Case Study: PepsiCo achieves 80% faster, 90% lower-cost 2‑L bottle redesign with Stratasys J55 3D printing

PepsiCo - Customer Case Study

PepsiCo, under Global Chief Design Officer Mauro Porcini, set out to redesign its 2‑liter bottles for better grip, distinct brand identity, and sustainability across dozens of SKUs. After producing thousands of sketches and hundreds of low‑fidelity 3D prints, the design team needed realistic, full‑color prototypes with accurate color and transparency to get meaningful stakeholder and consumer feedback — a capability they addressed using the Stratasys J55 Prime 3D printer.

Stratasys delivered CMF (color, material, finish) prototypes and short‑run blow‑mold tooling using its J55 Prime and PolyJet technology, allowing PepsiCo to produce high‑definition, full‑color prototypes in hours and tooling or aesthetic prototypes in 24 hours without external vendors. The approach sped design cycles and reduced costs: time savings of about 80% (1 week vs. 5 weeks), cost savings of roughly 90% (tooling costs reduced to under $1,000 from ~$10,000), with printed molds showing comparable performance to conventional metal tooling and improved surface quality that eliminated post‑processing.

PepsiCo

Max Rodriguez

R&D Sr. Manager - Global Packaging & Engineering