Prototype Techniques in Glendale plays a major role in product development for dozens of manufacturers. The firms fills a market niche for short-run production and prototypes in metal and plastic. Like most service businesses, time is of the essence.
Engineers like to have a sample in their hands — a prototype — before investing in steel dies for plastic injection molding or die casting, both of which are high-production processes. Those first-of-a-kind samples are often used for publicity photos, advertising, trade shows, reliability testing and sales seminars. Prototypes aren’t inexpensive, but they’re a safety net when design changes have to be made. Pattern changes are a fraction of the cost of steel dies that require welding and re-cutting.
Despite the time-saving aspects of computer-aided-design (CAD) and the electronic transfer of drawings by e-mail, there never seems to be enough time. Engineering and marketing can pore over new designs, making changes for months; and before the ink dries on their approval, manufacturing personnel look at their schedule and ask, When can we get the first samples?
The typical work order at Prototype Techniques is either short-run production or a sample part for a new product. Ninety percent of the time the firm works with engineering personnel. Being the prototype maker, the company is often asked to pick up the slack, the time lost in development.
A few years ago Prototype Techniques participated in making medical history. Using polyurethane, it cast the two halves of an artificial heart for the Milwaukee Heart Project, one of the first experimental hearts that kept a calf alive for 63 days.
Michael Sinur started Prototype Techniques in 1988 after 16 years with Marquette Electronics. He credits his entrepreneurial drive to the attitude of top management at Marquette, where he first met Michael J. Cudahy Jr., son of Marquette’s founder. The two worked together at Marquette in the model department. When Marquette was sold, Sinur maintained contact with engineers who left the company. Several became customers.
During economic slow-downs, manufacturers either reduce the size of their model shops or close them. They contract their work to companies like Prototype Techniques, where their overhead is low and response times often faster.
When asked about turnaround time for prototypes, Sinur said, "That depends. … Sometimes we can make a prototype in less than a week." Prototypes in a week are words of deliverance to the ears of engineers, many of whom work for larger corporations where there are more people sorting mail than Prototype Techniques has in its entire plant.
Sinur and Cudahy account for two of the company’s eight employees. They’re both hands-on-type guys who own equal shares of the corporation. They leave little doubt that they’re the company’s best salesmen. When they make delivery promises, they’re in the plant making it happen.
Cudahy Jr. admits that his name might be an asset in dealing with some customers. He bought into Prototype Techniques, a sub-chapter S corporation, without any financial help from his dad. One of 10 children, Michael Jr. is a no-tie-guy like his father, a man who feels as well-dressed in a pullover sweater as any IBM-type in a three-piece suit.
A few of the firm’s customers are local manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson, Johnson Controls, Rockwell Automation and GE Medical Systems.
"Medtronic in Colorado is one of our medical products accounts also," Sinur added, explaining how short-run production is common for companies in the medical field.
Cudahy Jr. speaks with pride of his education at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. "At MSOE I earned a degree in electrical engineering, which included courses in physics and seven semesters of math," said Cudahy. "The school places great emphasis on problem-solving."
MSOE also has the pricey laser-device for making stereo-lithographic (SLA) models, shapes that Prototype Techniques uses as patterns in its urethane molding process. The 30 or so members of the corporate consortium who fund the SLA process at MSOE have been a nucleus of potential customers.
Sta-Rite Industries is one of those companies. Using the model of an intricate pump impeller, Prototype Techniques produced prototypes for Sta-Rite in urethane. SLA models are too brittle for functional applications, but they do make dimensionally accurate patterns. For better finishes, Prototype Techniques polishes the SLA models to remove a grain-like texture that is common to the process but objectionable for some applications.
Prototype molds are cast in silicon rubber using an SLA pattern or its equivalent. Silicon rubber is a two-part thermoset material. Molds can be produced in various durometers that allow shallow under-cuts in the casting process. Despite its high cost, silicon rubber is preferred over other mold-making rubber because it doesn’t shrink. Mold costs range from $400 to as much as $4,000 for very large prototypes. By comparison, steel dies for injection molding the same parts could be $50,000 to $100,000.
The chemistry of polyurethane plastics can be controlled to produce colors, transparent parts, with durometers like the softness of sponge or rock-hard plastic. The technique is ideally suited for short-run work, where the quantities won’t justify the high cost of steel dies. Prototype Techniques has accounts who may order one to 500 pieces of some items.
"We currently have about 60 active accounts," Cudahy said. Their annual sales are approaching the million-dollar mark. A local manufacturer has the firm doing sub-assembly work for a new product, the nature of which is confidential. Sub-assembly is a growth area Sinur and Cudahy would like to pursue.
Success breeds success; and if breeding is any criteria, Sinur picked a winning partner. With the Cudahy name, Michael Jr. has some big tracks to follow: a father, who founded Marquette Electronics, a grandfather who was the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Poland and Belgium, and a great-grandfather, Patrick Cudahy of meat-packing fame.
March 1, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
