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 specializes 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.
Gordon Styles
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