This though raises the understanding that product packaging plays more than a container holding an item. It serves as a protective cover during transportation and while in the shelves, informs customers, discourages theft, and helps in selling and advertising. Blister packs and clamshells are two types of packaging that are commonly used in many consumer products. Each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks to take into consideration when choosing the most suitable packaging for your specific product. Cost, perceived quality, visibility, safety and security should be compared to know which of them is better for the organization.
What is Blister Packaging?
A blister pack is actually formed from a preformed plastic tray or cup referred to as the blister. The base itself is made from paper card and then has a front and back blister which completely encloses the item inside. The material used in developing the card has holes that create an opening through which the blister can be popped to gain access to the product. Blister packs are widely used for toys, electronics, drugs and small household items that are usually packed for show cases in the shops.
Benefits of Blister Packaging
- Visibility: The clear plastic blister enables view of the enclosed product from all angles due to the completely transparent nature of the plastic material used to create the blister. This aids in drawing the customers’ attention towards merchandise that is hung on store pegboards. Customers are able to distinguish between colors, shapes, or other surface characteristics of products through the transparent plastic. This makes it possible to coordinate efficient point-of-purchase marketing communication.
- Tamper Evidence: Any attempt to open or puncture the sealed card backing of a blister pack is quite noticeable. This discourages any would-be thefts and makes the customers assured that the item inside has not been touched or spoiled. It is more relevant for medications and health items because it is easier to tamper with such products.
- Lightweight: Blisters fit products like a second skin thus require minimal extra material space. This enabled shipping more units per carton and hence; resulting to lesser freight costs. It also plays the role of reducing waste that is disposed to the landfill after its use due to its light weight plastic material.
- Product Protection: While blisters are not very rigid, the preformed shapes offer some protection from small bumps when in transit. Most blisters actually have very robust polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic that can guard fragile components. Coefficient of compressive loads or the crushing force is also well handled by the paperboard.
- Brand Customization: A variety of colours used in the inks and the contrasting card colours also allow for eye-catching shelf appeal. Paper card backings provide enough area for high quality images, additional treatments, texturing, or cutouts for enhancing products.
- Cost Effective: Blister packaging is not expensive as compared to other kinds of packaging techniques mainly because it is appropriate for products that have simple or plane shapes which can easily fit into the blister molds. They do not involve substantial investment in custom tools apart from printing plates for cards.
Disadvantages of Blisters Packs
Limited Durability: Blisters are not very rigid and so they cannot protect themselves against sharp blows or pressures if applied in the form of bumps or compressions. Even cartons can be dropped on the products during distribution or pallets can be stacked higher to cause the products inside the flimsy blisters to be crushed. Some reinforcement of critical areas aids in enhancing standard configurations.
Increased Plastic Waste: Although compact for shipping, throwing away blister packaging adds to well-known problems of plastic waste. The majority of blister packs are made from #1 PET plastic material that is recognized and allowed to be recycled in most municipal recycling programs. However, in practice, a significant proportion of blisters still end up in landfill sites.
Access Difficulty: Some of the perforated backing cards do not cut through blisters, which makes it difficult for the consumer to use fingers to pull out the products. The weak, elderly, or disabled customers may have to use a pair of scissors to open the packs that are hard to open, leaving them to use other sharp objects.
What is Clamshell Packaging?
Clamshell packaging is a type of packaging that involves two rigid shells that are made from plastic and are connected at one edge. The two halves are hinged and lock on top of one another such that nothing is visible from outside when a product is packed inside. There are different types of latches and hinges but most of them use simple press-fit closing with knobs that are inserted into holes. Opening occurs only when it is manually opened or with the use of tools since clamshells are tightly sealed. This can be from food products such as bakery products to hardware, automobile parts and accessories, electronics among others.
Benefits of Clamshells
Enhanced Protection: The clamshells are rigid and protect product from impacts during distribution than the flexible blisters. The sturdy housing ensures no crushing impact even when the containers are piled under enormous pressure. Paper sleeves stapled sometimes cover shells and this provides protection from scratches.
Reduced Shrink/Theft: Attached clamshells remain closed allowing the stores to avoid opening enclosed merchandise without their knowledge. Some of the press-fit styles do not allow one to open them to access the items inside once locked. Meanwhile the would be thief has to quietly interfere with the more securely packaged products. This has a material effect on preventing the theft of high value retail items such as electronics or computer accessories.
Reusability: People usually retain the opened sturdy clamshells for part storage, protecting the products during moving, organization of materials for various DIY projects, or storing components for crafts. The hinged halves and snap-fit ensure easy access to the contents of the designed interior space. Some clamshells also nest pack very well without any unused space as well.
Tamper Evidence: Like blister packs, press-fit clamshels make it quite easy to tell if someone had already opened the package. Loose tamper-evident knobs or altered latches demonstrate whether contents of merchandise remain undisturbed since point of manufacture. This discourages people from picking the products while at the same time encouraging customers to be assured by untouched products.
Better Merchandising: Shell forms often have shapes that optimize the density of shelf space. Non-rectangular shapes, with slightly beveled edges or deep cutouts, nest well when displayed on shelves. This compacts wasted real estate between packages to accommodate more facings into planograms.
Disadvantages of Clamshells
- Higher Costs: Clamshell tooling is expensive especially if it is designed to fit an unusual shape and therefore large initial mold investment is called for. Another disadvantage is that unit prices are also higher than the normal blister packs price. And clamshells take even more space per piece when in transport hence are costly when it comes to freight.
- Opening Difficulty: The press-fitlatches are very difficult to open by hand, thus the consumers have to use scissors, knives or keys. This leads to customer dissatisfaction, not forgetting the cases of slipping when using blades in the process. These problems are also solved with the aid of assistive-open features but these increase even the higher costs.
- Reduced Visibility: An identification of the products’ finer details is hindered by polypropylene or polyethylene clamshells unless one specifies completely transparent crystalline plastic resins. Dull opaque shells also hinder light penetration and keep the true colors and characteristics of covered products hidden. This makes it difficult to market merchandise particularly if they are colored or creatively-styled.
- Excess Plastic Waste: Consumer and retailer discarded clamshell packaging play a great role in plastics pollution. The vast majority of clamshell resins are either category #5 polypropylene or, less often, #2 HDPE from curbside recycling programs. Most clamshells are therefore still intact and end up taking up space in garbage dumps after being utilized.
- No Resealability: Once opened, most of the standard clamshells cannot be closed tightly as the fold-over blisters do to re-seal the products inside it. This makes it possible for consumers not to store leftovers of packaged hardware parts, nibbles, or pills which still needs protection against spills after opening.
Important factors worthy of consideration when defining the type of packaging include:
When deciding between blister or clamshell packaging for a particular product, consider aspects below:When deciding between blister or clamshell packaging for a particular product, consider aspects below:
- Target Price Point: Blister packs are most appropriate for low-cost impulse products, while high-cost specialty items signal greater value in more robust clamshells. The results indicate that packaging plays a vital role in the creation of perceived item quality.
- Required Protection Level: Perishable products with high risk of getting damaged such as ceramics or even glassware justify the use of tough and rigid clamshells as opposed to delicate sensitive blisters in this case.
- Anticipated Distribution Chain Forces: In cases where vertical stacking is evident and there are high impact applications within the supply chain, the reinforced clamshell structures are less prone to such ill-treatment.
- Merchandising Objectives: If increasing the product exposure at the retail level is the most important, blisters are better at displaying goods internally even if the outer shells are more eye-catching.
- Shrinkage/Theft Concerns: Clamshells work as better protection preventing small, high value, high theft prone items such as electronic products, their accessories and tools that are exposed in stores.
- Target Demographics: Some of the issues may include the fact that child or elderly customers may find it hard to open certain clamshells that are hard to open and may need to use implements that are potentially dangerous.
- Sustainability Initiatives: Request that no or very little packaging is used, if it is to be from recyclable and recycled content materials such as PET blisters and #5 polypropylene clamshells.
Conclusion
In general, blister packaging is the most effective solution to protect the product, ensure its visibility, minimize its cost and increase its durability if it is delivered through the retail chains without significant handling. Blisters sufficiently display and protect lower-tier consumer products while being relatively non-sturdy. The customer-end products in the competitive categories require clear clamshell packaging that can be a bit pricey. The enhanced protection and perceived quality enhances the value of these products and at the same time reduces shoplifting convenience. And for particularly heavy or fragile items, there is a need to use robust clamshells as this will protect the merchandise from getting damaged while handling. The choice of blister or clamshell packaging should be based on the various features of the product and target consumers. As a packaging designer, one is well equipped to advise about the most appropriate forms that are likely to reap the most rewards for any particular item.