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Excerpt from www.voxelmatters.com
Like many companies, Unilever—the fast-moving consumer goods company with brands like Dove, Persil and Ben & Jerry’s under its umbrella—has turned to additive manufacturing for its prototyping needs. However, rather than print prototypes of its product packaging directly, it has taken an alternative route, leveraging SLA 3D printing to produce blow molding tools. This approach, which it has taken in partnership with packaging manufacturer Serioplast and Formlabs, has dramatically cut product development cycles for new plastic bottle packaging and tooling costs.
Prior to this new prototyping method, Serioplast would 3D print packaging prototypes directly or order metal tooling for blow molding prototyping. Both these process had their limitations: directly 3D printed prototypes could not match the transparency or feel of the final product, and metal tooling for blow molding prototypes came with long lead times and high costs. As Flavio Migliarelli, R&D Design Manager at Serioplast, said: “We have to wait six to 12 weeks before we can give a client the real sample, so we’re wasting so many weeks just to try a new bottle design. Sometimes it’s demanding and frustrating because maybe you have to start again.”
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