Blister packs have long faced a conundrum in their ability to meet increasing demand for child resistance – either they are child’s play or become a handful to those less than the nimble fingered. As a new British standard intensifies pressure, Dragon Plastics believes it has beaten the flexible packaging industry into finding a solution.
The South Wales based company has developed and patented an injection moulded PP retail pack known as BlisterloK designed to hold any number of blister packs or strips.
BlisterloK offers additional actions to the conventional child-resistant mechanisms which rely on two simultaneous movements. Opening is achieved by squeezing a pad on the side of the container, lifting a flap at its recessed edge, folding back the flap and flipping the front side of the container open.
Product information can be contained within the pack in leaflet form as well as printed onto the sides, eliminating the need for additional secondary packaging.
Ian Parker, managing director of Dragon Plastics, says: “BlisterLoK has been designed and patented in response to the emergence of BS 8404 in December last year. This is a new British standard which provides for blister packs to be tested for child resistance in the same way as reclosables have been for the past 25 years.
“In an effort to spur the industry on to improving child resistance for flexible packs we have decided to undertake a concept launch of BlisterLok and we are actively seeking organisations who will benefit from our newly developed design and our manufacturing technology.”
The flexibles industry is working on developments to meet the child-resistant standard, says Stephen Wilkins of the Child Safe Packaging Group, but currently no commercial systems appear to be available.