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Detergent packs roll onto shelves

Packed inside an unusual conical sleeve is a clamshell or two used as both mold and container for this new kind of laundry detergent.

Pw 9401 Oxiclean Ball R

A solid ball of detergent, Oxi Clean “Toss-n-Go” is no ordinary laundry product. Its packaging, a thermoformed clamshell inside a conical paperboard sleeve, is equally innovative. Amid the ever-so-predictable jugs and boxes in the detergent section of the aisle, the conical sleeve package with the protruding ball in the front really stands out.

Making all of this even more unusual is that the detergent is filled as a slurry directly into the clamshell during manufacturing before it cools and hardens. Thermoformed of 18-ga polyvinyl chloride, the clamshell functions both as mold and as container.

But wait, there's more, as company pitchman Billy Mays would say. In the starter kit, there's an entirely different ball, made of blue rubber, at the bottom of the sleeve cone. It's a dispensing ball that's injection molded using a thermoplastic elastomer, or TPE. It holds the detergent ball during use when it's tossed into the laundry. It controls the dissolution of the laundry ball as well as protecting the washer drum from damage. Consumers close the blue ball's sealing flap to lock in the detergent ball during use. That required engineering and polymer chemistry expertise.

The consumer removes the detergent ball from the clamshell and places it into the rubber ball and leaves it in the wash for 25 loads. No more measuring and pouring of detergent. “It's all about convenience,” says Jon-Paul Genest, director of engineering and manufacturing for C&D's Orange Glo division.

This new concept laundry detergent was launched mid-summer in starter kit and refill kit that retail for about $6.99 and $9.99, respectively.

The entire “Toss-n-Go” package and all components are a well-engineered meeting of form and function. With the exception of the blue ball, the package components are produced by Display Pack (www.displaypack.com) and distributed through M. Jacob and Sons (www.mjacobandsons.com).

The project got rolling in 2005 when Orange Glo Intl., Littleton, CO, now part of Church & Dwight, Princeton, NJ, contacted Display Pack about a clamshell package that would function as the spherical “form” for the end product as well as function as the package. After much testing, the end result was the PVC clamshell, which was absolutely crucial to the product.

Challenging clamshell

Here's what Packaging World has been able to learn about the package so far. The clamshell's tab-based, friction-fit closure in the seal area was key to the development: The seal had to be weak to accommodate the expansion of the product as it cooled, yet also strong enough so that the clamshell was effectively sealed afterwards. The seal actually gets stronger as the product cools and expands, but is also designed not to be too strong so as to be an opening problem for consumers, according to Genest. The package development team working with Display Pack found an elegant and functional design with the proper gauge of material that was a complex, but happy balance to solving the stress challenge.

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