Supplier Side
Tubed Products Gets Square
Tubed Products LLC (Easthampton, MA) has introduced a new rectangular tube. The distinctive shape is meant to lend a soft, yet sleek look to beauty packages for products such as hair-care items, creams, gels, and lotions.
To top off the rectangular tube, the company offers a flip-top dispensing closure that can be oriented to the tube’s graphics. To decorate the tube, the supplier can perform five-color silk-screening and up to six-color offset printing.
World Wide Packaging’s New Jars Are on the ball
Cosmetic
packaging supplier World Wide Packaging Inc. (Florham Park, NJ) has
added three new flat-bottom versions to its existing line of ball-shaped
jars. The jars are available in a variety of sizes and can be made
from PMMA or SAN in clear or solid colors.
In other news, World Wide Packaging has redesigned its Web site, located at www.wwpinc.com. The site has been updated to feature expanded information about the company, its products, including new product additions, and its full range of capabilities.
Rexam Dispensing Catalogs Offerings
Rexam
Dispensing Systems (Purchase, NY) has introduced a new catalog designed
to make browsing the company’s components easier. According
to the company, the catalog’s “navigator matrix” displays intuitive graphics to help readers quickly identify the right
type of dispenser that is suited for their products, as well as what
type of dispenser attachments are available.
“The new catalog is not just a list of products,” says Eric Desmaris, the company’s marketing manager. “It is an effective tool to help customers navigate through our wide range of fragrance, lotion, or sampler products to find the exact dispensing system that matches their need.”
Cebal Tubes Shine Silver
Alcan
Packaging Cebal (Norwalk, CT) has introduced new decorative features
to help make plastic and laminate tubes shine.
First, the company has introduced metallic silver inks for offset printing on tubes. The new inks are meant to provide marketers with a cost-effective alternative to hot-stamped labels. They also provide more freedom to decorate 360° of a tube’s surface.
The second new offering is a line of silver laminate tubes. SilverLine tubes are available in sizes ranging from 1/2 to 1 5⁄8 in. in diameter. A wide range of head and closure styles are also available.
In other Alcan tube news, Alcan Inc. (Montreal) announced that it has sold its aluminum tubes business to its current management team and 21 Centrale Partners, an investment fund. Details of the transaction were not disclosed. “Alcan’s strategy is to further direct our investments [toward] markets with better growth rates, such as our other tube businesses—plastic and laminate—which remain a core operation within Alcan Packaging’s Beauty Sector,” says Christel Bories, president and CEO for Alcan Packaging.
New Inspirational Kit Could Change Perceptions
The
fourth edition of Perceptions, a kit that is designed to provide design
inspiration, has been issued. The new edition of Perceptions is titled
Reality. It was developed by Mode…Information and is cosponsored
by Clariant Masterbatches (Muttenz, Switzerland) and Merck Pigments
Division.
Perceptions comprises a box full of color chips, material samples, pictures, and brochures. It is a multisensory tool designed to provide inspiration and guidance to designers, product developers, and brand managers. World-renowned fashion, interior, and in-dustrial designers were consulted to develop and produce the compilation of materials. According to Clariant, although Perceptions identifies trends in colors, textures, and materials, it does not try to predict “what next year’s hot color will be.” It is simply designed to provide inspiration.
The Perceptions kit is available to Clariant customers at the company’s ColorWorks design and technology centers. “Our customers look to Clariant for help in developing successful design concepts,” says Holger Dierssen, head of marketing for Clariant Masterbatches. “Perceptions is one of the many tools we offer to help them create value for their products.”
Path Is Clear for Calmar’s Pure Path Dispenser
Ensuring
that packages, including their dispensers, are compatible with product
formulations is a serious concern for beauty product marketers. To
help, Saint-Gobain Calmar (City of Industry, CA) has introduced its
patented Pure Path technology for high-end cosmetic and treatment
products.
According to the company, Pure Path is the first dispensing system de-signed with its metal spring located outside of the product path. Since no metal comes into contact with the product, the product’s integrity is maintained. At the same time, the risk of corrosion and discoloration of the dispenser is eliminated.
Pure Path is available on the supplier’s Aria and Sonnet dispensers. The pump is easy to prime, even when dispensing extremely viscous product formulas. Saint-Gobain Calmar says that companies such as Estée Lauder and Mary Kay are already benefiting from Pure Path technology.
ScentSational Technology Makes Scents
ScentSational Technologies (Jenkintown, PA) has announced CompelAroma TE, a patent-pending technology that allows customers to experience the aroma of a package’s contents without compromising any tamper-evident systems in place.
According to Steven Landau, the company’s CTO, “The new technology involves specially engineered aromatic additives that match the aroma profile of a package’s contents. It then utilizes one of several proprietary methods of enabling the release of the aroma from the package.”
The company says that it is currently working with many of the world’s top-25 consumer product companies to help them build their brands by incorporating aroma in their packaging.
Ameri-Seal Unveils Metallic Effects for Shrink Sleeves
Shrink-sleeve
supplier Ameri-Seal Inc. (Chatsworth, CA) has announced that it is
introducing metallic printing for shrink sleeves, as well as other
special effects for shrink-sleeve decorating.
“You don’t see metallic colors used that often on shrink sleeves,” says Howard Millstein, president of Ameri-Seal. “But companies increasingly want that metal kind of look. We’re rolling out some incredible inks for an upcoming project for a major cosmetics company.”
Millstein also said that the company is working on other eye-catching effects for shrink sleeves. “Sleeves can be produced to look like they are frosted,” he says. Another special effect can be achieved with the company’s Inti-Mist shrink sleeve.
In other news, the company announced growing popularity for PET versus PVC shrink sleeves. “About 80% of our shrink sleeves are now produced from PET,” says Millstein. “There are several reasons. Over the years, the shrink factor has improved for PET sleeves. Compared with regular PVC shrink material where you only get, for instance, a maximum of a 63% shrink factor, with PET, you can get almost an 80% shrink factor.”
Environmental concerns are another factor Millstein cites that is causing demand for PET sleeves. “PET is biodegradable,” he says. “In some countries where they have anti-PVC laws, the only alternative is really PET.”
Multivac University Announces 2005 Schedule
Multivac University, established by Multivac Inc. (Kansas City, MO), has announced its 2005 schedule. The school of packaging machinery offers training courses that provide strategies for increasing package aesthetics, enhancing equipment functionality, streamlining production, and troubleshooting. The courses are held at Multivac’s headquarters in Kansas City.
One course added to the schedule is an MR Labeler course. Others include Multi-Skills technical and advanced courses. A comprehensive list of courses is available on www.multivac.com. According to Multivac, the school’s participants have been able to increase packaging line efficiency by at least one cycle per minute.
Multivac Inc. is a leading manufacturer of such components as thermoform-fill-seal rollstock packaging and chamber vacuum pouch sealers.