Stratasys leads growth industry

Quarterly misses can cloud the long-term prospects for the Eden Prairie prototyping company, but analysts are bullish. On "Star Trek," teleported objects materialized from thin air in seconds. At Stratasys Inc. in Eden Prairie, it takes longer -- two hours for a monkey wrench or 10 hours for a coffeepot. Stratasys does it not with a Star Trek teleporter, but with a machine that creates product prototypes out of nothing more than a fine plastic spray and the digital output from a computer-aided design workstation. Those models have become an important step in refining new product designs for firms in consumer, automotive, aerospace and medical manufacturing. "Stratasys helps customers cut down on product design time," said Clint Morrison, an analyst at Feltl & Co. in Minneapolis "That's money well spent." And that is why many... [read full story]