Product category:
Bottles, bottling and jars materials, equipment and services
News Release from: RPC Group
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 11 September 2006
RPC Beaute at Luxe Pack
RPC beaute, the newest division of the RPC Group will exhibit its know how and latest innovations at the Luxe Pack show in Monaco on October 24 to 27
RPC beaute was created on July 1st 2006 when RPC Group acquired Crown Risdon Europe The RPC Group, European leader in rigid plastic packaging, was already active in cosmetic packaging through its RPC Cresstale subsidiary, based in Thornaby on Tees, UK
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 15 Oct 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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This division has a clear ambition for growth, both internally and externally.
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RPC Group has a revenue of more that 180 million euro in beauty and personal care packaging through three of its divisions: RPC beaute (fragrance and cosmetics), RPC Bramlage-Wiko (toiletries and personal care) and RPC Blow Moulding (bottles).
RPC has a strategy of sustained investment in industrial processes in order to maintain its production facilities at the highest levels in terms of productivity and competitiveness and intends to apply this policy to RPC beaute.
RPC beaute designs and produces packs, including fragrance closures, lipsticks, lipgloss, mascaras, compacts and jars for leading Beauty brands world-wide.
Key to RPC beaute's expertise is its ability to combine sophisticated manufacturing technologies - including overmoulding, bi-injection, processing specific resins, electroplating, lacquering, decoration and robotized assembling - to produce highly competitive packs, with zero defect quality, and at fast speed to market.
SIGNIFICANT RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS Lancome Color Fever Lipstick The latest Lancome lipstick redefines luxury with a unique cap that combines transparency and a metallised finish for an exceptional quality appearance.
To obtain this effect RPC beaute bi-injects the cap using two specific resins which are then submitted to a partial electroplating process.
The cap finally receives an oriented hot stamped decor, plus a protective tampo printed transparent ink to improve scuff resistance.
The plated base is also bi-injected for a crisp geometry, despite high wall thickness variations.
The entire process is fully robotised, from moulding to decoration and assembly, including 100% visual inspection by cameras, providing optimal capacity, competitiveness, and zero-defect quality.
This exceptionally challenging product won a Gold DuPont Award 2006 in the Cosmetics section.
Lancome Hypnose fragrance caps These very heavy caps demonstrate a crystal-clear transparency and feature a decorative metal plate.
The caps are moulded in Surlyn PC 2000.
Total transparency, without a hint of crystallisation, is obtained through a perfect mastering of the cooling process.
The decorative aluminium plate is then affixed to the top through an innovative invisible gluing process.
RPC beaute used a new proprietary technology for the first time, allowing a 30% reduction in the moulding time, without compromising either quality or functionality.
This technology provides a significant cost benefit on both piece price and on mould investment.
This product also won RPC beaute a Gold DuPont Award 2006 in the Fragrance section.
New Reveal lipstick mechanism This new patented mechanism offers increased flexibility in decoration and simplified manufacturing for lipstick packaging.
The primary innovation is a unique mechanism for delivering the lipstick formulation.
Instead of the traditional method of propelling the lipstick bulk upwards, the new design "reveals" it by means of a retracting sheath.
This method is designed to maximise stability for both the consumer and the filling line operation.
Reveal features single-hand operation.
The mechanism is made of a limited number of components; no functional part is visible, even with a fully transparent sheath.
Reveal is especially suitable for promotional uses.
Estee Lauder Pure Color make-up line The Pure Color family - comprising lipsticks, lipgloss, mono, duo and trio eye shadow compacts, and mascaras - has been further extended with a new mono eye shadow compact featuring an integrated applicator.
Like all its predecessors this clear cube pack is overmolded onto an insert colour matched to the powder inside.
This range, with its unique design, provides a showcase of the state of the art technologies in which RPC beaute is expert: injection moulding and overmoulding, processing specific resins, electroplating, lipstick mechanisms, mascara brushes and complex assemblies.
This impressive product collection also demonstrates RPC beaute's ability to offer customers a full project management and cosmetic range development service.
The first mono eye shadow compact won the Forme de Luxe Award in 2002 and the CPC Editor's Choice Award in 2003.
Lacoste Touch of Pink and Touch of Sun collars and fragrance caps These caps were designed to closely mimic a glass appearance through spotless transparency, heavy weight and brittle sound, at only a fraction of the cost.
The caps are manufactured in overmolded PCTA for crisp geometrical lines despite large wall thickness variations.
These caps also demonstrate perfect transparency - thanks to an RPC beaute proprietary process, which eliminates all the crystallisation that is normally generated by this material next to the injection gate.
Collars are made in electroplated polypropylene.
This material guarantees total fragrance compatibility and eliminates all risk of stress cracking or surface finish damage, while the fine texture is obtained through electrochemical etching of the mould.
Dior Addict lipgloss family This highly selective range started in 2003 with Addict Ultragloss, and has since expanded with several variations such as Liquor liquid lipstick, Plasicgloss and others, all produced by RPC beaute.
These products use technologies such as heavy wall injection, airtight sonic welding, electroplating and UV lacquering.
RPC beaute also implemented a new generation of state of the art high-speed assembly machines, fully robotised, including 100% visual inspection by cameras and air tightness checking.
This technology means manufacturing costs have been significantly reduced, while also enhancing capacity and flexibility and raising quality levels.
For Plasticgloss, RPC beaute also developed a new electroplated finish, Pale Gold, a light Champagne gold which adds a contemporary alternative to traditional gold finishes.
Avon Color Five mascaras, compacts and slimline lipsticks This extensive range is designed as a "system": a set of moulds allows a large number of format and finish combinations providing high production flexibility while enabling many variations to be quickly and inexpensively generated in response to the promotional needs of the brand.
The full range is manufactured in polypropylene, including integral pearlescent/metallic colorants, providing a high quality finish at a very competitive cost.
L'Oreal Paris Invincible Kiss Proof lipstick This slimline lipstick features the first implementation of RPC beaute's new "SlimGlide" mechanism.
SlimGlide offers a smoothness and a quality of operation comparable to those of a classical "Full Size" mechanism.
It features a dry torque control process throughout the entire product lifetime, thanks to a patented torque control system.
The mechanism also provides a patented torque override safety system, ensuring a non-destructive operation - even if the user applies an excessive torque.
The SlimGlide mechanism has set the standard in the Slimline Lipstick sector, offering an un-compromised quality level that was previously unavailable with this type of product.
This mechanism features either a metal or plastic A-shell, and is also available in a Trimline format.
KissProof features a gold anodised aluminium A-shell and a lacquered finish.
Altogether this package provides a very upmarket solution at a competitive cost, suitable for mass distribution.
A MAJOR TREND: BEAUTY PACKAGING IS MOVING UPSCALE This trend affects both the selective and mass market sectors.
Brands are looking to upgrade their packaging, both functionally and aesthetically.
This is triggered by the increasing need for brands to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded and competitive environment.
Recent developments by RPC beaute clearly illustrate this trend with very heavy fragrance caps (i.e Lancome Hypnose), mass market packaging featuring luxury finishes (i.e L'Oreal KissProof), lipgloss with heavy wall transparent vials (i.e Estee Lauder Pure Color), increased use of electroplating finishes on luxury colour cosmetic packs (i.e Lancome Color Fever), and the creation of product formulations more demanding in terms of anti-UV protection or air-tightness (i.e Dior Addict Ultragloss).
THE BEAUTY PACKAGING INDUSTRY IS EXPERIENCING A DEEP RESTRUCTURING PHASE Epitomised by historical packaging suppliers engaged in restructuring, downsizing, de-localising, or even getting out of business, this trend is caused by: - A general slow-down of global growth in consumption (despite strong local growth in certain regions), - The increased bargaining power of purchasers, a consequence of the concentration of global Beauty leaders, - Increased competition, especially from regions with low labour costs, - The increase in prime material costs.
However the trend to source from countries with low-costs is slowing down due to: 1- The difficulty of low-cost suppliers to provide the level of service and quality that brands expect, 2- The significant reduction in the price gap between low-cost producers (whose production costs are increasing) and certain western producers who have learned to efficiently automate their manufacturing processes.
In this context RPC beaute sees an opportunity to become the supplier of choice for global beauty leaders, thanks to its technical know-how and ability to implement highly efficient manufacturing processes and flexible automation.
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