Dispensing Systems: Driving Innovation
MeadWestvaco Calmar’s Sonnet pump, featuring the supplier’s Pure Path technology, helps keep Almay’s new Beauty 1-2-3 cleansing lotions pure. The line’s daily
moisturizers feature the supplier’s low-dosage, low-profile MD-150 lotion pump.In the dispensers industry, suppliers are heeding marketers’ calls.
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorWhen it comes to developing dispensers, suppliers are paying close attention to what marketers—and consumers—want. Product protection continues to be a primary concern. Thus, suppliers have been designing airless packaging, no-metal product pathways, and sealable orifices. Marketers are also looking for cost-efficient ways to achieve a custom-looking dispenser, and suppliers have presented several viable options for them. Read on to find out more about these developments, among others.
Keeping Product Pure
Brands require dispensers that can protect a product throughout its use, especially for products with sensitive ingredients. Metal parts can react negatively with product formulations. To help maintain a product’s integrity, many suppliers have designed dispensers that contain no metal parts in a dispenser’s product pathway.
“Companies that have preservative-free ingredients or organic ingredients like the idea that their product won’t come into contact with metal springs or other metal components,” says David Hou, marketing director for dispenser supplier Han Hean USA Corp. (Edison, NJ). “For us, this type of technology is the next generation of dispensers.” Han Hean has already patented an outer-spring design that keeps metal components out of the fluid pathway.
Almay recently chose supplier MeadWestvaco Calmar’s (City of Industry, CA) Pure Path technology for cleansing lotions in its recently launched Beauty 1-2-3 skin care line. The patented Pure Path design has a metal spring located outside the fluid path. According to Calmar, keeping the products pure was a must for Almay, a brand known for its hypoallergenic products.
Airless Dispensers
Airless dispensers also help protect a product by keeping air out of a container. As they have become more popular in the industry, more suppliers are expanding and improving their airless offerings.
Last year, Kaufman Container (Cleveland) began distributing the Keltec dispenser line. In addition to other dispensers, the Keltec line includes the Star collection of airless dispensers, which Jeff Gross, the firm’s vice president of sales and marketing, says has been the most popular. “The interest in the Keltec line of dispensers, and in the Star series in particular, has been largely due to our customers’ need for airless alternatives,” he says.
Currently, Kaufman stocks 50-, 100-, and 150-ml versions of the Star series, with a 30-ml travel size expected to hit the U.S. market early this year. Personal care brands such as aMENity have already used the Star dispenser, which is all-plastic and features rolling-bellows technology.
South Korean supplier Tae Sung is also expanding its airless technology. At the beginning of last year, the firm began offering a dual-chamber airless package. “A dual-chambered airless pump is not new to the market, but [given] current formulations, it is becoming more widely used,” says Ken Taylor, a representative for Tae Sung.
Tae Sung’s dispenser is ideal for products that need airless packaging and whose ingredients must also remain separate until they are mixed together at the moment of use. “A dual-chambered airless package allows for a longer product shelf life for certain products because once their ingredients are mixed together, the clock starts ticking,” says Taylor.
Tae Sung has also introduced airless dispensers for wide-mouth jars. According to Taylor, these jars are suited for vanity-top products. With “today’s formulations, a standard jar is sometimes no longer a viable dispensing medium,” he says.
Keeping the Orifice Sealed and Clean
Suppliers have added features for both airless and nonairless dispensers that further ensure product protection. These features not only keep air and contaminants from entering a dispenser’s orifice, but also, in some cases, keep the orifice clean of any product residue.
Rexam Dispensing Systems’ new Prodigio airless lotion dispenser features a wide, ergonomic body and an orifice-closing mechanism.
At the Luxe Pack trade show in Monaco last October, Rexam Dispensing Systems (Purchase, NY) unveiled its Prodigio lotion dispenser. The airless dispenser offers many of the features companies have come to expect from a modern dispenser—an airless design, a metal spring located outside the product pathway, and an ergonomic container shape (Prodigio’s is extra-wide).
One additional feature sets the Prodigio apart. Prodigio’s actuator channel mechanically closes to prevent residual lotion from accumulating at the mouth of the orifice. This feature, which Rexam calls CleanPoint technology, also blocks air from entering the orifice. “The Prodigio is a true open-and-close design that prevents lotions from drying out,” says Rexam Dispensing Systems’ managing director, Robert Brands.
The orifice-closing feature on Continental Packaging Solutions’ new airless pump prevents air and impurities from entering the dispenser.
Continental Packaging Solutions (Chicago) has also introduced an airless dispenser with an orifice-closing feature. “The item has an internal ‘door’ that opens and closes when the pump is actuated. It opens when you press down and closes when you take the pressure away,” says Robb Zurek, the company’s business development manager. “This mechanism prevents air and impurities from affecting the contents.”
For years, Valois (Congers, NY) has offered a pump with a self-sealing orifice, called the Cocoon. The two-piece actuator’s orifice features a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) insert. The insert has a slit that opens and closes like “a pair of lips.”
“As you actuate product, the lips will open. After dispensing, the lips will close [given] the memory of the TPE,” says Edward Quinn, national director of sales, perfumery and cosmetics for Valois. He adds that Johnson & Johnson has featured Cocoon in its Roc line.
Supplier M&H Plastics (Winchester, VA) offers a unique design for keeping an orifice clean—not for an airless dispenser, but for a dispensing cap. Last year, the firm introduced the X-Press dispensing closure. When the dispenser’s finger pad is pushed down, product residue on the dispensing orifice, which is located on the cap’s perimeter, is scraped off as the finger pad slides along the side of the closure.
M&H Plastics’ newest cap innovation is the Slider. Still in prototype stage, the Slider is a two-piece cap with an orifice located on top of the dispenser. A piece in the center of the cap slides laterally back and forth over the orifice. When the piece slides to cover the orifice, it simultaneously wipes off any product residue and keeps air from entering the package.
Alex Piagnarelli, vice president of sales and marketing for M&H Plastics, says, “Aesthetically, these closures are different from anything that’s out there now. It’s got the ‘Wow’ factor, and it jazzes up a conventional package.”
Customization Made Easy
A big challenge for brands is to make dispensers look customized while keeping costs down. More suppliers have been introducing dispensers that make this possible. Most of these technologies are based on using the same standard pump engine (which are the internal components of a pump), while allowing just the pump’s outermost elements to be customized.
“Custom packaging was once reserved for very-high-volume SKUs. Large unit volume was required to offset tooling and equipment costs,” says Mark Frey, director of marketing for MeadWestvaco Calmar. “Based on the ‘engine’ concept, however, custom dispensers are now within reach of marketers with lesser unit volumes. Unique-looking, affordable dispensers can be designed around a pump engine.”
MeadWestvaco Calmar offers its Aria, Sonnet, and Harmony lotion dispensers, which can all be made unique by keeping the same engine and customizing only the heads and shrouds. “Adding a custom head and closure can create a unique, differentiated aesthetic,” says Frey. “These low-output dispensers can be quickly and affordably customized, giving the marketer the benefit of a custom look on the store shelf.”
Pfeiffer’s new ModulArt dispenser allows for cost-efficient customization by requiring only the pump’s outer shell to be modified.
At the Luxe Pack show, Pfeiffer (Princeton, NJ) introduced ModulArt. The lotion pump was developed according to what the supplier terms “mass-customization principles.” With ModulArt, brands no longer need to invest in completely customized dispensing components. Instead, ModulArt features standard dispensing components and only the pump’s outer shell must be customized. This can be done by interchanging Pfeiffer’s lotion and gel pump parts.
Franco Lucá, senior vice president of the Pfeiffer Group’s cosmetic and fragrance division, adds that ModulArt is the first lockable dispenser that can be locked using one hand, thanks to a convenient sliding actuator.
The angular look of Valois’s new Evocation pump (pictured at left) can be mixed and matched with the more-rounded look of the supplier’s popular Evolution pump. Pictured at right, an Evolution pump is paired with an Evocation collar.
Valois also debuted a mix-and-match concept at Luxe Pack. The supplier introduced its new Evocation skin care lotion pump at the show. Unlike the supplier’s popular Evolution pump, which features rounded curves, the Evocation pump has sharp-edged contours and an angled-top transparent overcap.
Marketers can devise their own customized look by interchanging Evocation and Evolution components. “Some people might prefer the Evocation actuator with the Evolution collar, or vice versa,” says Quinn. “For instance, Evolution collars are available in metal, and you can mix and match that with the Evocation actuator.”
The dispenser can also be matched with two glass bottles Valois had specially designed. A men’s bottle, supplied by Bormioli Rocco, is square-shaped, while a women’s bottle, supplied by Pochet (Wayne, NJ), is tall and slender.
Squeezing in Style
Squeezing a container has become another popular way to dispense product. Two companies, Emsar (Stratford, CT) and Rexam Dispensing Systems, recently launched new squeezable dispensers.
To operate Emsar’s Squeeze Mist spray dispenser, users simply squeeze the dispenser’s pocket-sized container.
Emsar’s Squeeze Mist dispenser is a mini, all-plastic polypropylene sprayer. When the consumer squeezes the dispenser’s bottle, product sprays out. The dosage varies depending on how hard the bottle is squeezed. “Air mixes with the product in a chamber when you squeeze the package,” says Des McEttrick, Emsar’s global marketing director. “It gives you a nice, fine-mist spray.”
Squeeze Mist was introduced last September at the HBA trade show.
In the second half of 2007, Rexam Dispensing Systems’ Airspray division (Pompano Beach, FL) will launch its new EZi Foamer. The foamer is a patented no-drip, water-resistant design suited for high-output bath products.
Rexam’s Brands says the foamer was created with products such as body washes and shampoos in mind. Unlike other foamers, EZi delivers a high output of product. “With a squeeze unit, you can get a lot more product out with one squeeze,” he says.
Brands adds, “We’re still seeing very strong double-digit growth in foam dispensers, and we are still very convinced that there are opportunities in new areas.” Each year, Airspray hosts a contest that invites formulators to develop new products suited for its foamers. Past developments have included shaving cream and sun care products.
Low-Output Products
While some products like body washes and shampoos are meant to be applied in higher volumes, other products, such as high-end skin treatments, are meant to be applied in low dosages.
“Personal care products applied in relatively low dosages continue to grow in popularity,” says MeadWestvaco Calmar’s Frey. “Eye creams, moisturizers, treatments, and antiwrinkle serums are examples of products that are efficacious in a relatively low dose. Low-output dispensers are well-suited for such applications.”
To suit these products, MeadWestvaco Calmar offers a range of dispensers with outputs ranging from 0.16 to 0.50 ml, including its Rhapsody, Aria, and Sonnet dispensers. The firm recently added the Prelude dispenser, which has an output of 0.21 ml, and the Sonata dispenser, which has an output of 0.50 ml. Both have aesthetics suited for upscale products.
Rexam Dispensing Systems, which introduced its 4-ml Symplicity lotion pump in 2005, launched a lower-output 2-ml version at the HBA show last September. “Most of the demand in the beauty industry is for the 2-ml version,” says Brands.
Looking Forward
When it comes to dispensers, new product formulations and new packaging technologies go hand-in-hand. “With formulations changing on a daily basis and more-exotic formulations out on the market, we’re finding that formulations are dictating how packaging is developed,” says Tae Sung’s Taylor. With that in mind, look forward to more inventive dispensing technology hitting the market as suppliers and marketers continue to innovate together.
Protecting Children and the Environment
Although they aren’t brand new to the market, two dispensers by suppliers Packaging Concepts (Boynton Beach, FL) and Power Container (Somerset, NJ) merit mention because they protect children and the environment, respectively.
Packaging Concepts’ child-resistant dispenser was recently selected by Avon for its Skin So Soft Pre-Wax Pain-Relief Spray.
Packaging Concepts offers spray dispensers, called Mpaks, with a patented child-resistant twist-and-lock mechanism. The supplier also offers the child-resistant feature on larger containers with its patented snap-on pumps. Brands like Bactine have used the company’s child-resistant and snap-on features for several years. Last year, Avon also chose the child-resistant option for its Skin So Soft Pre-Wax Pain-Relief Spray.
Power Container continues to market its Power Pouch aerosol alternative, which the company introduced in 2005. Instead of relying on environmentally unfriendly propellants to dispense product, the Power Pouch’s bag-on-valve system uses compressed air or nitrogen. “The system allows you to deliver a spray very similar to that of an aerosol, without the use of flammable propellants or propellants that may contain volatile organic compounds,” says Bob Flaherty, director of operations for Power Container.
Power Container has added new sizes to the Power Pouch line. The dispenser is now available in sizes of 1, 3.5, 5, and 6 oz. Flaherty says the package can be used in the shave gel category and is also suited for products such as sunscreen. “Demand is being influenced by pressures from environmental legislation,” he says.