Sustainable Logistics: Custom-Fit Packaging Using 3D Printing

Many industrial packaging solutions are larger, heavier and more material-intensive than necessary. To reduce material use, storage space and transport volume, Palprint is turning to 3D printing. The aim is to enable companies to produce custom-fit protective packaging made from recycled PET directly on site.

3D printed packaging foam made of recycled PET — Together with two Fraunhofer institutes, the startup Palprint is developing a 3D printing method based on PET foam. The process can significantly accelerate production.

Oversized single-use packaging remains standard practice in industrial logistics. The Paderborn-based start-up Palprint wants to change this by enabling manufacturing companies to produce customised packaging and inserts in-house as needed.

“Our approach addresses key challenges facing industry: the shortage of skilled workers, increasing regulatory requirements, supply chain bottlenecks and the limited availability of different packaging materials,” explains strategic Managing Director Paul Lindner. According to Lindner, the decentralised production of transport packaging makes companies less dependent on external suppliers, accelerates their processes and enables them to respond more flexibly to short-term requirements. In addition, the solution helps manufacturers use materials more efficiently, reduce packaging waste and better meet regulatory requirements.

Founders of the startup Palprint, Paul Lindner (left) and Andreas Ribul-Olzer. — Palprint Managing Directors Paul Lindner (left) and Andreas Ribul-Olzer developed the concept for their company at Garage33, a center for young founders at Paderborn University.

When Standard Packaging Reaches Its Limits

In the additive manufacturing process, materials are applied layer by layer in a printer to create three-dimensional objects. The basis is recycled PET – a plastic also used in many single-use and reusable bottles. In principle, other recycled plastics can also be used.

According to Andreas Ribul-Olzer, operativ Managing Director of the start-up, the solution is particularly economical wherever standard packaging reaches its limits. These applications include spare parts, machine and plant components, sensitive precision parts, prototypes, customised sets, medical devices and high-value products with a large number of variants.

“The smaller the batch sizes and the more frequently products change, the greater the advantage over conventional tooling or foam-based solutions,” emphasises Ribul-Olzer, who developed the company together with Lindner at Garage33, a centre for young founders at Paderborn University.

Palprint sees particular potential in recurring shipping processes, intralogistics applications and reusable systems, where packaging can be used multiple times and recycled again at the end of its service life. For example, the inserts can be integrated into existing transport units such as pallet cages and Euro pallets.

System Solution for On-Site Packaging Production

In addition to producing custom-fit packaging on a contract manufacturing basis, Palprint primarily offers a system solution. Depending on customer requirements, the start-up supplies 3D printers from partner companies, combined with its own software and material supply, and provides them as an integrated system.

Ribul-Olzer says: “In the long term, the Palprint software will offer application-specific design based on load profile, transport route and product requirements. This results not only in a custom-fit holder for the component, but in a functional protective structure.” Product protection is taken into account from the digital design stage of the packaging. Thanks to the geometric freedom offered by 3D printing, damping zones, rib structures, honeycomb structures and lattice geometries can be integrated into the packaging in a targeted way.

3D-printed packaging for gear parts — As shown here for gearbox parts, the packaging produced by startup Palprint’s 3D printer is precisely adapted to the contents — and consists entirely of recycled PET.

The aim is to make the system solution so easy to operate that neither a specialist nor a packaging expert is required. Users simply upload existing 3D product data; the software then generates a suitable packaging solution largely automatically.

Parameters such as transport containers, material use or packaging configuration can be adjusted via an intuitive user interface. The packaging is then produced directly on the on-site system. “In the long term, we want to automate the process to such an extent that a print-ready packaging model is created from product data within minutes and then manufactured automatically,” says Paul Lindner.

Palprint is also working with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA and the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT on a variant of 3D printing using PET foam. “Many people think of 3D printing as a slow process. But our foam expands to the desired size up to 75 percent faster than conventional filament-based 3D printing, while being up to 90 percent lighter,” says Ribul-Olzer. This enables the company to produce large volumes quickly with a feel similar to expanded polystyrene. The Palprint co-founder adds: “The material remains recycled PET. The foam can be remelted and used for new packaging.”

Keeping Raw Materials in the Loop

Palprint has ambitious goals and plans to establish a recycling loop in the future. “Once a certain volume of used packaging from our system has been reached, we will collect the waste with selected partner companies, recycle it and use it again as a new raw material,” explains Lindner. Since the packaging consists almost entirely of recycled PET, no materials have to be separated. “This makes recycling significantly easier,” says Lindner. In this way, important raw materials can be kept in circulation over the long term and plastic waste can be minimised.

According to Lindner, transport and storage requirements are also reduced significantly: “Only the plastic recyclates have to be delivered. These can be transported and stored in a space-saving way.” Reusable packaging and a corresponding deposit system are also planned. Lindner adds: “Through circular economy, material savings and waste avoidance, all these approaches contribute to active environmental protection – while at the same time the system should be more financially attractive for companies than buying and storing ever more new single-use packaging.”

In initial industrial projects, the company says it was able to reduce the packaging volume of individual applications by up to 75 percent. In addition, digital production supports the use of recyclates, the reuse of packaging and the documentation of material flows. “This enables companies not only to achieve economic benefits, but also to prepare for future regulatory requirements such as the PPWR,” says Andreas Ribul-Olzer.

From Pilot Project to Application

Palprint is currently in the pilot and validation phase. The core technologies for automated packaging generation and additive manufacturing have been developed as a prototype. The next step involves system piloting together with customers from mechanical engineering and logistics. Individual inserts are already in use at an industrial logistics customer.

“The current focus is on further automating the design process, scaling the software platform and expanding circular material and return concepts. In the long term, we are pursuing the vision of a decentralised packaging infrastructure in which packaging can be distributed digitally, produced locally and returned to the material cycle after use,” says Paul Lindner.