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Look Ma, no hands!

Automation, custom molding and a packaging partnership allow an inventor to bring a hands-free tube applicator to the marketplace.

Consumers squeeze sunscreen through a small hole in the foam pad at the end of the tube. The foam's closed-cell design allows co
Consumers squeeze sunscreen through a small hole in the foam pad at the end of the tube. The foam's closed-cell design allows co

Bijan Hosseini has had packaging on the brain since he was a child. Having often used a sponge applicator to polish his father’s shoes, Hosseini remembered the feel of the convenient sponge applicator in his hand all the way into adulthood. That image contributed to the invention of a package he designed for the personal care/pharmaceutical industry: a tube with a foam applicator on one end that makes it easier to spread product on the body without messing up the hands. Hosseini is now vice president of HandsFree Applicators, Fountain Valley, CA, a company that markets his tube invention.

The first application for his idea was a tube for HandsFree Sunscreen™. Modern design and striking colors decorate the tube, but the application of the sunscreen is what sets it apart. Product is squeezed through a small hole in the soft foam pad at the end of the tube. The foam doesn’t absorb the sunscreen, rather its closed-cell design allows it to spread the sunscreen on the body. HandsFree recently won the award for most innovative tube at the 1998 Tube of the Year competition from The Tube Council of North America (New York, NY) (see Packaging World, March ’99, p. 2 or packworld. com/go/handsfree).

Supplied by Norden AndBro (Pitman, NJ), the tube’s body is extruded of medium-density polyethylene. Welded to the body is a high-density PE shoulder that cradles the closed-cell foam applicator. The clear injection-molded polypropylene overcap features a half-inch-long pin that fits into the hole in the foam to prevent the sunscreen from coagulating.

Early experiences

Hosseini’s tube could hardly be characterized as an overnight success, however. Until this tube, he had no experience in packaging. In fact, his background was in retailing women’s apparel. But the applicator idea stuck with him, and finally “I decided to put my money where my mouth is,” he says.

It took two years to put that package together. At first, Hosseini built his own custom molds to injection-mold the tube and the shoulder area holding the foam pad at the same time, but that method proved impractical.

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