Coca Cola was the first Western consumer product company to enter the Chinese market, some 36 years ago in 1979, after China began its shift towards a market economy. In the beginning, it was sold only to tourists and foreigners, but, now, China has grown into Coca Cola’s third global market. This success story could now be entering a new phase with a recent partnership between Chinese 3D printer manufacturer Mankati and Coca Cola China’s IT Department.
The soda manufacturer organized an IT Tech Summit, inviting several local tech companies to showcase their products to the staff. Mankati 3D Printer was among the companies invited to share their experiences and illustrate the solutions they offer in the 3D printing industry, exploring specifically the possible uses of desktop 3D printing technology within a Coke bottling plant.
The Mankati staff presented their Full-scale XT Plus systems as well as several examples of 3D printed objects, including the miniature Rapiro Robot, which is almost entirely 3D printed. A workshop titled “3D Printing, Manufacturing in the Office” also contributed to raise awareness of the possibilities of desktop-based prototyping.
In fact – as we had already seen in an article from a few months ago – desktop FFF 3D printing can be a perfect complement to new Coca Cola bottle prototyping. Currently, plastic bottles are produced by blow molding, a manufacturing process which makes hollow plastic parts. The prototyping process of blow molding can be slow and expensive. Thus, traditionally blow-molding companies have tended to avoid prototyping to save time and costs.
With 3D printing, it becomes possible to design a mold, build the tool, and blow mold prototypes close to production quality with less time and cost. By implementing FFF technology, into its workflow, a company can thus shorten the prototyping process by more than 10 days and cut the costs by thousands of RMB’s (or $, or €, according to where it is located) for each mold.
Coca Cola in China now serves over 140.000.000 drinks a day. They include 10 different brands and over 50 different flavors of sodas. At the rate things are going, soon each one might even have its own particular shape as well.
