The Association for Dressings & Sauces awarded Unilever with its prestigious 2015 Package of the Year award for their Hellmann’s Mayonnaise Squeeze Bottle. The container’s innovative shape and consumer friendly dispensing capabilities won the voting panel’s recognition.
Unilever designated Enercon as their supporting Vendor of the Year due to the application expertise Enercon supplied to make the development and execution of the package’s closure a success. “We worked with Enercon Industries to design a bottle to help consumers get the most out of the product, and the most product out of the bottle,” says Tom Wajda, R&D Director at Unilever.
Unilever’s new squeeze bottle design is centered on the consumer’s experience. It enables users to get the most out of the bottle with without shaking or scraping, the “clean lock cap” eliminates drips and precision tip allows for easy control during use. Selig Group’s Lift ’n’ Peel induction liner completes the user friendly package.
While the new design allows for easy application, it presents challenges when trying to apply an induction seal. The flip-top closure’s foil is recessed from the top of the cap unlike standard applications and the actual induction seal’s diameter is much smaller than the diameter of the cap.
“This was not a one-size-fits-all project,” says Ryan Schuelke, Vice President of Sales, Enercon Industries. “We specialize in engineering sealing heads where the depth of foil is recessed in caps like Unilever’s package. Our engineers were able to optimize the induction field to ensure the required sealing power is efficiently delivered to induction foil. This is critical in producing a consistent hermetic seal.”
The strength of an induction field dissipates as it penetrates the package, so without the right sealing head Unilever would have to apply an extreme amount of power and it would inefficiently heat the foil. Enercon engineers fitted Unilever’s induction sealers with custom sealing heads designed to focus the pattern of the sealing energy to the position of the foil.
“We design a unique fleet of sealing heads specifically for applications like these,” says Schuelke. “We have a dedicated engineer that tackles unique applications and our sales team adds 60 years of combined application expertise on these types of unique applications.”
