Improved Access to Dental Burrs
Published: March 27th, 2002
Abrasive Technology (Lewis Center, OH) redesigned its dental burr packaging because dental workers were finding the injection-molded boxes difficult to open. The company decided to modify its skin packaging machine, manufactured by Zed Industries Inc. (Vandalia, OH), to package its dental burrs in a more user-friendly package. "The old package had a sticker that wrapped all the way around it," explains Chad Hoffman, mechanical engineer for Abrasive Technology. "A lot of the assistants complained because the easiest way to get in there was stick their fingernail in, and they would break their fingernail or just have a hard time opening it."
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Not only was the original packaging difficult to open, but it was also a challenge to remove the burrs one at a time. "The earlier package had a snap fit, and each burr had to snap down into an injection-molded tray," explains Peter Zelnick, CEO, Zed Industries. "It was difficult to get them out because they are about the size of a needle, and they're not even an inch long. The operator had to reach in, and there would be five of them less than 1/8-in. apart."
With the help of Zed Industries, Abrasive Technology came up with a new packaging design consisting of a tray with an easy-to-open peelable lid. Each burr is packaged in its own blister so dental workers can peel the lid back from the burrs one at a time and drop a burr into their hand. Eventually, says Hoffman, the company's goal is to add a perforation between each blister, allowing the label backing to be peeled back from each burr individually.
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