MOULD MAKING PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 05/23 www.petpla.net 20 Swiss made tethered closure The easy solution From 2024 onwards, all plastic caps have to remain connected to the single-use container, in accordance with the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive, 2019/904, Article 6. As a result, there are now numerous designs of tethered caps with different manufacturing processes on the market. PETplanet spoke to Manuel Büsser, CEO of EasyCap, about his multiple award-winning tethered cap solutions. PETplanet: EasyCap has won both the World Packaging Award and the German Packaging Award. What are the advantages for the consumer when using packaging with EasyCap? Büsser: From the very beginning, our primary goal was to develop a tethering system that not only complies with EU directives, but also puts the needs of consumers first. Our EasyCap solution gives the consumer the greatest possible freedom to open and close the cap with the usual sequence of movements. Another advantage is the freedom to drink that they have been accustomed to up to now. With our tethering solution, the cap is not in the face region during consumption. When the consumer opens a bottle with our EasyCap tethering, he naturally unscrews the cap from the mouth and lifts it off. No unaccustomed flipping over a hinge is necessary. Replacing the cap is also very easy, allowing the consumer to screw the cap back onto the muzzle as usual. With our EasyCap tethering, we assist consumers in easily setting the tethering band length that is most comfortable for them. Through haptic feedback, so-called “stop bridges” show the consumer the predefined band lengths. With all these intuitive functions and the continued natural drinking behaviour, we have been able to convince two independent expert jury groups and many consumers of our tethering solution. PETplanet: Why did you decide on this closure lasso design? What were the challenges in the development? Büsser: Before we started the development of our EasyCap tethering, we first researched the needs of consumers. The most important development goal for us was to develop a tethering that does not interfere with the consumer and does not require the consumer to relearn the already familiar movement sequences. To this end, we analysed the movement sequences learned from childhood for opening and closing a drinking bottle. The analysis showed that the most natural form of the opening process consists of unscrewing and lifting, and that the closing process consists of putting on and screwing down. To realise the two such simple movements in a tethering without adding another movement was a big challenge. The first prototypes were not very well accepted by consumers. The reason for this criticism was that the tethering band was much too short, which consumers found annoying because the cap scratched their face while drinking. After several iterations, we came up with our award-winning tethering solution, where the consumer decides what distance the cap should be from the mouth and thus from the face. Furthermore, our solution also prevents the consumer from tearing off the cap unintentionally. This is because we have observed that consumers who want to drink from bottles with a flip-top tethering cap tear off the cap immediately after opening it so that they can then drink effortlessly from the bottle. PETplanet: What advantages do closure producers have when they opt for EasyCap? Büsser: Our aim was to develop a tethering system that requires no or only minor adjustments to the existing cap design for most cap types. Therefore, it is possible to implement our EasyCap tethering with only minor investments in existing or new injection moulds. We have succeeded in doing this because we do not generate our tethering design with a slide mould, but introduce it subsequently by means of slitting. This also has the advantage that our customers can respond to consumer needs within a very short time and without costly modifications to the injection moulds. Manuel Büsser, CEO EasyCap With EasyCap tethering, consumers can set the tethering band length that is most comfortable for them. MOULD MAKING
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