Risdon-AMS announced this week that it is to manufacture the CRAVE CALVIN KLEIN spray package for Calvin Klein Cosmetics, a division of Unilever Cosmetics International. Risdon-AMS developed the complete package and supplied all components for CRAVE, except for the pump and blow moulded bottle.
CRAVE is a self-contained system spray package with no pull-off top or external moving parts: a bottle within an outer case whose two halves snap into place to form the rounded container.
The package is side-actuated utilising an elastomer (TPE), soft-touch "trigger." The TPE material allows the trigger, which is initially moulded flat, to conform itself exactly to the round-shaped outer case profile when installed, writes the company.
Risdon-AMS continues that this mechanically assembled trigger allows for a easy transition from case to trigger, ensuring that the smooth contours of the package are undisturbed.
"Despite the limitations in moulding and assembling TPE material, Risdon-AMS manufactured a functional trigger that is easily assembled," said Jim Bigham, manager, project engineering for Risdon-AMS.
The aesthetic requirement for having a single round hole where the actuator orifice exits the case meant that an entirely new fragrance mechanism had to be produced.
Traditionally, designed spray-through packages use an elongated hole that allows the actuator to move up and down in the opening, as the spray is dispensed. The company writes that this new challenge was overcome by creating a mechanism that combines design simplicity and basic physics with movement that pushes the bottle and pump towards a stationary actuator.
An angular slotted lever is attached to the bottle via lugs on the bottle's neck. As the lever is depressed horizontally the lugs move along the angled slot, raising the bottle/pump smoothly against the actuator, dispensing the product.
The front and back case halves are moulded PCTA material, in a translucent white colour. Acetal was used in the lever as it provided the strength, flexibility and lubricity needed for the package to function smoothly underneath an orange TPE trigger, adds the company.
The CRAVE spray packages are produced at Risdon-AMS' plants in Danbury, Conneticut and Mozzate, Italy.