Every year we make a conscious commitment to growth: a commitment toward innovative thought, new tools, technology, materials and processes, people and our shop atmosphere and 2008 was no different.

One of our largest accomplishments this year was streamlining internal administrative operations. This encompassed everything from accounting to marketing and shop process procedures. Even though our customers may not directly feel the fruits of this labor, we have set in place the ground work for steady growth for years to come.

Here’s the skinny on 2008 efforts:

Shop

On the shop floor, you’ll notice a large improvement in tooling storage and accessibility. With the addition of Kennedy tool boxes and custom made storage, all machining operations have dedicated storage and inventoried tooling.

A CAD/CAM workstation has been added to the Model Maker’s studio, for all to use, making CAD file translation and creation more accessible, as well as e-mail and the internet.  For a list of e-mail contacts, please visit the Contact Us page.

Also in the shop you’ll see dedicated space for packaging.  Just a small way of insuring your models and prototypes make delivery in one piece.

Tools

The toys we’ve brought into the shop this year all relate to heat.  This includes a four foot thermoforming brake, plastic welder, and precision welding equipment.  In addition to this, we continually push a larger inventory of machinable materials.  Just in aluminum alone we’ve got nearly 2000 lbs in house!

After much research and experimentation, we’ve nailed down two impressive “soft-touch” paints.  These are now both being stocked in our paint array, and possess unique characteristics.  Now your models and prototypes can have not only the look, but the feel too of over molded parts, without the investment of soft tooling.

Setting The Standard

We now manage and archive past projects in an organizational and practical manor.  This allows us to quickly reference past projects for any information the customer may not have readily available such as material choices, paint formulas, or special notes.

Keeping standardization is our mantra, we’ve also created proprietary color sample standards.  These are precisely sized, chemically cleaned aluminum blanks that we store in a sealed state, ready for use.  In addition to this, we’ve initiated a color sample and paint formula cataloging system to ensure color accuracy days, months, and even years later.

The Finishing Touch

On a final note, 2008 was an exciting year simply so many of the models and prototypes we worked on were introduced on the market. Keep an eye out on our Portfolio page for some new images. We’ve also been proud to see our regional business grow across the nation with customers reaching the west coast, northern border, and of course a growing base here in sunny South Florida.

And lastly, we were proud to celebrate Daniel Bermudez’s first full year at Rocket Prototypes, Inc. He has definitely proved to be a huge asset to the technical team here in the shop. Most of the fine finishes our customers praise us on are creations of his talent. Thank you Daniel! That about wraps up 2008. In short, the year was mostly about lean implementation and improved capabilities and capacity. Thank you for being our customers, we cannot be happier to serve you.

Thank you,
Rocket Prototypes, Inc.