Note 1 - Nature of Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Notes to Financial Statements

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements Disclosure [Text Block]

Organization and business

Proto Labs, Inc. and its subsidiaries (Proto Labs, the Company, we, us, or our) is an e-commerce driven digital manufacturer of quick-turn, on-demand injection-molded, computer numerical control (CNC) machined, 3D-printed and sheet metal-fabricated custom parts for prototyping and short-run production. The Company’s customers are product developers and engineers throughout the world who require a faster and less expensive way to obtain low volumes of parts. The Company’s proprietary technology eliminates most of the time-consuming and expensive skilled labor conventionally required to quote and manufacture parts in low volumes, and its customers conduct nearly all of their business with the Company over the Internet. The Company targets its product lines to the millions of product developers and engineers who use three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design (CAD) software to design products across a diverse range of end-markets. The Company has established operations in the United States, Europe and Japan, which the Company believes are among the largest geographic markets where these product developers and engineers are located. The Company’s primary manufacturing product lines currently include Injection Molding, CNC Machining, 3D Printing and Sheet Metal. Proto Labs, Inc. is headquartered in Maple Plain, Minnesota. The Company’s subsidiaries are:

Name	Location
PL-US International LLC	United States
Rapid Management Group LLC	United States
Rapid Sheet Metal LLC (RSM)	United States
Rapid Manufacturing LLC (RM)	United States
Proto Labs Ltd.	United Kingdom
PL International Holdings, UK, Ltd.	United Kingdom
PL Euro Services Limited	United Kingdom
Proto Labs GmbH	Germany
Proto Labs Tooling GmbH	Germany
Proto Labs, G.K.	Japan