A rigid plastics pack for the mail delivery of pharmaceuticals has highlighted RPC’s design expertise.
The Pont pack developed with Pont Europe comprises a blow moulded HDPE bottle made by RPC Containers, Market Rasen, UK.
The customer wanted to send vitamins and similar products by standard letter post, rather than the more expensive parcel post, which required a depth less than 25mm. Meanwhile, the neck opening had to be as big as possible for ease of filling.
“Ordinarily, the ratio of width to depth needs to be 2.5:1 to allow the shape to be blown with optimum material distribution, but that would not suit the letterbox size,” says Jim Dale, RPC’s Design Manager. “Our technical team worked hard to ensure that this concept with a width to depth ratio of over 4:1 is viable.”
Further elements included non-round trepanning of the neck to maximise the aperture, while maintaining consistently flat side panels and strength in the corners to allow quality wrap-around labelling, says RPC.
The matching oblong cap is moulded in polypropylene by RPC Halstead.
The bottleneck is induction sealed for air-tightness and tamper-evidence. Applying the induction seal wad to the long, narrow shape of the container was an additional challenge.
“The Pont pack has been a long sought-after concept, but previous attempts have failed due to the technical challenges. RPC’s ingenuity and expertise has achieved the impossible,” says Max van de Grift, Supply Chain Director of Pont Europe, adding: “The pack has already been shown at the Vitafood trade exhibition in Geneva to unanimous praise, and we are currently entering it into several packaging awards in the Benelux region,” he adds.
