The highlight of this year’s Emballage exhibition will be a demonstration of Locked4Kids; the Child Resistant Recolsable Carton box which is manufactured by Ecobliss. The newly patented “Locked4kids” carton box will be handled on one of Romaco’s machines during the exhibition.
Both companies work on a continuous improvement basis, largely investing their resources in innovation as a key factor for supporting quality of life as well as keeping the pace with market evolution.
Locked4Kids is a simple, inexpensive and mass-producible packaging solution consisting of a carton box and a PET tray, which can contain blisters or other pharmaceutical products and leaflet. The Locked4Kids packaging is composed of a carton box containing a PET tray. The box has openings on the sides in which the blister tray is automatically locked when it is pushed all the way into the box. For this, hooks are attached to the edge of the blister tray. In order to be able to open the packaging, both hooks have to be pushed simultaneously and held. Only then the tray can be pulled out of the box. This is very difficult for small children. The hooks are placed diagonally to one another at a distance that cannot be spanned by the hand of a small child, but which is no problem for adults. The carton box is coated with a tear resistant laminate so as to prevent children from ripping it apart. Ecobliss manufactured two variants of Locked4kids Cartons: The US Locked4Kids Carton has been tested against F=1 on multiple sizes by the ISO 17025 certified testing institute BVI, according the US CPSC regulation 16 C.F.R. § 1700.20. Approved by the US Product Safety Commission CPSC. When opened, all the components of the packaging stay connected (carton – tray – blisterstrips). The EU Locked4Kids Carton has been tested on multiple sizes by the ISO 17025 certified testing institute BVI, and certified against the ISO/EN 8317 standard. When opened, the tray can be pulled out of the carton and the blisters can be removed from the tray.
Mass production of the Locked4Kids Carton is easily realized on standard pharmaceutical packaging equipment with only minor adjustments. Blisterstrips are loaded from top down into the tray and the tray is inserted into the carton. This design ensures the same packaging process speeds as for regular (non CR) cartons and is a very cost effective solution. Furthermore the carton and blister offers protection to the product such as tamper evidence and environmental protection. One final important benefit of blister packaging in patient compliance is that pharmacists have a greater opportunity to communicate with and advise their patients because less time is necessary to fill the prescription.
October 2014, the packaging concept won the Dutch “Zilveren Noot” award and the CPhI Pharma Award for Innovation in Packaging.
Ecobliss is focused to make Locked4Kids cartons available on a global scale, by licensing pharmaceutical carton manufacturers for production and marketing. If you are interested Locked4Kids or you want to get licenced, please contact Ron Linssen, Managing Director, Locked4Kids BV.
Emballage 2014 will be held in France, Paris, on November 17-20th 2014. The Locked4Kids demonstration will be given at stand 5A H 002.