Online Exclusive: Putting Tubes to the Test

The Q-Test line of testing equipment is here, allowing tube makers a consistent means of cutting down labor time.

By Steve Katz, Associate Editor

In the beauty and personal care market, high quality packaging is essential in order to compete. Here, quality control is paramount, and the testing of packaging components is a key part of bringing products to market.

Manual testing has long been considered a common test-method for tubes. One of the quality control tests carried out manually by tube manufacturers checks whether the weld between the body of the tube and the molded shoulder leaks. If the joint leaks, it is possible for the contents to become contaminated, or in some cases leak from the tube. Traditionally, to conduct this test, a tube is pressurized with an airline and then immersed, by hand, into a bucket of water to see if bubbles appear. This process can be messy, time consuming and involves having water in the production area. In addition, the results from this method are also subjective and cannot always be quantified. Another test that has long been carried out by hand involves using a manual torque gauge that checks whether a tube’s cap has been tightened too much, or is too loose.

Tube manufacturers also need to ensure that the joint along the length of the tube, known as the side-seam, is within specification. Cutting a section of the tube with a sharp knife, and then examining the joint with a powerful microscope is a way of testing this.

These measurements are labor intensive and open to interpretation, leading to inconsistent results depending upon the skill and experience of the operator.

Tube manufacturers have a new testing option. Cerulean, a manufacturer of tube packing and testing machinery for a range of industries, has launched its new Q-Test, which addresses the time and consistency issues associated with manual testing, and the company says it’s a great fit for the health and beauty market.

“Tube producers in these industries need to test a number of parameters during the production process to prevent possible product failures and expensive manufacturing downtime,” says Peter Wilson, global sales manager, Cerulean. “These tests are currently carried out manually, making them labor intensive and open to interpretation with potentially inconsistent results. Cerulean Q-Test removes the need for this manual testing and offers accuracy and repeatability as well as providing a full history of quantifiable results that can be used to help improve product quality.”

Q-Test has two measurement modules. Q-Test 1 is based on pneumatics and measures leak, burst and torque parameters of both plastic and laminate tubes using high quality precision transducers. Q-Test 2 adds the ability to measure length, diameter, ovality and side-seam parameters using both laser and high-resolution optical systems. Tubes can be fed to the machine manually, via a hopper, or by using an automated transfer system.

The system is supplied with an industrial PC, which controls all the mechanical and software aspects of the system. Results can be printed locally on a network, or shared on a company wide database if required by linking the system to a network via Ethernet.

Cerulean, with its Global headquarters in the UK, is a $26 million business annually. Wilson says the company exports around 99% of its sales and the company has 15 sales and service centers in 13 different countries.

Cerulean worked together with Colgate during the development of the Q-Test, and has now received the first order from the company for an installation at Colgate’s Morristown, Tennessee plant.