How 3D printers are reshaping the pest control packaging process

Printing has entered the third dimension, and #pestmanagement professionals are reaping the benefits. For almost a decade, the formulation and packaging engineering team at Syngenta has used #3dprinting technology to create highly effective bottles, containers and tubes tailored to the needs of customers and the industry.

According to Wallie Meisner , a senior packaging engineer at Syngenta before retiring in 2022, when 3D printing technology first arrived in the market, the company relied on outside vendors to create prototypes with it. He remembers one project that was the catalyst for change.

“We wanted our own 1-gallon bottle, one that was different from anyone else’s,” he recalled. “We went from napkin sketches to model design, but in between we outsourced a bunch of 3D printing jobs. That alone took weeks and thousands of dollars to complete.”

Prototyping demands many rounds of redesigns, something Meisner knew would never change. He also knew how complex pest control product packaging can be. The Tandem? Insecticide bottle, for instance, is no simple container. It features a separate chamber the formulation can be squeezed into and measured for precise use. ?

Even something as seemingly minor as the scoop included with every container of Advion? MicroFlow insect bait took several prototypes for the packaging technology team to find the best possible size for filling bulb and bellows dusters without spilling the product.

Syngenta acquired its first 3D printers in 2015, ?and immediately enjoyed drastic drops in costs and downtime in the prototyping process. Today, the formulation and packaging engineering team has its own 3D printing specialist, Kal Edly , as well as three different types of 3D printers for prototyping.

The first is a Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printer, which features an extrusion nozzle that heats and melts plastic filaments as the filaments are threaded through it. The melted plastic oozes onto a controlled movable table, where layers cool and fuse together. These layers build up throughout the print to form the finished product.

Edly also uses a stereolithography (SLA) printer, which employs ultraviolet lasers to melt and shape curable liquid resins into objects. Layer by layer, the laser traces a cross section of the object pattern onto the liquid resin, curing the pattern onto the surface and fusing it to the layer below. As each layer is added, an elevator platform lowers by a distance equal to the thickness of the layer.

“SLA printers can turn out high-quality parts,” said Edly. “They’re good for smaller pieces and bottles.”

For most 3D printing projects, Edly heads to the lower level of the lab, the only space large enough to house the department’s most prized machine. It turns out factory-ready containers in a fraction of the time. In our next post, we’ll learn more about this 3D printer and how Edly used it to create the packaging for Advion MicroFlow.

To learn more about pest control solutions from Syngenta, sign up for a free SyngentaPMP account to gain access to technical expertise, label/SDS updates and more.

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