Graham Packaging Introduces Flexa Tube

Another non-food category winner is Graham Packaging's Flexa Tube. It is made by extrusion blow molding and used to dispense food or cosmetics. Its special feature is the retractable arch end, which can be fully retracted into the tube body. Once it is retracted, the tube can be placed upright against the end of the tube just as it is covered with a conventional injection molded lid. Flexa Tube is considered as a cost-saving product because no additional cover is required.

To dispense tube-filled items, the user can squeeze the tube. This exposes the retractable arch end. The remaining thing is to remove the injection molded low density polyethylene screw cap and squeeze it. The customer can then leave the arch end outside, store the pipe on its side, or push the arch end back into the pipe body to store the pipe vertically.

The 80ml Unilever shampoo products shown here are sold in South America. According to Graham, the 9.5-gram Sadal tube has an 18-mm screw cap and is decorated with a pressure-sensitive label. Garaham said there is also an optional decoration printed directly onto the tube. If isolation is required, another option is a multi-layer structure.