Packaging professionals behind Cosmetics and Beauty Care (C&BC) products are eager for creative packaging solutions that will help their products stand out. That’s why they’re drawn to PACK EXPO each year. Here’s a look at a few things shown at PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2015.
On-demand bottle making
Reducing the cost of bottle molding and decorating has been an ongoing quest for all CPGs. This is especially true for high-volume, one-time use items such as hair coloring or conditioning—where premium aesthetics of the container is required.
Serac’s Agami technology is moving “up market,” good enough to be used for C&BC products. The basic technology involves forming uniquely shaped bottles on demand from roll-fed sheet that is typically polypropylene. These freshly made bottles proceed immediately to filling and capping. According to Serac, up to 10,000 bottles per hour (max 500 mL) can be produced, filled, and capped. And now that Printpack is producing full-body shrink sleeve labels specifically for bottles produced on this Agami system, great on-shelf appearance is part of the package.
Not only do the bottles not have to be transported from a commercial blow molder, stored, unscrambled, and cleaned, but also the uniformly thin PP lamination from which the bottles are formed uses less plastic material than comparable alternatives. Thus, the cost advantage of the system is significant. An additional advantage is that the thin wall allows easy squeezing/ dispensing of viscous liquids.
Linear indexing race track machines
While continuing to upgrade rotary machines, many suppliers serving C&BC have started to offer a new style of machine for filling and assembly. These long, linear, indexing racetrack machines come with independent pucks, attached pucks, or without pucks for larger, stable packages. These all-servo modular monoblock machines are either dedicated to handle a particular family of products or are designed for multiple families by attaching different modules. The advertised advantage is better access to the products and operating stations, as well as the ability to add modules and increase flexibility and throughput.
Optima has introduced a “Moduline” for tubes and bottles. For example, polyethylene and laminated tubes in formats up to 60 mm can be processed at up to 12,000 units/hour. The fully automated modular machine features a unique container handling and supply system called “Paternoster,” with a storing capacity of 21 (7 x 3) cartons, and automatic insertion into pucks by means of a robot. The Paternoster automatically creates a vertical, slightly inclined buffering system of the single layer shippers in which the bottles or the tubes arrive from the container supplier, and the robot removes one row at a time and places them into pucks.
Other companies have shown videos or talked about their plans for linear indexing monoblocks. For example, Omas has recently been offering such lines for mascara and lip gloss, while PKB is introducing a line of linear indexing monoblocks for various cosmetic products.
Groninger, meanwhile, introduced in Vegas its “lite” series modular linear filling and closing line. Groninger advertises the lite series as “German Engineering - Made in USA.” It’s designed to fill the gap between manual table top units and fully automated high speed production lines, which makes it especially suitable for private-label, R&D, or contract manufacturing. The lite-F is an automated filling machine. Glass and plastic containers of all sizes and shapes can be processed within pucks or puck-less, and the machine offers easy and quick changeover between sizes in addition to a 12-inch touch screen HMI. The lite-C features a high precision, servo-motor-controlled automated closing machine. Screw-caps, press on caps, applicators, and dispenser pumps can be processed on the same unit.
Expanded offerings
Some suppliers into the C&BC space are expanding their offerings to include filling and assembly machines for product families they have not dealt with before, especially lipsticks, mascara, and lip glosses. Lipstick seems to be a popular expansion route. It appears that since the Citus patent expired, many suppliers are using the Citus type molds and creating their own equipment versions. The technology these suppliers use is similar: Molten lipstick bulk is filled into soft silicone rubber molds and subsequently undergoes a controlled chilling in the molds (this is the process of molding a “bullet”). Once solidified, the bullet is cleanly extracted from the mold and assembled into small swivel packages. The unique process is the way the bullet is extracted from the mold without any relative movement and damage to the bullet. This is done by applying vacuum on the outside of the soft silicone mold, and thus the mold “peels” away from the bullet, allowing easy extraction of the bullet. Also, the slow cooling through silicone rubber (vs. the traditional metal molds) contributes to softer texture and feel on application. The popularity of soft mold technology with C&BC brands is that it allows them to offer the consumer bullets having a soft feel that are perfect in appearance.
Two new entrants to the lipstick machine field, both Italian, were at the Las Vegas show: Omas and CMI. Each had a different machine configuration. Traditionally, these machines have been rotary indexing turntables with multiple molds filled, chilled, and emptied at the same time. However, as mentioned before, a new trend, applicable to lipstick as well, is a “racetrack” type indexing machines. This allows for longer cooling time, hence higher throughput and easier access from the outside. The new Omas lipstick machine is rotary, while CMI is featuring a racetrack machine.
An example of a company expanding beyond their roots is PKB, which is known for its bottle filling equipment. Now it’s also offering mascara and lip gloss machines.
Good control
C&BC manufacturers whose products require filling many colors of loose powder while controlling accuracy and eliminating dusting should take note of new fillers from Spee-Dee. Spee-Dee has introduced a food grade, FDA-approved split hopper combined with a unique vacuum tooling. Faster cleaning and changeover is due to light weight, split construction, tool-less design, and removable sealing gaskets. Dust created as the powder is gravity fed into the premium packages causes additional cost to the manufacturer because it requires manual cleaning of each filled package after the filling operation. Vacuum tooling on the Spee-Dee equipment comes to the rescue by providing more accurate filling and clean cut-off at the end of filling; hardly any powder remnants fall from the fill nozzle, thus keeping the packages and surrounding area clean. Additionally, the vacuum tooling stops free-flowing and semi-free flowing mixes from dripping between fills. The dual funnel system combines a filter screen and vacuum to instantly stop the flow of product, and there are no moving parts.
Inspection of tube sealing
It is well known to every manufacturer who fills squeezable tubes that 100% seal integrity—achieved by heating the plastic tube wall at the open end and squeezing them together—is not guaranteed. This is especially true in C&BC where multiple sizes of tubes from various suppliers have to run on the same equipment.
DIR Technologies displayed their latest thermographic inspection equipment (I2VS Lite and the DIR Eye) for a variety of heat sealed packages. I was told that one of the largest tube filling equipment manufacturers is now working with DIR to explore if their technology is suitable for plastic tubes.
DIR technology is taking advantage of the fact that all objects emit energy in the form of infrared radiation (IR). Generally speaking hot objects emit more energy than cold objects. A thermal imager creates a viewable image from the IR waves, showing a “heat picture” of a scene. DIR combines high-end thermal imaging normally used in the defense industry with sophisticated analysis algorithms and proprietary IP to provide real-time integrity monitoring of every single bottle or sachet on the packaging line. Inspection is “hands off,” non-invasive, and non-destructive.
Combating agglomeration
Powders used in a variety of beauty products (eye shadow, for example, or face and brow makeup) contain oily binders that cause the powder to agglomerate (bind together) in a very uneven manner. Without additional processes this unevenness is visible on pressed powder makeup products, and the unevenness is felt during application on the eye lids or face. Manufacturers have traditionally used hammer mills (impact mill) and then sifters to address the problem, but these processes significantly increase cycle time and change over time. Netzsch displayed its Condux adjustable fineness pin disc mill, which replaces both hammer mills and sifters (from 30 µm to 50 µm). It is essentially a high-speed impact mill with exchangeable grinding tools for the grinding of soft to medium hard materials. Grinding takes place in a vertical Rotor/Stator-System Pin Mill (single rotating and counter-rotating), and the fineness is set by adjustment of the rotational speed and tool selection. For fast and easy cleaning and maintenance the machine housing comes with a hinged door.
Unloading 55-gal drums
Emptying drums of thick bulk product is always a challenge, including the manipulation of the drums in and out of traditional unloaders. Knoll displayed its new articulating arm drum unloader featuring a sanitary progressive cavity pump and a follower plate with inflatable seals. This type of pump / follower plate is perfect for highly viscous products or fluids with suspended solids, such as mascara and cold lip glosses. The articulating arm allows easy movement of the pumping assembly from one drum to another on a skid. The pump is capable of up to 150 PSI discharge, and its electric driven pump provides constant pressure (no pulsation).
