A family-owned manufacturer of household cleaning tools, The Libman Company of Arcola, IL, has expanded its line of mops and brooms to include complementary cleaning solutions. As part of this initiative, Libman developed a citrus-scented product, Freedom! Hardwood Concentrated Floor Cleaner, for use with its Freedom Spray Mop. The mop features a detachable, 18-oz refillable bottle that dispenses cleaning product diluted with water through a trigger sprayer. To properly dose the mop, the new concentrated floor cleaner product had to be dispensed in 1-oz portions—a major packaging design challenge, according to packaging supplier Berlin Packaging.
In investigating alternatives, Berlin’s Studio One Eleven Design division determined that stock pump solutions for the product’s 16-oz custom PET bottle would require a cumbersome eight-pump process. High-output pumps were not an option either, says Berlin, because they would visually overwhelm the bottle size. Removable dosing caps would be prone to loss, and custom-built solutions requiring special preform and neck fitments would be cost-prohibitive, for a variety of reasons.
These factors led the team to recommend and design a custom, hangable, fitment-free closure with a built-in squeeze-activated dispenser capable of measuring the correct dose and accommodating a standard neck finish.
