Interview with Packaging News

Openability standards help kit firm increase client base

Liz Gyekye, 1 September 2011

A West-Sussex based manufacturing firm has revealed that voluntary standards on the openability of packaging have helped it to increase its client base.

Mecmesin designs and manufactures force and torque and packaging test equipment.

Speaking to Packaging News, managing director John Page said the firm had increased its packaging client base by 5-10% over the last year, helped by voluntary standards on the openability of packaging, such as the ISO 8317 child resistant standard. There has also been the introduction of new EU guidelines for adults, to address the needs of the UK’s growing elderly population.

The BSI’s document, called DD CEN TS 15945 Packaging – Ease of opening – Criteria and test methods for evaluating consumer packaging, gives guidance on how to evaluate whether a particular design of packaging can be considered easy to open by the large majority of consumers, including the elderly.

Page said that Mecmesin has a range of packaging test equipment that specifically tests the sealing force, the pull force, the peel test, the coefficient of friction and the grip force needed to open packaging.

The company works with big packaging names such as Rexam, Amcor, RPC, Rieke, Artenius, Portola, SCA, Bericap, Reckitt Benckiser, Procter and Gamble, Tetra Pak, Chesapeake, Crown Cork, Logo Plastics and Sonoco. It has a £5.5m turnover and 20% of that turnover is related to packaging testing.

Page said: “We take great pride in the fact that we have a strong engineering team to adapt our products to replicate the tactile feel that customers will feel when opening packaging. We want to assist manufacturers develop frustration-free packaging.”

Page said that he hoped his firm could support more packaging firms in the future.