Ceres Chill OG+ Chiller
With design ideas, but no developed CAD or credible path to manufacturing, Ceres Chill came to Pillar with a concept for a portable breastmilk chiller that would allow pumping parents to store, warm, and feed from a single device. . Pillar's engineering and design team reworked the concept from the ground up, simplifying the overall architecture, resolving manufacturability constraints, and standardizing threads across components to support the modularity and multi-use functionality that would define the final product. Development proceeded iteratively, beginning with rapid 3D-printed prototypes to evaluate fit and function, then advancing through thermal performance testing and a sampling process that extended across more than a dozen prototypes before the design was finalized.
On the design side, faceting was introduced to the outer body to improve grip and ease of opening, and a hex profile was added to the coupler flange to simplify operation. In parallel, Pillar supported Ceres Chill through several manufacturing transitions: an initial supplier from Pillar's network was followed by a second manufacturer, with a third brought on concurrently during the second generation to help identify a stable long-term production arrangement. The finished device stored up to 28 ounces of breastmilk for 24 hours, was compatible with all major breast pumps, and functioned as a portable warmer. The project also established the basis for an ongoing partnership between the two companies, extending across multiple products and several years of continued collaboration.
Improved Grip and Opening Experience
A key focus of the design and engineering phase was the lid, specifically improving the grip points and overall geometry to allow for easier one-handed opening and closing. Pumping parents frequently operate with limited manual availability, managing a baby, equipment, or other tasks simultaneously, meaning that a lid requiring substantial force to open presents a practical obstacle rather than a minor inconvenience. Faceting was introduced across the lid geometry to create discrete contact surfaces that orient naturally to the hand, reducing the cognitive and physical effort required during use. The result was a grip experience that functions intuitively without requiring the user to adjust their approach or apply excess force.
Met Volume Target and Thermal Performance
One of the more demanding aspects of the project was satisfying multiple thermal performance and capacity requirements without reducing the functional flexibility that defined the product. The OG+ was required to maintain safe storage temperatures for up to 28 ounces of breastmilk across two distinct chilling methods, conventional ice and a pre-frozen inner chamber, while also operating as a portable warmer. Each mode introduced different thermal dynamics, and the design was required to perform reliably across all of them. Meeting those targets while preserving system modularity required extensive prototyping and iterative testing. Early thermal evaluations identified where the design was underperforming, and subsequent iterations adjusted geometry, materials, and component tolerances accordingly through the sampling process. The final product met all thermal and capacity benchmarks while maintaining the multi-modal architecture, an outcome that the development timeline reflects was considerably more complex to achieve than the finished product suggests.
Multiple Configurations
The OG+ was designed from the outset to address a range of use scenarios rather than optimize for a single one. Milk can be stored in the inner chamber, the outer chamber, or both, giving users control over capacity as circumstances require. As the child develops, the same vessel functions as a feeding bottle, extending the product's useful life beyond the pumping stage. The inner chamber was engineered to be freezer-safe, allowing it to serve as its own chilling source independent of ice, a feature that required careful development to implement without compromising the structural integrity of the chamber or the modularity of the broader system. The outer chamber functions as a portable bottle warmer, removing the need for separate equipment. Multi-modal functionality was not incidental to the design but shaped decisions at the component level, including thread standardization and component sizing, reflecting the degree to which modularity was treated as a primary constraint throughout development.
