Newsletter March 2008

In this issue:

• Did you know…Firefox plugin
• A note from Greg Ackerman, RedEye's Director on… RedEye – past, present and future
• Customer Application of the Month – syringe storage trays

Did you know…

That RedEye’s STL File Analyzer browser plug-in is unsupported by Mozilla Firefox. However, you can still get instant quotes from redeyerpm.com without that plug-in. Make sure that you do not opt to download the plug-in when you reach our quote page. When you reach the page, you will see the standard quote page with "Browse" buttons instead of the "Add files" button. Simply, click the Browse button, click the file you want to upload, then click "Get quote." For more information and detailed instructions on how to use Firefox with RedEye's quoting engine, click here.

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A note from Greg Ackerman, RedEye's Director on… RedEye – past, present and future

Greg Ackerman RedEye

When Stratasys President, Scott Crump, started tinkering with what is now knows as fused deposition modeling technology in his garage more than 20 years ago, it was impossible to forecast the success and possibilities it could bring to engineers and designers.  Since then, the company has secured many patents on the technology. In October 2005, Stratasys officially launched its paid parts services business unit for – RedEye to assist their current and future FDM machine owners with overflow capacity or a means to obtain parts prior to investing in a machine.  In 2006, Stratasys was attributed with holding 41 percent of the total market share for additive fabrication technology systems.   As of today, no other company has sold more additive fabrication systems than Stratasys and no Service provider has more a solid service arm for design and manufacturing engineers as well as inventors. Our services can help you get your products to market faster, whether you are using us for rapid prototyping for form, fit, function or any combination of these.  An ever increasing number of our customer's are now using our services to produce end-use production parts until their tool is ready for mass production. With more than 80 systems in our facilities, we can handle almost any job – big or small parts of one piece or upwards of 1,000.

Over the years, we've learned from our customers. We've learned what is important to you, what you like about what we offer and what other services you want us to provide. We are taking steps to refine our current technologies, develop new materials and determine what other services will benefit you. We are interested in your feedback and want to use your comments to help us plan the future of RedEye. Please feel free to e-mail me with your comments at greg.ackerman@redeyerpm.com.

We appreciate you choosing to quote, buy and build with RedEye and hope you continue to do so in the future. From rapid prototyping to architectural services and direct digital manufacturing, we are aiming to serve as your one-stop shop from your 3D CAD file to prototype to production or anywhere in between.
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Customer Application of the Month

Syringe Storage Trays

Dr. Javier B. was looking for syringe storage trays that would allow him to save refrigerator space and aid in the inventory count for his medical practice. He chose RedEye to help prototype his application throughout the design process. After Dr. Bustamante received his first round of trays, he realized that the trays were difficult to stack and could be more stable. In addition, the material he chose was medical grade PC-ISO and had a six percent porosity, which may accumulate debris over time. "We are very happy with the products we received from RedEye," said Dr. Bustamante. "In fact, we are planning on ordering more trays in a different material and in different colors to ensure that we are using an application that meets our needs." Dr. Bustamante says that they will now design the trays with stacking ability using modified edges or "rails" along the length of the tray. In addition, they will increase wall thickness to the sides of the trays to add stability. "We will be ordering more redesigned trays in ABS, a material that is slightly more flexible," he adds, “but it comes in yellow, blue, green, grey, red, black and white with which we will be able to easily determine the syringe content, further increasing our safety margin and inventory accuracy.”
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