For more than 25 years, DuPont Surlyn has been a leading product in cosmetics and personal care packaging. Combining lightness, crystal clarity and natural shine, this ionomer resin remains a preferred solution among brands and manufacturers today.
What is less well known, however, is that in recent years, DowDuPont Transportation and Advanced Polymers (T&AP), one of DowDuPont Specialty Products' business segments, has broadly expanded its offerings in other types of cosmetic applications to help customers meet new challenges and emerging market trends.
To meet the key requirements of cosmetic and personal care packaging, T&AP offers a wide range of resins: Delrin, Crastin, Hytrel, Hytrel RS, Zytel, Zytel RS and Sorona - all high-performance, semi-crystalline engineering resins that can be used in both rigid and flexible applications.
Delrin, Crastin, Hytrel, Hytrel RS, Zytel, Zytel RS and Sorona meet even the most stringent cosmetic and food contact regulations. The world's leading cosmetic brands also specify T&AP's resins because they provide high mechanical properties and excellent chemical resistance, while offering the decorability and glossy surface that contribute to the beauty of many end products. These resins are also specifically designed to enhance performance and come into direct contact with formulations, inspiring the creation of packaging that perfectly combines beauty and functionality.
T&AP's commitment to providing leading-edge solutions to the cosmetics and personal care industries is driven by several key market trends.
First of all, T&AP is a pioneer in the increasing use of polyester at the expense of polyoxymethylene (POM) in cosmetic packaging. An excellent example is PBT Crastin, a high-performance polymer that offers more decoration possibilities and is used for dispensing systems, mascaras and lipsticks.
DuPont Crastin PBT is particularly popular with customers because it provides superb surface appearance and a good balance of stiffness and toughness, reducing the risk of shrinkage. Finally, the mechanical properties of Crastin PBT allow for decoration techniques such as painting, hot stamping or metallization - all qualities that help cosmetics producers surprise and delight their customers.
The second trend that T&AP is fully committed to is the growing need for more cost-effective and environmentally responsible packaging solutions, both in terms of design and resource use. The development of bio-based polymers, such as the Hytrel RS, Sorona and Zytel RS brands, is at the heart of T&AP's efforts. The use of these biobased resins contributes significantly to reducing the global carbon footprint of brands and manufacturers. T&AP also offers polymers that can be recycled in PET streams, such as Sorona, which enables the development of products that are part of the circular economy.
For the future, T&AP is exploring ways to produce simplified packaging structures in which high-performance materials allow for the integration of multiple functions - resulting in fewer components for a single product. T&AP is already applying function integration in other sectors such as healthcare, and looks forward to leveraging its expertise to further advance packaging solutions for cosmetics and personal care products. Indeed, covering the needs of brands and manufacturers is not only about responding to market trends, but also about pioneering.
Finally, real innovation can only be achieved through collaboration. First, in addition to the most diverse portfolio in the industry, T&AP offers more than 20 years of application development expertise in packaging and distribution systems. But what makes it unique is its approach to developing innovative solutions for brands and manufacturers, maintaining a connection with channel partners and working closely with them from the earliest stage of a simple idea to the final invention. This allows the company to capture trends and proactively anticipate needs from the start. T&AP is always looking to share its cutting-edge technology and in-depth knowledge of tooling with its customers, so that it can develop the right solution in the right place. Throughout the process, T&AP works with partners to learn and discover the right innovative solution for each particular need.
Another crucial element of T&AP's approach is its dedicated team that focuses on the cosmetics and personal care industry. This team offers worldwide technical expertise in application development, design capabilities and technical support to help customers optimize tooling, select the best product from existing ranges and support them through the various phases of the production cycle.
All of these factors help the company stay ahead of the curve and fulfill its commitment to finding solutions for its customers in the cosmetics and personal care industries.
To learn more, please visit http://www.dupont.com/products-and-services/plastics-polymers-resins/thermoplastics/uses-and-applications/polymers-for-cosmetics.html
