Silicone Dispensing Valves
Silicone Dispensing Valves can be a great way for consumers to dispense a wide range pf products including Toppings, Sause’s, Treacle, Honey and even Shampoos and Conditioners, just to name just a few.
They can even dispense fine powders like baby powders. They do require a lot more technical planning and validation than for a standard hinge cap. The correct design of the whole pack will allow the product to be stored “upside down” so that product is in contact with the valve for immediate dispensing. It will also give a very clean “cut off” of the product the moment a consumer stops squeezing.
Optimising the total pack to get a well performing pack is quite complex. Some of the many variables that need to be factored into your pack design include:
The viscosity of the product.
Does it contain any solids or particulates
The shape of the bottle and the bottle material. It is important the pack can be easily held in one hand and that squeezing the bottle applies pressure to the contents. Products that have been launched where a child needs two hands to squeeze it have often failed in the market.
The volume of the bottle can be critical. Depending on the shape, contents and valve size,packs over 600 ml may not work well when only 150 ml of product left in the pack. The volume of air left will prevent sufficient downward pressure of the product to open the valve.
How the consumer stores the product can be significant. Honey is a product where 50% of people store it in the cupboard (21C) where the other 50% store it in the fridge (5C). This means the valve has to cope with 2 very different viscosities of the same product.
