Prototyping: Taking Your Packaging Project From Concept To Reality

Posted on January 29, 2018 in Commercial, Industrial & Transport, Consumer/Retail, Food Packaging, Medical & Pharma

After designs have been approved, prototyping is a crucial step in ensuring your package functions properly and is consistent with your brand standards.  Packaging prototypes, also known as comps or mock-ups, are often used for presentation purposes to bring the proposed packaging design to life, to field test functionality with the end-users and to help in market research before the packaging goes into mass manufacturing.

It’s advantageous at this stage to discover potential design improvements.  Making modifications at this point can help avoid major problems in the manufacturing process that can result in serious cost consequences in the future.

At First Choice Packaging (FCP), we offer these options:

• 3D Printed Molds - Often the first pass at implementing CAD designs into a molded form, prototypes made using a 3D printed mold are typically used to assess the packaging's fit and function and often used for presentation purposes to demonstrate the packaging concept. FCP can deliver prototypes in as little as 48-hours.
• Ren or Aluminum Molds – Much closer to the finalized packaging form, these molds can be used to make prototypes that more closely resemble production parts for presentations and product and market testing.

The prototyping stage lays the groundwork of much to come in the production process, and feedback in this stage can greatly affect the final package design regardless of the thermoformed packaging type – Blister, Clamshell, Virtuweld, Snack / Food Tray, Lid or Transport Tray.  Once prototypes are worked out and approved, the production moves forward with tooling set up and implementation.