Between 1983 and 1993 I was Managing Director and owner of 'Styles
Precision Components Limited', a 10-person precision machining jobbing
shop. You know the kind of place: a few Bridgeport's and a few
Colchester lathes! My little team were great, but the business was
stuck in the 1960's. I had grown the business from £50,000 per annum to
about £500,000 per annum, but in 1993 business in the North-East of
England was terrible. STYLES faced closure.
I had two options: go bust, or do something spectacular. I chose 'spectacular' (in a small way).
In 1980, when I was about 15 years old, I had a vivid dream of a
machine that could build up a metal component in an Ultra Violet
cabinet. Little particles seemed to collide with a small bead on the
end of a vertical stick. As time went by, so the particle grew until
there was a component on the end of the stick. It was one of those
dreams you don't forget.
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 Ultra Violet laser lased across the surface of a vat of
acrylic resin converting liquid plastic into solid. As each layer
dipped down, another layer was deposited on top. It wasn't exactly like
my dream, but the UV element and the 'growing' of a part caught my
imagination like nothing before.
In 1989 I was completely skint: I couldn't even afford the next box of
carbide tips for my shell-mill, so 'stereolithography' had to wait.
Again in 1992 Stereolithography caught my imagination when I saw a
magazine article by Tim Plunkett, the Managing Director and founder of
a company called Formation Limited. Tim's article seemed to pose more
questions than it gave answers and I was amazed that someone, anyone,
could possibly be making a business out of this stunning new technology.
In early 1993 I called Tim on my mobile phone posing as a potential
customer to try and glean more information. Tim was really helpful and
he told me a lot that I didn't know. Formation was the original leader
of the UK rapid prototyping sector and blazed a trail in the quality
and finishing of Stereolithography models. At the end of the call I
embarrassed myself somewhat: Tim asked me what kind of 3D data I had
available to send to 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
and turned to my brother who was driving and said - "give me the name
of a CAD file - quickly!" 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 it has never left me
because it was the point at which I decided that I had had enough of
dreary old jobbing machining, and that I was going to head for the
bright lights of the fledgling rapid prototyping sector.
In April of 1993 I arranged to view an SLA-250 stereolithography
machine at the Hemel Hempstead offices of 3D Systems the UK division of
the US inventors of the stereolithography process. I turned up there
with my girlfriend and her 2 year-old daughter in a pram and viewed
that ground breaking rapid prototyping machine. The then Managing
Director of 3D Systems UK, Andrew Chantrill, later told me that of all
the prospects he had ever had, he never suspected that by 2000 I would
be his best UK customer. In fact, he never gave me a second thought
after my visit that day.
By November 1993, having done the rounds with the venture capitalists
in the UK, I had raised a total fund of £586,000 including £250,000 of
venture capital from 3i, and had placed an order with cash with Andrew
Chantrill. I had to assist him in getting his jaw off of the floor.
As well as buying a stereolithography rapid prototyping machine, I
purchased an MCP vacuum casting system for making replica parts from
the stereolithography master model. This turned out to be a winning
combination and set the mould for all UK RP companies to follow.
I went at the rapid prototyping business in exactly the same way I had
gone at jobbing precision machining, but the result turned out to be
ten times bigger. Sometimes people are just held back by their
industrial sector.
In the early 1990's a Japanese company called ARRK had set up a sales
office in London to sell CNC machined models into the UK market. Peter
Rawson has been their European MD ever since. They made really good
money selling CNC models until Tim Plunkett and I crashed their party.
By the end of 1995 we had almost completely destroyed the CNC based
prototyping sector in the UK. It was then that ARRK conceded that
stereolithography was the way forward and jumped into the rapid
prototyping sector with a big splash.
By 1997 the UK rapid prototyping sector was dominated by Formation,
STYLES RP, and ARRK. There were a number of other key players such as
CA Models, Ogle, Malcolm Nichols, JJ Engineering, Laser Prototypes
Europe, Amsys, and a smattering of incredibly irritating University
outlets.
But the stage was set for the Big Three to battle it out to the bitter end.
By 1998 Formation and Styles Rapid Prototyping were pretty much
neck-and-neck as the industry leaders; two young companies, with two
young and energetic Managing Directors, going at it with great gusto.
In January 1999 Formation was acquired by ARRK and Tim moved on to set
up 3TRPD, which is now the UK's largest Selective Laser Sintering
bureau.
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 such a fantastic job at Formation,
and I am not ashamed to say that I copied/emulated much of what
Formation did. Tim now runs Plunkett Associates, which specialises in
advising OEM's on best practice 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 that time was the largest and
most successful rapid prototyping company in the UK.
After the acquisition of STYLES RPD, ARRK had an effective monopoly in
the UK and could quite easily have driven away all of their competition
- but they didn't.
The RP sector went through a very difficult period post 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
sector at that time. I could also see that great changes were afoot
during 2002 and 2003. ARRK started to add imported production tooling
and moulding to its offering and the smaller RP bureaux such AME,
Paragon, CA Models and Malcolm Nicholls, as well as the University
outfits such as CRDM started to take a good foothold in the market.
By 2003, Phill Adamson, a former Team Leader of the Vacuum Casting
department at STYLES RPD, and his modelmaker colleague Peter Humphrey,
also from STYLES, bought out the rapid prototyping section of Mold
Systems (formerly JJ Engineering). With a tiny little bit of help from
me, they set about creating what is nothing short of the World's most
advanced vacuum casting facility. They took the STYLES quality to new
heights and are now renowned for their 'two-shot' and 'lens'
capabilities.
Both AME and Paragon now have more than £1,000,000 in sales each and
are growing very fast. Many of the other rapid prototyping bureaus are
expanding nicely and biting away at the giant's ankles. ARRK are now a
huge Global toolmaking/moulding company and have over 20,000 employees
world-wide. In the last couple of years they have bought more than 20
companies in China alone.
As for me, the story is just beginning: again.
In 2005 I moved my home to Dongguan in Southern China and set up a
rapid prototyping company called Star Prototype China and am
experiencing growth rates of about 30% per month presently. I also came
back into the UK market recently with the acquisition of the once great
Omega-Plastics.
Omega was, and will again be, the UK's most successful rapid tooling company: but that's for the next article.
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