The Protocase Journey

COMPANY ORIGINS

The origins of Protocase trace back to an informal conversation among engineers in a cramped dressing room at a chilly ice arena following a mid-winter beer league hockey game in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

The casual chat, which included our two co-founders, Steve Lilley and Dr. Doug Milburn, revealed a shared frustration over the difficulty in finding metal shops to manufacture low-quantity runs of custom rackmount enclosures. They noted that small production runs were not a priority for most fab shops, many of which lacked the capacity for painting, powdercoating or 3D printing.

With a strong belief that latency impedes progress and delays projects, Steve and Doug identified the need for a unique manufacturing business that could offer fully-finished custom enclosures with a 2-3 day turnaround and no minimum order.

Taking matters into their own hands, our co-founders established Protocase in 2001. They rapidly grew the company through the development and employment of a unique approach called High Velocity Mass Customization (HVMC), our integrated system of proven procedures and proprietary software that blends speed and quality.

SCALING UP

Today, the Protocase family of companies includes ProtoSpace Mfg and Protomentum divisions, and our sister company 45Drives, now a major player in the open source, mass data-storage sector.

Enjoying a global reputation for quality, reliability, flexibility and timeliness, our Protocase team is fast approaching 500 employees who thrive in our positive work culture that fosters teamwork and rewards attitude, aptitude and performance.

Today, more than 18,000 customers use Protocase enclosures, parts and components in every application imaginable. ProtoSpace Mfg works with 19 of the top 20 aerospace companies in the world.

EXPANSION TO USA

Today, we are recognized as a leading supplier of custom sheet metal, CNC machined or 3D printed enclosures, panels and parts.

Although our Protocase family has grown in leaps and bounds over our first 25 years, our positive and vibrant workplaces retain the feel of a small firm.