10.03.2022 - By now, the tube is over 150 years old: In 1841, the American John Goffe Rand obtained the patent for this container, which at the time was still being made out of tin. At first glance, the basic concept has not changed much in the meantime. However, there are developments on today’s tube market that we should keep an eye on.
As is many other areas of the packaging industry, tubes are also trending towards paper packaging. For a container used mainly in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, switching to fully or partially paper-based solutions is, unsurprisingly, not a foregone conclusion.
Swiss manufacturer Permapack’s tube, designed for the Kneipp cosmetics brand, represents one possibility for integrating fibre-based materials in tube manufacturing. 71 percent of the container consists of paper and cellulose. Its plastic content is limited to the barrier layer of ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH), which is also used in beverage cartons, and to the tube’s cap, which consists of polypropylene (PP) or high density polyethylene (HDPE).