Plastics big winners at the DuPont packaging awards

DuPont presented 16 awards at its 26th DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation. The company calls the awards the industry's longest-running, global, independently judged competition highlighting innovative packaging and collaboration throughout the value chain. "The Packaging Awards continue to celebrate innovation and champion collaboration," said William Harvey president of DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers. "We updated the award categories this year to reflect emerging trends and amplify the consumer's role in driving innovation. 
Consumer convenience earned high marks in this year's competition. Seventy-five percent of the winning packaging solutions bring a higher degree of convenience to consumers."While the awards consider all materials for packaging, plastics were clearly a standout as there were a host of plastic packaging products recognized at the award ceremony. And as expected many of those plastic packaging solutions were pouches.The following slideshow takes a closer look at some of the winners:Smart Dosing Cap - Gold WinnerP&G's liquid cleaner bottles feature an innovative, smart dosing (auto-stop) cap that is the smallest dosing system on the global market. The smart-dosing cap uses a timer mechanism activated by one squeeze of the bottle, which dispenses the product and, at the same time, moves a small piston forward that cleanly shuts off the flow when the prescribed dose has been dispensed. This dose has been adapted by P&G across their product lines to vary between 5 and 50ml with very high accuracy. The cap consists of four plastic parts and can be manufactured at very low cost. Most dosing systems on the market are larger, costlier, and made of multiple materials.The smart-cap enables improved control and better use of the cleaning product. Consumers will always get the same pre-measured amount of liquid cleaner.  Previously, consumers either poured the cleaner directly from the bottle without measuring or used a non-controlled dosing cap, which often led to using more product than needed.Click on the arrow below to go to the next slide.