As much as I love geeking out over the engineering part of developing Wonderffle, it's the people that I get to interact with and the companies that I have the fortune to work with that provide the most satisfaction.
One such company is Hubs whose service I have been using since the spring to produce the parts for the commercial electric stuffed waffle maker that I'm prototyping.
I discovered Hubs while searching online for an on-demand 3D printing service after my 3D printer broke.
Turns out they also perform a slew of services including CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, injection molding, and surface finishing.
With their instant quote technology, you get pricing and manufacturability feedback just seconds after uploading a CAD file of your part.
Because of their global network of manufacturing partners, they offer the most competitive prices in the business of rapid prototyping. For some parts, the same services can cost up to 3x as much with domestic manufacturers.
Their customer service is also top-notch. Quick to respond to customer inquiries, providing an expansive online knowledge base, and protecting their customers' intellectual property, you never feel like you're on own your own in the challenging task of prototyping.
To that last point, their Head of Business Development, Alexander Vermolen, recently reached out to me to invite me to virtually join their most recent company-wide meeting at their headquarters in Amsterdam where I shared with them more about my company and learned more about how their service works and some of the technology and processes behind it.
It was a great experience and I look forward to continuing to work with them.