A spool of bright pink, engineering-grade PLA can become just about anything — and that’s the magic of the resin‑to‑rope transformation that happens every day at Green Bay’s COEX 3D.
The company started out as a manufacturer of spiral binding and was affiliated with the family of firms known today as The Village Companies. In 2022, longtime BayTek Entertainment/Village Companies employee Todd Louthain jumped at the opportunity to buy COEX 3D and break it off as its own company.
“Additive manufacturing is an industry that’s growing exponentially fast,” Louthain says, noting that companies rely heavily on the technology for prototyping. He says the U.S. military market is a key growth opportunity he’s eyeing as owner of COEX.
And while COEX supplies major companies like Nike, John Deere, Oshkosh Corporation and SpaceX (yes, Green Bay-made filament has been to space), Louthain estimates about 60% of COEX’s total customer base is hobbyists making trinkets, art and wearables such as helmets for cosplay. He says that while 3D printers are only in about 5% of U.S. households today, that number will likely jump to 75 or 80% by 2040 as the price of printers becomes more accessible and people discover their myriad uses.
“I love old stuff, cars and motorcycles and that sort of thing. And there’s lots of parts that you just can’t find or they don’t exist anymore,” Louthain says. “Very often, you can 3D print a replica and 99.9% of people would not know that it’s not the original factory.”
But as the “garbage in, garbage out” axiom warns us, not all 3D prints are created equally. Louthain says COEX filament stands out because it uses 100% virgin resins and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. COEX is also one of just a handful of American-made filament makers that sell to the open market. Most sales are via the company’s website; COEX products aren’t available on Amazon, where Louthain says there’s little to no opportunity to provide the company’s highly-touted customer service.
“If they have problems or questions, a lot of times a quick, 5-minute conversation will answer that,” Louthain says. “That might save them hours of trial and error and research on YouTube.”
