Hands off! P&G's commercial Dawn gets new non—spill, metered dispensing system

Food & Drug Packaging, August, 1999 by William Makely

Commercial detergents for heavy-duty washing of pots and pans in restaurants and foodservice establishments are sold in concentrated form, to be mixed with water on site. Often, the mixing is left in the hands of kitchen personnel who are rushed when they do it, and who may not fully understand the written instructions. These are also jobs with relatively frequent turnover. Those who have learned the right procedures move on and there is rarely time to train new personnel thoroughly. Wasting concentrated products such as these can be costly.

Confusion among products is a problem. Busy employees not paying specific attention have been known to use caustic sanitizing products in dishwashers. Spillage is also a big potential problem in busy washing areas.

The Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) had earlier attacked the need for accurate measuring and mixing by developing a proprietary metering system that automatically mixes detergent and water at the push of a button. Until recently, however, there was no sure solution for the spillage problem.

In response to the needs of customers who use a number of its commercial cleaning products, P&G in 1998 decided to develop a system that would address them all.

"Our goal," says Rich Kussin of P&G's Technical Support Group for Commercial Products, "was to add value to the package by removing the potential for waste and to make the package trouble-free for the user."

A Simple Change

The new system P&G came up with, with the help of RD Industries, is relatively simple. The new Dawn commercial detergent bottle is the same 1-gallon F-style high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottle used previously, but with a redesigned dispensing system that works specifically with the metering units made for P&G and already in use in many establishments. The key to the accurate metering and non-spill features of the container is a custom-designed self-venting throat plug that includes a spring-loaded check valve.

The plug includes an HDPE valve head that moves along a polypropylene stem. When the bottle is not in use, the valve is held closed by a spring, allowing no spills during transportation or storage. The spring is installed within the plug, where it will not be affected by the product, making it suitable for use with corrosive products. The plug also includes a breathable membrane that allows gases to pass through it, relieving positive or negative pressure in the bottle that might lead to damage or spillage. (The membrane material varies from package to package, depending on the corrosive properties of the product.)

The Dawn product is filled exactly as before, in the same bottle. After filling, the plug is inserted, attached to a tube that reaches to the bottom of the bottle, and then covered by the standard 38mm continuous-thread closure used on the previous bottle.

On-Site Use

On-site, the closure is removed, exposing the opening in the plug. The closure on the end of the metering unit's intake tube has a nipple that mates with the bottle's valve. As the closure is screwed down, that nipple opens the spring-loaded check valve, allowing detergent to be drawn up. If the metering system closure is removed for any reason, the valve closes immediately.

Removing the shipping closure and screwing on the intake tube closure are the only operations the kitchen worker has to do before pushing the button on the metering unit to begin dispensing a measured quantity of detergent.

In addition to preventing spillage and wasteful mixing, the new dispensing system is also set up to assure that the proper product is dispensed. Only the Dawn dispensing valve will mate with the intake closure from the Dawn metered dispensing unit. Varying the height and the inside and outside diameters of the aperture and mating plug allows RD Industries sufficient combinations to provide every product of every customer with a unique, proprietary key that will not allow any other product to be attached.

"This product may go into bakeries, fast-food operations, supermarkets," says Kussin. "Places that are busy and where labor turns over frequently. Anything we can do to make the use of our product goof-proof helps the end-user."

The new closed-loop system was introduced in July 1998. Kussin says that Dawn in the new package is selling as well as the company had projected, helped by the fact that a small added investment was able to realize immediate, measurable savings.

For more information from RD Industries Inc., call (800) 759-7090 or mark Item 581.

In a nutshell

Goal: Reduce waste in handling expensive concentrated cleaning products

How: Eliminate spills and inaccurate measuring with a closed-loop system

Result: Safe, economical use of product and a high return on investment (ROI)