Dispensing Systems: Style with Substance
Mega Pumps’ clients take advantage of customization options for color, caps, actuation, decoration, and labeling to create custom-looking products.The focus today is on making a design look unique—then fulfilling expectations.
By Amy C. QuickNo one in the dispensing industry denies that one of the biggest challenges of designing a personal care dispensing system is creating one that will get a customer to buy a product. The most effective dispenser on the market isn’t worth a thing if no one buys the product. This philosophy leads the industry’s current concentration on unique design.
Catching the Customer
Customization is the ultimate goal in creating an eye-catching dispenser. However, until the recent past, this was not considered a viable option for many small companies with limited-unit orders. Today, manufacturers continue to seek ways to make customization options available to companies of all sizes.
MeadWestvaco Calmar (City of Industry, CA) addresses this demand by using the same engine for many of its Aria dispensers, while offering customization options for the heads, shrouds, and overcaps. Other companies have followed suit. All visible parts in Mega Pumps’ (Eatontown, NJ) line are able to be color-matched with custom colors. Actuators and caps can be selected from a wide variety of glossy or matte choices. With additional options in silk screen decoration and labeling, Mega Pumps director of sales Terence Sweeney says the dispensers “can have a custom look without the cost associated with ‘custom.’”
David Hou, director of marketing and sales for Cospack America (Edison, NJ), acknowledges the ongoing need to eliminate the cost and timetable of full customization. “Clients are looking more and more for a ‘customized’ dispenser that is stock,” he says. The two concepts were once in opposition but Cospack blurs the line by keeping a core dispenser design as stock and using decoration techniques to make the look appear unique. The company has cultivated a reputation for its extensive and expanding in-stock selection of dispensers.
Easily Impressed
Making a dispenser easy to use and effective seals the deal after a customer has left the store with the product. Manufacturers in today’s industry strive to keep the consumer returning to the same brand. Whatever difficulties or disappointments that person faces when using the product at home will play a huge role in developing brand loyalty.
Of primary interest to that customer will be the ease of using the dispensing system, over and over, until the last drops are coaxed from the container. Thus, playing largely on the minds of manufacturers these days are such concerns as whether a product will dry up and clog an orifice, whether dispensers can accommodate high-viscosity products, and whether designs offer precise and repeatable dosing, convenience, safety, no leakage, and easy opening.
Another concern is the amount of force needed to use a dispenser. There is a whole subset of concerns dealing with the differing demands of the various markets: women, men, seniors, and children. “User convenience for men means hassle-free,” notes Norbert DeYoung, marketing director for Rexam Dispensing Systems (Purchase, NY) and Rexam Airspray (Pompano Beach, FL). Conversely, “seniors will place emphasis on easy opening and [the amount of] force [required] to operate the dispenser.”
Rexam’s Nea lotion pump tackles sophisticated formulas with smooth, predictable actuation.
Rexam recently launched Nea, a lotion pump that exhibits smooth operation with gentle actuation. While such a pump pleases consumers who prefer to use light force to operate a dispenser, Nea also takes head-on the subject of viscosity. The advanced formulas being created today demand advanced dispensers, ones that will actuate easily throughout a product’s life cycle. With its gentle operation, Nea demonstrates how Rexam “answered the demand for sophisticated formulations,” says DeYoung.
Another challenge facing manufacturers in the world of new formulations is consistency of dosage, observes Mega Pumps’ Sweeney. “Dispensing the same quantity every time is important to consumers,” he says. Mega Pumps meets that need with its airless dispensers. Known mainly for their ability to protect a product from exposure to the atmosphere, airless dispensers provide the additional advantage of offering precise and repeatable dosing.
Out with the Bad
Familiar to all manufacturers today is the desire to create a dispenser that will keep formulations free of impurities. These impurities can be caused by air, metal—or even separate parts of the same liquid that will change character once mixed. Tom Wilcox, director of marketing for Continental AFA (St. Peters, MO), refers to this mixing process as the “magic.” For instance, he explains, at the moment hair dye achieves its desired chemical formulation when the user mixes the toner into the solution, the product then faces a limited life span. “If the pump [brings these elements] together prior to use,” observes Wilcox, “the efficacy is compromised.”
The 5-ml MicroAmp airless pump from Continental AFA avoids product contamination from contact with air or metal.
In the interest of preventing contamination, Continental has created a line of pumps, including the MicroAmp pump, that targets airless dispensing and avoidance of metal contact. External venting is not necessary to empty the container’s contents. “A false bottom is placed into the pump’s container,” explains Wilcox. “As the pump is actuated, a vacuum is created. The vacuum causes the false bottom to rise, forcing the product within the container to remain constantly in contact with the attached pump.” This system also promotes use of the pump at any angle without danger of leakage.
The Plant’s Effect on the Planet
Many dispensing manufacturers are keenly aware of environmental concerns surrounding the creation of their product and how they maintain their facilities. Key players in the industry are taking the initiative to demonstrate environmental sustainability by implementing programs to eliminate wastefulness and conserve energy and natural resources. They are also working to practice company-wide recycling, reduce the amount of emissions produced at plants, avoid use of toxic materials in certain processes, and partner with suppliers with like-minded environmental practices.
The area where it seems manufacturers can have the greatest impact is in reducing waste. This often begins with a designer looking for ways to reduce the number of parts and amounts of materials needed to produce a dispensing system. Once manufacture has begun, companies can now opt to use renewable virgin products that are produced with low environmental impact by certified sources. Use of postconsumer recycled materials is another avenue some companies are taking. The actual manufacturing process can cut down on waste as well, with some companies salvaging scraps of material that were once discarded and breaking them down for recycling in other processes.
Environmental consciousness has certainly made manufacturers more aware of their processes and motivated to find means to improve them. Emsar (Stratford, CT) has gone so far as to create a “Green Team,” according to Des McEttrick, global marketing director. The Green Team seeks to identify and evaluate new ways to increase the company’s sustainability efforts. The emphasis is on moving forward with sensitivity and genuine compassion for the environment and the enormous effect manufacturing can have, or lessen, on it.