Innovations Honored by DuPont

Favoring opening ease and product protection, judges in the 18th DuPont Awards Competition have awarded three healthcare product packaging technologies gold awards. Alcan Packaging–Medical Flexibles Americas won two gold awards, one along with Cardinal Health, while MeadWestvaco Healthcare Packaging took home one. The competition, sponsored by DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers, honors innovation in packaging from all across the supply chain. With 111 entries, this year’s eight-member judging panel awarded 22 international food and nonfood packaging innovations.

Alcan Packaging–Medical Flexibles Americas was recognized for its TearAnywhere multilayer film for prophylactics packaging. Extruded from mLLDPE, HDPE, and various high-Tg materials, the film does not become brittle or yellow with age. Packagers can add proprietary sealant technology to reduce sealing temperatures and dwell times, which can help speed up packaging lines.

Alcan Packaging–Medical Flexibles Americas and Cardinal Health were cited for the three-ply steam sterilization pouch, the Autopak. It consists of a spunbonded, nonwoven bottom layer, a peelable coextruded polypropylene-based middle film, and an outer top ply lamination of Dartek nylon from DuPont and polypropylene. The transparent pouch is easy for users to peel open, yet provides resistance to abuse. According to DuPont, the three-ply system also “allows for faster and easier packaging of instruments and provides visual access to the contents while reducing cost associated with reprocessing instrument trays.”

MeadWestvaco Healthcare Packaging received gold for its injection-molded Shellpak, which uses rigid plastic for child resistance and senior friendliness. Serving as a secondary pharmaceutical package for unit-dose medications, the plastic shell construction protects fragile tablets. The package can be run on standard high-speed cartoning equipment. It also can be customized according to brand needs.