Make your product safe with tamper evidence

Posted by Kayla Holman on May 1, 2011

There are many different methods, or hypothetical paths to take toward making your product packaging tamper-evident. I've investigated the means and processes required to undergo each of these intricate procedures, now is the time to choose for yourself. You've reached a fork in the road, which direction will you go? Shrink bands, PS liners, HIS liners, dairy or juice lids or plastisol lined closures? The choice is yours.

Shrink bands provide an avenue toward making your container tamper-evident. Lightweight sheets of PVC plastic, they are easy to use safety features that can be applied to many different container styles. A shrink band requires the product's intended end user to break the plastic seal before it can be opened. This attribute makes a potentially contaminated container easy to notice. Learn more about shrink bands by reading our post, "Use plastic packaging materials to shrink, bag, stretch and tape" and watch the actual banding process in our shrink band video.

Pressure sensitive or PS Liners represent another secure alternative. Made of polystyrene foam, the liner is placed within the hollow confines of a closure. Coated with pressure sensitive glue droplets, the liner is designed to adhere to a container once the lid is twisted onto a bottle or jar, covering the container's orifice and blocking the product from external passage.

A clean and secure tamper-evident seal sends a comforting message to receiving consumers. On the other hand, a distorted liner provides a cautionary warning to the customer that the container may have been tampered with, which serves as a protective message for both the end user and the producer. Learn more about the tamper-evident benefits of PS liners in our post "Liners lay on the job for a reason".

Heat Induction Seal (HIS) liners are made from a metallic disc and a plastic film. Different from PS liners, HIS liners cannot be applied by hand. Mechanically secured to a bottle or jar, the HIS liner is similar to the PS liner appearance, resulting in a tamper evident seal that protects the housed product until time of use when the liner is peeled back and discarded. Check out our article, "Liners lay on the job for a reason" to learn more about HIS liners.

Dairy or Juice snap screw lids are prevalently employed throughout the beverage industry. If you're marketing a drinkable line, this tamper-evident closure may be the best option for you. At first glance the closure's intact tab reaffirms to the customer that it is a new product. With a quick pull, the tamper-evident seal is broken and guzzling can commence. As companions to our dairy and juice containers we carry these lids in white, blue, green, orange and red.

Metal plastisol lined lids are designed to be used in canning. You know that special sound that can only be duplicated by opening new jars of pickles over and over again? That's the soundtrack to tamper evidence. If applied correctly, the closure will create a vacuum seal. This feature makes your product tamper-evident by means of that auditory attribute we all know and love. Read "Plastisol Liners: The Sound of Safety" and "Liners lay on the job for a reason" for a descriptive breakdown of plastisol features and functional uses.

Deciding which tamper-evident option will make for the best fit for you will depend on your product's specifications. Plastic bottles are more conducive to shrink bands over plastisol lined closures. Working for subtly, you might consider a hidden PS or HIS liner instead of an obvious shrink band. Browse through our collection of shrink bands, PS liners, HIS liners, dairy or juice lids and plastisol closures to decide for yourself. No matter the method you choose one thing is for sure, your product will be safe.

Prepare to make safe packaging choices by reading Kayla Holman's article on tamper-evident packaging features.

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Liners lay on the job for a reason

Posted by Kayla Holman on April 29, 2011

Is your current product packaging keeping you up at night? Do you toss and turn, constantly worrying about overflowing leaks and polluted contents? If you said yes to either of these questions, we can help. This isn't an infomercial, just a shameless plug for liners.

Liners are utilized in a variety of ways. For instance, no one wants dust or hair to be included in their finished product. Gross. A liner serves as a protector that assists in keeping container contents free of unwanted particles. No liner is guaranteed spill proof, due to the variance of the product stowed. It's like asking if oil is good for a car's engine. The answer is yes, but with knowledge of the engine's brand or style a better specified solution could be determined. The same case goes for liners. A plethora of liner styles exist to make packaging more functional according to its use. Find out how F217, PS, HIS, and Plastisol liners can enhance your product line.

F217 liners consist of three material parts. First is a sheet of LDPE plastic, next is a foam center made of polyethylene and lastly, another sheet of LDPE. A F217 liner should be placed into the top of a non-dispensing lid, where it will constantly remain through countless uses. Resistant to odor and taste, the liner acts as an obstacle between the closure and the container contents.

Pressure sensitive (PS) liners are comprised of polystyrene foam, edged with adhesive beads that are designed to break upon implied pressure. Like a F217, a PS liner also takes up residence inside the top of a closure the difference is that this liner should not be affixed to a container until it is ready for concluding packaging or you risk sealing the container prematurely. If you decide to go with a pressure sensitive option, be sure the container rim is spotless. If not, your night terrors may return, this time featuring meandering particles that rebel against a thorough seal.

Give the liner twenty four hours to fully seal before selling or transporting the product. Once this time has passed the closure can be removed to uncover a new magnificently tamper evident container. The liner sticks to the container, canvassing the opening, comforting customers with the knowledge that they are the first to use the product. These liners are single use, once peeled off the container they should be disposed of.

Heat Induction Seal (HIS) liners consist of a metallic (usually aluminum foil) disc and a plastic film. Unlike the two liners discussed earlier, this style cannot be installed manually. Special sealing equipment is required to apply necessary heat to the liner and cap the filled container. Once applied, the HIS appearance is similar to that of a PS liner, only metallic instead of foam, and functions the same way as well. This strongly bound seal assures producers and customers alike that the contents will not only go undisturbed, but be preserved, slightly extending the shelf life of the product.

Plastisol liners are the black sheep of the liner family. Unlike the others, these liners cannot be purchased singularly, but only as a closure and liner combo. Plastisol lined lids typically consist of a PVC gasket placed along the inside of a metal closure. When matched up with glass containers these lids are capable of creating a tamper evident vacuum seal, which works wonderfully for hot fill canning processes. Check out our post "Plastisol Liners: The Sound of Safety" for more information on this type of liner.

A liner addition may be just what your product needs. Consider the benefits of F217, PS, HIS and Plastisol liners in accordance with building up your own line. Check out our collection of liners, order a few samples and decide which option will maximize your packaging potential.

Not sure which packaging liner to use on your product line? Read Kayla Holman's article on closure liner styles to discover which is best for you.

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Small Changes Can Go A Long Way Towards Saving Our Environment

Posted by Dean Prater on April 25, 2011

Not a soul wants to see our one and only planet deteriorate because of our own recklessness, but that is definitely what is going on in our planet presently. But more and more are becoming increasingly nervous of Mother Nature because the consequences of what we've done wrong in the past are slowly manifesting in the environment. A few have taken steps on attempting something helpful for the environment to avoid any further damage. Research workers worldwide have looked at ways to make use of more copious natural resources to replace the ones that we have nearly exhausted; some are even dedicated to how they could fix the environment.

Now that nature is having these alterations, individuals have taken actions to become more eco-friendly. From people that separate their waste to giant companies producing and using environment friendly products; each and everyone is becoming increasingly conscious of how the natural environment is at this point of humanity. Speaking of environment friendly products, PepsiCo has announced (as per http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42087502/ns/business-oil_and_energy/) that they have created a 100% plant based bottle. What this implies is other consumers of plastic bottles have to implement this technology in the near future so that they can compete, making plastics more environment friendly. Currently, Coca Cola's green bottle is 30% plant based. Pepsi states that they'll release the bottle next year.

On a less significant scale, groceries and other businesses have begun using more eco friendly custom bags for grocery bags as an alternative to plastic bags, which as everyone knows are made from non-biodegradable material. Several even ask consumers to utilize eco bags in exchange for receiving some discounts on items that the supermarket sells. Some people have started to utilize seed paper in various ways, seeing as this paper is attractive, adaptable, and easily recyclable, many customers have opted to use this for marriage ceremony invites, stationaries and other instances that require a elegant paper. Even with these little items, everybody is offering their portion of work in saving the environment for future generations.

All in all, we are able to say that everybody really wants to save the natural environment. Hours of research have been put in upgrading modern technology that impacts the environment to become more environment responsive. Illustrations of this are the bottles utilized by beverage companies; previously it was 100% plastic bottles after which it was 30 percent organic based bottles and now 100 percent plant based bottles. One more contribution to making use of increasingly eco-friendly choices is with the use of recyclable grocery bags against the non-biodegradable plastic bags.

All of these improvements and inventions were created to help you keep the environment more safe for us, and so that our future generation will still enjoy nature's gifts.

Dean Prater is an immensely educated author covering environment friendly and recycling topics plus extending the ideal to organizations to use reusable grocery bags to promote both their trademark and consciousness for our earth.

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