Pushing innovation in pumps

How do you find out if a face cream is going to react with the pack it is sold in? You bake it in an oven at 40°C for 56 days.

While the basic technology behind pump and spray dispensers for toiletries and fragrance hasn’t changed for years, manufacturers are always looking for new ways to add value, from innovative finishes to anti-counterfeiting devices and improved recyclability. And of course, the pump has to work flawlessly.

RPC Bramlage-Wiko manufactures airless pump dispensers for the cosmetics industry. An airless pump uses either a piston or a collapsible bag inside the bottle to force the lotion out. A standard pump uses air to evacuate the liquid, which can cause creams to degrade. The trend towards reducing the preservatives in cosmetics has boosted demand for airless dispensers. Airless pumps can also evacuate as much as 99% of a lotion, while a non-airless pump achieves around 90%. RPC Bramlage-Wiko sales manager Ian Smith explains that it is like drinking a thick milkshake through a straw. “You have to move the straw around, otherwise there is lots of milkshake left around the edges, whereas a piston forces the cream out. For viscous liquids that don’t flow well, a standard lotion pump will miss lots.”

Tough tests
The pump employed needs to be suitable for the viscosity of the liquid. It also needs to be compatible with any chemicals that  are used. Certain cosmetics can leach into the material of the pump or cause the pump to leach into the cosmetic. Tests need to be carried out to prevent this from happening. “If a product is air freighted it can be subjected to extremely cold temperatures; if it is shipped to Latin America it can be very warm and humid. So we subject our pump dispensers to extremes,” says Smith.

RPC offers its pumps in a range of materials to ensure compatibility with the lotion inside, as well as two spring strengths – a standard spring with a force of 14 Newtons and a 23-Newton spring for particularly viscous liquids.

The metal spring, too, could react with cosmetics and fragrances. “Aggressive cosmetics can be easily discoloured or tainted by stainless steel and there is the possibility of metal affecting the natural raw materials in fragrances,” explains David Higgins, sales manager at Valois, which makes pump, spray and aerosol dispensers for the beauty and pharmaceutical markets. Valois’ Elixir fragrance pump and Alpha technology for cosmetics use an external spring that does not come into contact with the liquid at any point, to avoid contamination.

Missing metal
Some manufacturers, RPC included, have taken the decision to offer pump dispensers without metal springs. RPC’s CD range employs a plastic item instead, which gives a more rubbery feel to the actuation, says Smith. MeadWestvaco’s (MWV) Pearl Airless uses rolling bellow technology in a single-component engine made of silicone. “The main benefit is that the whole container can be recycled as one, because it is all made of plastic,” explains MWV marketing manager personal care Europe Eva Martin.

Valois has been promoting the improved recyclability of its screw-on, as opposed to crimp-on, sprays for fragrance. Higgins highlights that if the dispenser can be unscrewed, then it can be easily removed before the glass body of the container is recycled. However, fragrances destined for Saudi Arabia must have a crimp-on spray. “You are not allowed to sell fragrances with a screw-on spray, because people can take them off and drink the alcoholic perfume,” explains Higgins.

Plastics manufacturer Promens has been working to make its airless lotion dispenser recycled rather than recyclable. It has produced an airless bottle made from post-consumer recycled material. The company says that previously it was difficult to use recycled material for cosmetics due to odour migration into the formula. Promens has circumvented this problem using an internal multilayer pouch containing a barrier material, which avoids odour migration and prevents air from coming into contact with the lotion. The external bottle is made from recycled PE, which represents 70-80% of the raw material weight of the bottle. The bottle is also cheaper than a comparable virgin material bottle.

MWV has been investigating the performance potential of plastic in the fragrance sector. Last year, the company unveiled Clikit IP, a resin-injected version of the company’s Melodie Clikit fragrance spray. IP stands for injection plastic, although this isn’t something MWV wanted to market extensively. “Plastic has negative connotations,” says fragrance division marketing manager Sandy Gregory. Using plastic for a fragrance actuator means that it can be customised with a customer’s patterns or logos and it can be produced in an array of colours. It can also be made in-house by MWV, which is quicker and cheaper.

“We had to ensure that Clikit IP didn’t compromise on function. It has to look the same as a metal actuator, there couldn’t be any rough edges or injection points,” says Gregory. She adds that the only difference a user might notice is that a metal actuator is cold to the touch, whereas a plastic one is not. 

As well as enhancing the actuator; the humble dip tube has also come in for attention. MWV and Valois have created ‘invisible’ dip tubes. MWV’s NoC dip tube and Valois’ Ultimate dip tube use a light refracting material to make the tube invisible when filled with an alcoholic substance, such as perfume. Fragrance adverts will often have had the dip tube artificially removed using Photoshop. Gregory adds that while the NoC dip tube was designed for aesthetic purposes, it also helps identify counterfeit perfumes. “The NoC tube is not readily available to just anyone, which means it is not possible for counterfeiters to use it in their perfumes. With fragrances that use NoC, it is easy to identify and avoid a counterfeit with a visible tube,” she explains.

While a lotion pump designed 15 years ago will still function, dispenser manufacturers must ensure their products continue to live up to the aesthetic demands and high price tags of the beauty industry. Because, in the words of L’Oréal, they’re worth it.

CASE STUDIES

Pumping paste
Although Guala Dispensing’s toothpaste pump hasn’t fundamentally changed in  around 15 years, the company is still confident it can see off the competition. The Italian company has been keeping a close eye on the launch of Aquafresh in an aerosol can, but argues the traditional pump dispenser still has advantages.

“It dispenses almost perfect toothbrush-sized amounts of toothpaste. Then you take your finger off the actuator and the overcap cuts off the flow of toothpaste with no mess,” says UK, Ireland and Scandinavia sales manager Matt Lucas. He adds that toothpaste can build up around the mouth of the pack on aerosol dispensers. The Guala pump seals with a vacuum, meaning any toothpaste left on the outside of the tube can be rinsed off without risk of getting water into the container. The vacuum also ensures there is no loss of flavour.

The Guala toothpaste dispenser uses a plastic tamper tear strip to secure the opening. “Ours is one of the few that have a tamper. A lot just use a sticky label on the overcap,” says Lucas. He adds that this removes the need for an overcap. “The cap can be thrown away or dispensed with altogether. Once open it is designed to be a one-hand action.”

As well as holding strong in the toothpaste category, Guala’s pump is also finding other applications, says Lucas. “It’s used a lot more for haircare, like gels. We also have some automotive clients that are using the pumps for coloured paste to paint over scratches on cars.”

Quantex
If your bottle of hand lotion dispenses too much cream, it can be annoying. If a hospital machine dispenses too much medicated cream, it can be much more serious. Current peristaltic pumps use a flexible tube, which is squeezed by a motor to push the fluid out. Quantex licensing director Peter Ross says it can be difficult to get accurate dispensing at different temperatures and pressures. The London-based product design agency wanted to create a pump that could dispense exact quantities. Ross explains the Quantex pump has a hard shell with a central rotor. The rotor has indents that pick up fluid from the input side and transport it to the output port. Because the indents hold a fixed volume, and the emptying is very efficient, high accuracy is achieved.

“We set out looking at medical uses, but it fits into a very wide range of applications, from dispensing detergents into washing machines through to hand soap dispensers or even food and drink, such as bag-in-box,” says Ross. The pump can be made air-tight, which is important to protect food from contamination. The company also had to make it from entirely non-chlorinated materials, because for medical applications pumps need to be able to be incinerated.

“The Quantex pump can also generate enough pressure to drive a spray head, which surprised us,” he adds. The pump can be manufactured to fit diameters as small as 12mm and can be produced at costs roughly equivalent to a sports cap on a soft drink bottle.

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