer was deposited on top. It wasn’t exactly like my dream, but the UV element and the ‘growth’ of a part caught my imagination like never before.
In 1989 I was completely skinny: I couldn’t even afford the next box of carbide tips for my milling machine, so ‘stereolithography’ had to wait.
Once again, in 1992, stereolithography caught my imagination when I saw a magazine article written by Tim Plunkett, CEO and founder of a company called Formation Limited. Tim’s article seemed to raise more questions than answers and I was amazed that anyone, anyone, could be making a business out of this amazing new technology.
In early 1993, I called Tim on my cell phone posing as a potential client to try to get more information. Tim was very helpful and he told me a lot of things that he didn’t know. Formation was the original leader of the UK rapid prototyping industry and pioneered the quality and finish of stereolithography models. At the end of the call, I was a bit embarrassed: Tim asked me what kind of 3D data I had available to send him. At that time I didn’t know the difference between a DXF file, an IGES file or a nail file. I covered the phone, turned to my brother who was driving, and said, “Give me the name of a CAD file, quick!” Dave whispered DXF. I repeated to Tim that my 3D data was in the form of a DXF file (2D data). Oh, the innocence of youth…
I don’t know if Tim remembers that call, but he never left me because it was the point where I decided I was done with the boring old machining job and was headed for the bright lights of the nascent rapid prototyping industry. .
In April 1993 I arranged to see an SLA-250 stereolithography machine at the Hemel Hempstead offices of 3D Systems, the UK division of the American inventors of the stereolithography process. I showed up there with my girlfriend and her 2 year old daughter in a stroller and saw this innovative rapid prototyping machine. The then Managing Director of 3D Systems UK, Andrew Chantrill, later told me that of all the prospects he had had, he never suspected that by the year 2000 I would be his best customer in the UK. In fact, he never gave me a second thought after my visit that day.
By November 1993, having made the rounds with venture capitalists in the UK, he had raised a total fund of £586,000, including £250,000 of venture capital from 3i, and placed a cash order with Andrew Chantrill. . I had to help him lift his jaw off the ground.
In addition to purchasing a stereolithography rapid prototyping machine, I purchased an MCP vacuum casting system to make replicas of the stereolithography master model. This turned out to be a winning combination and set the stage for all UK PR companies to follow.
I went into the rapid prototyping business in exactly the same way as precision machining, but the result turned out to be ten times higher. Sometimes people are simply restricted by their industry sector.
In the early 1990s, a Japanese company called ARRK had set up a sales office in London to sell CNC-machined models to the UK market. Peter Rawson has been their European MD ever since. They made a lot of money selling CNC models until Tim Plunkett and I crashed their party. By the end of 1995 we had almost completely destroyed the UK CNC based prototyping industry. That’s when ARRK recognized that stereolithography was the way to go and jumped into the rapid prototyping industry with a stir.
In 1997 the UK rapid prototyping industry was dominated by Formation, STYLES RP and ARRK. There were a number of other key players like CA Models, Ogle, Malcolm Nichols, JJ Engineering, Laser Prototypes Europe, Amsys and a handful of incredibly irritating university outlets.
But the stage was set for the Big Three to fight to the bitter end.
In 1998, Formation and Styles Rapid Prototyping were virtually neck-and-neck as industry leaders; two young companies, with two young and energetic CEOs, who do it with great pleasure.
In January 1999, ARRK acquired Formation and Tim went on to establish 3TRPD, now the UK’s largest Selective Laser Sintering office.
Tim Plunkett was and continues to be the most experienced and knowledgeable rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing specialist in the UK, if not Europe. He had done a fantastic job on Formation, and I’m not ashamed to say that I copied/emulated much of what Formation did. Tim now runs Plunkett Associates, which specializes in advising OEMs on best practices in rapid manufacturing.
In April 2000, when STYLES RPD was also sold to ARRK, it had sales of £5m and employed 73 people. STYLES RPD at the time was the UK’s largest and most successful rapid prototyping company.
After the takeover of STYLES RPD, ARRK had an effective monopoly in the UK and could easily have chased away all their competition, but they didn’t.
The PR industry went through a very difficult period after 9/11, and in 2002 the industry experienced its first year of decline. I have to say that I considered myself lucky to be out of the rapid prototyping industry at the time. I could also see that big changes were afoot during 2002 and 2003. ARRK began adding imported production tooling and moldings to its offering and smaller RP offices like AME, Paragon, CA Models, and Malcolm Nicholls, as well as varsity teams. as CRDM began to gain a foothold in the market.
In 2003, Phill Adamson, former team leader of the vacuum casting department at STYLES RPD, and fellow model maker Peter Humphrey, also of STYLES, purchased the rapid prototyping arm of Mold Systems (formerly JJ Engineering). With a little help from me, they went on to create what is nothing less than the most advanced vacuum casting facility in the world. They took STYLES quality to new heights and are now renowned for their ‘two shot’ and ‘lens’ capabilities.
Both AME and Paragon now have over £1,000,000 in sales each and are growing very fast. Many of the other rapid prototyping offices are expanding nicely and biting the giant’s ankles. ARRK is now a large global tool manufacturing/molding company with over 20,000 employees worldwide. In recent years they have bought more than 20 companies in China alone.
As for me, the story is just beginning: again.
In 2005 I moved to Dongguan in South China and established a rapid prototyping company called Star Prototype China and I am experiencing growth rates of around 30% per month now. I also recently returned to the UK market with the acquisition of the once great Omega-Plastics.
Omega was, and will again be, the UK’s most successful quick tool company: but that’s for the next article.
gordon styles