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The Body Shop Case Study PDF Print

Capstars Check Tube Caps At The Body Shop

February 1998
Caps on tubes of toiletries and cosmetics produced by companies such as The Body Shop must be tight. If not the products may leak during storage, transit and display, or have a reduced shelf life. The Body Shop buys in open-ended tubes, with the caps already fitted, and checks a sample of caps for tightness using a Crane CapStar as part of the goods-in inspection procedure. Only after the delivery has been accepted is it released to the filling lines.

The Quality Control Manager for The Body Shop's Colour Division is John Starkey, and his responsibility includes the goods-in inspection: "The packaging development laboratory already had a CapStar that they were very pleased with, so when I wanted something better for checking the tightness of caps the CapStar was the obvious choice.”

Digtial torque tests are more precise and accountable than mechanical tests

The Body Shop might have four deliveries of tubes per week and from each delivery they check up to 50 caps. Previously the company used a manual gauge with a dial, but wanted something that was more sensitive, less subjective, and that could print out the results each time. The CapStar has met these requirements and is also a great time-saver as it can carry out statistical analysis.

To use the device is simplicity itself. The tube is clamped on the turntable and the cap is turned, to undo it. The torque is automatically measured and printed on the built-in printer, giving a permanent record for traceability. Any statistical analysis can also be carried out using the same unit.

Of the tubes inspected, some are as small as 15ml, whereas other are up to 200ml in capacity. Clearly cap sizes and torques will vary accordingly, but the CapStar needs no changes to tooling or settings between one size and the next.

Quality control is becoming increasingly important throughout industry, and the trend is towards not just collecting data but analysing it too. The Body Shop has found that having one instrument that both collects and analyses data for cap tightness has been a tremendous aid to the control of quality.