Originally Published PMPN December 2005
Tubes
New Twists in Tubes
by David Vaczek, Senior Editor
Tubes respond to imperatives for barrier protection, effective dispensing, and style.
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| FlexVision labels from WS Packaging Group–Ampersand Label withstand squeezing. |
Tubes are not immune to forces behind consumer market trends. Consumer-friendly packages that promote optimal usage of medicinal products have increased their grip on the tube market.
This is most evident in the steady adoption of laminate materials and closure innovations as well as in the increased interest in enhanced graphics.
For packaging prescription and OTC topical creams and ointments, laminate tubes have gained ground over foil tubes, primarily because of the advantages they provide to consumers, says Michael Hoard, director of marketing global pharmaceuticals, Alcan Packaging Cebal (Norwalk, CT).
“The market is moving to laminates,” Hoard says. He notes that laminates are more user-friendly than all-foil tubes. They support easier handling and dispensing. Poly/foil laminates retain shape better than foil, with less deadfold denting and cracking. Bounce-back is even more pronounced with all-plastic extruded or laminate tubes using an EVOH copolymer as the barrier layer.
In addition, plastic constructions support enhanced aesthetics, either through colorants, or by allowing visibility of the aluminum-foil layer in laminates.
Plastic tubes and laminates may not be suitable for all pharmaceutical products, however. “A disadvantage of plastics and laminates is that some amount of air is drawn back into the tube after dispensing,” Hoard says.
Montebello Packaging (Hawkesbury, ON, Canada) is devoting more lines to laminate tube production. “Companies are achieving a more cosmetic or personal care look to their tubes using laminates. And in dispensing, you can squeeze the product out to the last gram,” says Eric Gareau, vice president, sales and marketing.
Aluminum predominates in prescription packaging, as pharmaceutical companies focus on barrier properties and package compatibility with the product to achieve as long a shelf life as possible. “But when those products go OTC, they will try to make them a little more consumer appealing,” Gareau says.
Neopac Packaging Solutions (Oberdiessbach, Switzerland) offers a barrier alternative to a foil laminate with its Eco-Laminate. It situates a silicon oxide (SiOx)– coated barrier film, in the lamination, between inner and outer PE films. The film provides about 85 to 90% of the barrier achievable with a 40- to 60-µm foil, says Rich Misdom, sales manager.
Eco-Laminate provides a cost advantage to foil laminations that use 40- and 60-µm foil, for products with lower barrier protection requirements.
Tubes using foil laminations are not entirely protective. Moisture and inside elements can escape through the package’s shoulder and neck, Misdom points out.
Coated-film laminates will gain more acceptance as they are more widely used, and prices fall as the volume increases. “Once the volume kicks up, SiOx-coated films should be more cost-effective than foil, especially in the 60-µm foil laminations,” he says.
“Pharmaceutical companies want to use the safest, most cost-effective material they can when they bring new products to market, and then focus later on reducing packing costs. But we are seeing that more companies want to try different materials in their initial testing,” he says.
PUNCHING UP TUBES
OTC products are proliferating, as the trend of patient self-medication grows, and as drug firms seek to extend the lives of products and maintain a percentage of sales after drugs lose patent. Packaging for these OTC products needs to stand out in often-crowded categories.
“Pharmaceutical companies are doing more advertising, and packaging design plays into that,” says Nancy Kane, marketing manager at Zeller Plastik (Libertyville, IL).
Polyfoil from Plastube North America (Granby, QC, Canada; formerly Amcor Plastube) helps lend new colors and looks to tubes. First, a tube is formed from a laminate, such as a PE/foil/PE. Then a poly layer is applied to surround the tube, creating a seamless cover that can support 360° of graphic elements.
The poly layer can include a colorant to match the cap color. The poly layer can be opaque, translucent, or left clear, so users can see through to the metal.
The construction combines some of the best features of laminates and plastics, says Jennifer Hackett, marketing manager, Plastube North America. The company manufactures Polyfoil for the North American market. “Polyfoil has the same barrier properties as a laminate tube, but it looks and feels like a plastic tube, keeps its form like a plastic tube, prints like a plastic tube, but with better barrier properties than a plastic or coextruded tube,” she says.
Customers’ preferences for a metallized look have spurred the adoption of Polyfoil, says Hackett. “More and more people are going toward a punchier tube.” Amcor Plastube offers a metallized over shell for stand-up closures for matching tops with metal-looking tubes.
Flexcon Company, Inc. (Spencer, MA), has seen a steady demand for its pressure-sensitive film constructions for labeling, some of which can offer tubes a metallized look. The company provides many polyethylene and polypropylene films with adhesives for application to a variety of substrates, along with print-receptive coatings to support all printing technologies, says Richard Harris, market product manager.
“Our customers can run these films through printing presses of up to ten or 12 colors to achieve high-quality graphics that are highly resistant to the environment,” says Harris. “We are seeing the use of pressure-sensitive films for full wraps and front-and-back, panel, and spot labels,” he adds.
CLOSURE ALTERNATIVES
Innovation in tube closures addresses aesthetic, medical, and safety issues.
Dispensing closures such as flip-tops and disc tops continue as predominate capping alternatives today. Smaller tubes are trading their screw caps to adopt these more functional, senior-friendly, better-looking closures. Zeller Plastik is one closure maker that introduced new smaller-diameter polypropylene dispensing closures to meet this growth, says Kane.
IntraPac (Don Mills, ON, Canada) buys flip-top caps from companies such as Seaquist Closures (Mukwonago,WI), Zeller Plastik, and Polytop to address steadily increasing flip-top demand. The company provides laminate tubes with flip-tops for Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho Monistat creams, says John Miller, executive vice president.
IntraPac employs a patented process to adhere a foil/plastic laminated safety seal onto the shoulder of laminate tubes. It created a tamper-evident closure system for tubes from one-half inch to two inches in diameter. When the cap and the safety seal are removed from the neck, the consumer can tell that the tube has been opened from its original sealed position, says Miller.
Montebello has viewed closure innovation as a means of “reinventing ourselves in the foil tube segment. We have asked ourselves, “How can we make our tubes even more ‘pharmaceutical?’ ” says Gareau.
The company is developing a delivery closure system as well as a child-resistant push-on, screw-off closure, he says.
For products requiring controlled dosages, Neopac has introduced a dropper system in which the solution is controlled by a metering device inside the tube orifice. This allows a predetermined volume to flow into a channel from which the product is dispensed.
For highly oxygen-sensitive ointments, lotions, and solutions, Neopac has launched the Polyfaero tube and pump system. The system combines a PolyFoil tube with an airless pump dispenser from Aero Pump that prevents penetration by external air. Polyfaero provides up to 96% evacuation of the product and dispenses at 360 degrees. The pump can be adjusted to set dosages. Customers should have Neopac test their bulk product to ensure the correct dosage can be dispensed. Customers vacuum-seal the container on their standard filling lines, with a two-step crimp-and-seal system, says Misdom.
Capping Costs for Short Runs In its laminate tube production, IntraPac (Don Mills, ON, Canada) gains production flexibility by injection molding tube shoulders off-line, rather than by injection molding them on the line. Shoulders are fed to the tubes and sonically welded. Injection molds don’t have to be switched out when new shoulders are called, accommodating shorter runs and reducing changeover time. “We can make four or five changeovers in a day,” says John Miller, executive vice president. IntraPac requires this capability, since a large part of its business is with generic drug companies. These firms need a variety of shoulder designs, as they want shoulders that resemble in style and color those of the different brands for which they are providing generic alternatives. The company has recently installed a new laminate tube line to cater to heightened demand for 2-in.-diam laminate tubes and extended-length laminate tubes. |
DIGITAL PRINTING
Digital printing supports small runs. Typically the image in digital form is printed on a substrate, and then heat is transferred to the tube using a modified hot stamper, says Misdom.
This year Montebello launched a partnership program to provide its tubes and M-Deco digital labeling machines to drug firms and contract packagers. Companies can print small-quantity runs without paying premium prices, says Gareau.
“Companies with many customers dealing in small runs can order as many blank standard tubes as they want and label them as the need arises,” he says.
Expanded-content labels (ECLs)—which have made headway in the labeling of various drug packages—have found a place in the context of tubes. Coloplast Corp. (Marietta, GA) has committed to using FlexVison labels from WS Packaging Group–Ampersand Label (Garden Grove, CA). Designed for plastic tubes, the patented two-ply labels provide an alternative to secondary packaging, says Paulette Carnes, product manager of WS Packaging Group–Ampersand Label’s MultiVision line of ECLs.
FlexVision conforms to a pliable tube without channeling when squeezed. The flexible upper panel opens with a resealable pull tab, she says.
Copyright ©2005 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News
