Proto Labs Inc. continues to pound out record sales and income. The custom products manufacturer, which derives most of its sales from ProtoLabs.com, also grew the number of unique product developers and engineers served through its web-based customer interface to 20,792 in the third quarter of 2018, an increase of 23.0%, a factor that the company says helped drive revenue.

Proto Labs is building sales in part through its Rapid Manufacturing unit, which it acquired in late 2017 for $120 million, and its growth is a key part of the company’s expansion priorities, said Victoria Holt, president and CEO.

Increasing the scale of its operations is on track, Hold told investors on its Thursday earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “Our focus throughout the integration of the Rapid acquisition has been to add capacity in New Hampshire,” she said.

Rapid Manufacturing is based in Nashua, New Hampshire. “We are on track with our plans and will be offering these services to all our customers in 2019,” Holt told analysts. “In addition, with the expansion of our services, we are evaluating the user experience of our customers and working on enhancements to our e-commerce platform to improve the consistency, the ease of use across our services and the overall customer experience.”

Rapid Manufacturing specializes in computer numerical control, or CNC, a process by which machining or milling tools operate via computer programming. It also provides a sheet metal parts manufacturing service. Its addition expanded Proto Labs’ capabilities in product size and other criteria, the company told analysts in December. Both companies serve customers in the automotive, medical, aerospace and other industries.

For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, Proto Labs reported, including revenue broken out by manufacturing process and region:

• Revenue of $115.4 million, up 31.0% from $88.1 million a year earlier, as net income increased to $20.9 million from $13.2 million;
• Gross profit of $62.4 million, up from $49.3 million, resulting in a gross profit margin of 54.1%, compared with 56.0% a year earlier;
• Injection molding revenue of $53.7 million, up 8.5% from $49.5 million;
• CNC machining revenue of $40.8 million, up 50% from $27.2 million;
• 3D printing revenue of $13.8 million, up 24.3% from $11.1 million;
• “Other” products and services revenue of $607,000, up 70.0% from $357,000;
• S. revenue of $90.7 million, up 34.4% from $67.5 million;
• Europe revenue of $21.3 million, up 17.7% from $18.1 million;
• Japan revenue of $3.4 million, up 36.0% from $2.5 million.

Proto Labs provides several types of custom manufacturing that customers can order online: 3D printing, which uses digital blueprints to construct items by adding or removing materials layer by layer; additive manufacturing, a form of 3D printing used to add materials to build products; injection molding, a process by which material is forced into a mold to form a product; and CNC.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2018, ended Sept. 30, Proto Labs, including revenue broken out by manufacturing process and region, reported:

• Revenue of $332.8 million, up 32.9% from $250.3 million a year earlier;
• Gross profit of $179.5 million, up 28.1% from $140.1 million, resulting in a gross profit margin of 53.9%, down from 56.0%;
• Net income of $57.3 million, up 52.8% from $37.5 million;
• Injection molding revenue of $156.610 million, up 8.5% from $144.187 million;
• CNC machining revenue of $115.4 million, up 57.4% from $73.3 million;
• 3D printing revenue of $39.4 million, up 22.7% from $32.1 million;
• “Other” products and services revenue of $2.4 million, up2 26.1% from $746,000;
• S. revenue of $261.3 million, up 36.7% from $191.1 million;
• Europe revenue of $61.4 million, up 20.0% from $51.2 million;
• Japan revenue of $10.1 million, up 24.7% from $8.1 million.

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