Packaging of the razors is done at Gillette's Blade & Razor North American Packaging Center in Devens, MA, a facility operated by Sonoco Packaging Services. Equipment is a horizontal flow wrapper from Sig Doboy (New Richmond, WI). This machine encases the razors in a pillow pack made from a gravure-printed film that is believed to be a low-density polyethylene/ polyester lamination supplied by Sonoco (Hartsville, SC).
Roll-fed Sealstrip applicators, one feeding seal tape and the other a tear strip, are cantilevered over the Doboy wrapper to give each package a built-in tear strip running the length of the left side. To open the package, the consumer pulls the tear tape and pulls open the resealable flaps. Resealing is a simple matter of pressing the resealable flaps together again.
"Consumers told us they wanted a resealable package," says Andrew Dominesey, program engineer at Gillette. No information is available on cost comparisons between the new package and the one it replaced. —PR
