Application Description

Samples of Dr. Scholl's' Corn Cushions are being successfully skin packaged by the millions with film of DuPont™ Surlyn® — helping manufacturer Schering-Plough increase its sales of this product.
Because they allow potential customers to clearly see and feel the corn cushions, the skin packages provide a superior way for manufacturer Schering-Plough to introduce this product to its target market. The corn cushion samples are distributed in over-the-counter sample kits for managed care facilities, which represent a huge potential market for the product.
Schering-Plough HealthCare Products, Inc., which makes Dr. Scholl's products, is a subsidiary of Schering-Plough Corporation of Madison, New Jersey This research-based company is engaged primarily in the development and marketing of pharmaceutical and health care products worldwide.
Because they allow potential customers to clearly see and feet the corn cushions, the skin packages provide a superior way for manufacturer Schering-Plough to introduce this product to its target market.
Dr. Scholl's® Corn Cushions are a nonmedicated treatment for corns. Made from a technologically advanced soft polymer, they cushion the pain created by soft and hard corns. Because the transparent corn cushions have a smooth outer surface and a gel-like feel, Schering-Plough determined that the package needed to give potential consumers the opportunity to see and touch the cushions.

CWS Recommends Skin Packaging and Film of Surlyn®

A buyer for Schering-Plough approached packaging contractor CWS to find the right kind of packaging for the corn cushion samples.
CWS is a custom packaging contractor in Norwich, New York. Founded in 1969, CWS has grown to over 300 employees, including an in-house engineering staff that can design, fabricate, and manufacture packaging for a wide variety of specialty products.
CWS offers skin packaging, blister packaging, shrink wrapping, poly-bagging, L-sealing, and clamshell packaging services. Many of its customers take advantage of CWS's turnkey contract packaging operations, which include distribution, counting and weighing, electromechanical assembly, quality control, registering with the FDA for skin packaging a medical device, computerized inventory, and warehousing services.
Cost-effective yet high-quality, skin packaging offered a solution to the packaging needs of the Dr. Scholl's® sample.
From all of the packaging options available, CWS recommended skin packaging with DuPont™ Surlyn®. Cost-effective yet high-quality, skin packaging offered a solution for the packaging needs of the Dr. Scholl's® samples.

Film of Surlyn® Lets Consumers Feel the Comfort

According to CWS sales representative Connie Newhart, the new corn cushion package, which CWS helped to design, provides consumers the opportunity to sample the product satisfactorily. Nearly invisible, the flexible, ultra-thin film allows consumers to "squeeze" the gel-based cushions and feel how comfortable they would be when worn on the foot.
The package design also features an easy-open peel back corner ... accomplished by applying a spot of varnish on the corner after the board is coated.

Package Features Easy-Open Pool-Back Corner

The package design also features an easy-open peel-back corner. Newhart explains that this is accomplished by applying a spot of varnish on the corner after the board is coated. Although the Surlyn® still adheres to the cards, the consumer can easily open the package.

Products Packaged on Zed's Premier Skin Machines

CWS has used two Zed inline automatic skin packaging machines to package a huge volume of corn cushions for Schering-Plough over the last two years. The corn cushions are packaged 30-up on Zed's Auto Skin-Trim (AST-10). The master card measures 17-7/8 inches by 23-7/8 inches. The package uses 24-point SBS board printed by the dot packaging group inc., Mulford Division, of Warren, Michigan, and four-mil film of DuPont™ Surlyn® .
According to Peter Zelnick, Zed vice president, the automatic skin packaging systems designed and built by Zed Industries in Vandalia, Ohio, are the "premier systems for inline skin packaging applications. In fact, more fully automatic skin packaging programs utilize Zed inline equipment then all of the other equipment manufacturers combined."
Says Zelnick, "Zed over-builds its systems in all aspects to keep our machines running long after other machines have been scrapped. Superior adjustable vacuum controls allow for perfect skin packages every time, without webs or over vacuum affecting the soft product."

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