In today’s competitive market, it’s increasingly important to stand out from the crowd with your unique branding. Your brand’s mission and values help to define your brand’s voice. Your creative brand development defines your aesthetic and user experience. The look and feel of your product and your packaging are critical to building brand reputation. It’s the difference between being featured on your customer’s unboxing stories on social media versus being deemed as ‘not grammable’. 

Translating your creative brand aesthetic to your packaging poses some inevitable challenges. The major pitfall for packaging designers is designing for manufacture. Taking it one step further, presenting 3D prototypes can assist the design and development process ahead of mass production. With decades of experience in designing packaging for manufacture and rapid prototyping, KacePack can help to simplify and speed up your packaging design process.

What are the benefits of rapid prototyping? 

At KacePack, our in-house 3D printers allow us to quickly prototype your packaging and container design ideas. Our team can quickly create 3D models from 3D CAD designs which are a close representation of the proposed finished design. 

The process

The 3D printer bay sits just adjacent to KacePack’s engineers and CAD specialists. The machines of choice for container and packaging models is the Form 2. These 3D printers output using a method called SLA (stereolithography) which points a high precision laser on a tray of liquid resin causing layers to solidify. 

The material and the method

Though SLA can be quick and precise there are still some limitations that exist. Two very important elements to remember are (1) material and (2) output method. The materials and the method associated with 3D printing are fundamentally different than in mass production. In other words, a 3D prototype, though a great representation of a product, will often have slight differences in rigidity, strength, weight, and fit.

Explore concepts faster

Creating a visual replica of your design overnight means you can test your concept, ensure labels fit, and verify the general dimensions of your design. Speeding up your design and development process to 1 to 2 business days instead of waiting 2 to 4 weeks for a molded prototype can make a vast difference to your production timeline.

Multiple iterations at a more affordable price

Rapid prototyping means we can test multiple iterations and form factors in a matter of days at a fraction of the cost of setting up prototype molds. Receive quick feedback from key stakeholders and test the user experience to ensure you’ve nailed the desired customer experience.

Design for manufacture & compliance

Minimize errors by testing multiple variables in a shorter period of time. Test for structure and form, ensure internal volume requirements are met and assure compliance with local state packaging regulations. Testing with 3D prints allows for quick iterations before you invest in production molds and order hundreds of thousands of pieces! 

We bridge the gap between brand, design, development, and manufacturing. Find out how we can help your product team reduce costs and meet production timelines, contact us or email: hello@kacepack.com.