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PROTOMOLD RECEIVES EQUITY INVESTMENT First round of outside financing will fund capacity expansion Maple Plain, Minnesota, May 23, 2001 — Protomold announced that it has received an equity investment from Entegris, Inc., the materials integrity management company. Entegris is a public company based in Chaska MN, whose sales for the last 12 months were approximately $400 million. This was the first round of outside financing for Protomold, which was founded in 1999 with seed capital provided by its founders. Protomold has developed a rapid tooling process, which radically reduces the time it takes to produce and deliver true injection molded parts. “Our rapid tooling process is enabled by our proprietary software, and with it, we produce aluminum tooling, and deliver prototype true injection molded parts in as little as 5 days. We also regularly do production runs of over 10,000 parts, so we really fill the huge gap between rapid prototyping and conventional injection molding,” says Protomold founder Larry Lukis. Regarding Entegris, Mr. Lukis added, “This is our first round of outside financing, and we are delighted to have received it from a strong and respected partner like Entegris. We have been capacity limited, and now that our process development has started paying off, this investment will allow us to begin the expansion we have been looking forward to.” John Goodman, Entegris Executive V.P. and Chief Technology Officer had this to say - “Acquiring this equity position in Protomold allows us to increase the speed of our product design and development. Since we introduce over 200 new or derivative products per year, this investment is a valuable expansion of our core competencies. Unlike rapid prototyping, Protomold’s process allows us to produce real injection molded prototypes with the actual material that will be used in the final Entegris product. With the bulk of Entegris’ products being made from highly-engineered materials, reproducing their material properties in a prototype enables us (and our customers) to truly test the product against the high-purity and often, corrosive applications our products see.” John Goodman will serve on the Protomold board of directors. About Protomold
Protomold is privately held and headquartered in Maple Plain, MN, USA. Further information can be found at www.protomold.com. About Entegris
Entegris is headquartered in Chaska, Minnesota, USA and has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea and is ISO 9001 certified. Directly and through alliances with Metron Technology, Marubeni and other distributors, Entegris provides customer support on six continents. Additional information can be found at www.entegris.com CONTACT:
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