Case Study: Colgate-Palmolive achieves 100% production capacity and reduced downtime with Fast Radius

Colgate-Palmolive - Customer Case Study

Colgate-Palmolive faced frequent stoppages and waste on a bottling line because a rigid plastic gripper in the bottle accumulator was missing a small ridge on bottles and dropping them, causing costly downtime. Colgate-Palmolive engaged Fast Radius to quickly design and produce an improved tool using additive manufacturing to get the machine back into service.

Fast Radius developed a two-part 3D‑printed gripper—an outer PA 12 shell produced via HP MJF and an inner, elastomeric EPU 41 insert made with Carbon DLS—allowing a lattice, compliant design that conforms to multiple bottle sizes. Fast Radius iterated three prototypes and tested them in production; the new gripper restored operator confidence, eliminated the unplanned stops, and returned the accumulator to 100% production capacity while increasing throughput and reducing downtime.

Colgate-Palmolive

Mike Mitchell

Engineering Manager