Quick product changeover despite different viscosity

The German cosmetics industry turns over more than € 6.5 billion each year – an increasing trend. Products such as skin care products, hand creams, hair care products, shampoos, bath additives and many more require a broad spectrum of innovative technologies that corporations can use for production and contract manufacturers for filling. The growth potential of the cosmetics industry today is increasingly determined not only by the product range itself, but also by the ability of manufacturers and contract fillers to meet new market requirements such as different package sizes, more diverse packaging materials or the desire for very small batches. Flexibility within the processes plays a decisive role: Only those who design their technologies so that a smooth changeover between products of different formulations/viscosities is possible, will produce efficiently in the end and keep their total cost of ownership (TCO) low.

The VHD Hygienic Dispenser from ViscoTec is such a solution because it offers maximum freedom in the filling process. The company is responding to what is probably the biggest challenge for manufacturers and cosmetic contract fillers: To fill more different products with high quality and quantity, in order to keep up with global competition.

Flexibility and safety throughout the entire process

The spectrum of products ranges from liquid or oily, pasty and highly viscous to shear-sensitive. Smooth creams are still relatively easy to fill, but gels with absorbable beads, for example, can cause problems and these problems have been considered in the technical implementation of the VHD Hygienic Dispenser. Shear stress would result in the destruction and structural change of the product if any potential problems had not been considered. Due to their high adsorption capacity, activated carbon components are being used in various applications – this upcoming trend in the cosmetics industry promises pore-deep clean skin, whiter teeth and more beautiful hair. The technical challenge:

These solid particles place huge demands on the filling technology used. For more than 20 years, ViscoTec has focused its developments on the volumetric dosing of medium to highly viscous, shear-sensitive and abrasive liquid materials. The medium-sized company uses the endless piston principle and meets the strict hygienic requirements of the cosmetics industry with the VHD Hygienic Dispenser. The hygienic design and the resulting easy emptying, dismantling and cleaning facilitate frequent product changes, which is daily practice for cosmetic contract fillers and manufacturers. The use of the VHD Hygienic Dispenser enables a quick and uncomplicated change between similar products, for example with different colours, but also meets the requirements of an application where products with completely different physical properties have to be changed. Product changes between homogeneous self-flowing body oil and an exfoliating product or mask are possible after one cleaning step without any adjustments to the equipment. This reduces production costs in the long term: It saves time, potential errors are reduced, and machine operation is made easier. For optimized processes and absolute process reliability.