sipa, a division of zoppas an italian packaging industries manufacturer of injection and blowmolding machines as well as complete filling lines, has been following the newest developments in 3d printing . the company has employed 3d digital printing to create an elephantshaped pet bottle. this project was done as a part of the brau beviale 2014 exhibition held in november in nürnberg, germany . it used an entry level printer and a polylactic acid pla polymer filament to produce the bottle. pla produces neutral color and slightly transparent bottles, which was desired for this project. company designed and created the bottle in two months. in the start of the project various several sketches were made. after the company transformed three of these drawings into technical designs, it decided to use 3d digital printing to create the bottle. while the three prototypes were 3d printed, each taking about six hours to print, the 200 actual bottles that sipa used to showcase its design capabilities were made in a normal blowmolding production. sipa then printed small scales of these designs which each took six hours print & to test the stability, shape and label area of the bottles. it settled on a design and added texture to some of the smooth areas to simulate an elephant hide.
