Many of the ointments you pick up at the hospital or the skin ointments you buy at the drugstore come wrapped in aluminum tubes. Ever wonder why they use this aluminum hose as ointment tube packaging? What are the advantages of using an aluminum hose to hold the ointment?

At present, the ointment tubes on the market mainly use three types of packaging materials: plastic hose, aluminum composite packaging pipe, aluminum hose. Plastic ointment packaging tube is not as easy to be deformed and wrinkled as aluminum due to knock, and after extrusion will "bounce" back to the original shape, beautiful appearance, and can be printed, bronzing and other surface treatment, add the texture of packaging. However, the shortcomings of plastic hose are also obvious. Soft plastics must be added in the production process, such as plasticizers. These substances may be released in the future, which will affect the internal drugs, accelerate the aging and deterioration of drugs, and shorten the shelf life.

While plastic packaging hoses do not collapse when squeezed, they do mean that airborne pollutants can flow into the packaging and cause oxidation or deterioration of medicines over time. Plastic packaging of oxygen and carbon monoxide permeability coefficient is large, and most drugs are easy to be oxidized, decomposition, deterioration, fear of light. Finally, compared with metal packaging, plastic packaging is more sensitive to temperature differences, easy to occur packaging aging, deterioration phenomenon. At present, drug regulatory agencies in various countries are very careful about the choice of plastic packaging materials.

Aluminum-plastic composite pipe has the advantages of both aluminum and plastic. Its appearance can have the texture of metal, but it also has the characteristics of plastic packaging pipe without wrinkling. Because it can maintain the appearance level, it is widely used in the packaging of cosmetics and cosmeceuticals. However, in terms of drug packaging, aluminum-plastic composite ointment tubes cannot be exempted from the same defects as plastic packaging tubes. In addition to the migration of containing additives may contaminate the medicine, the aluminum-plastic composite pipe can not completely avoid the tube body after extrusion rebound, so there will still be contamination into the packaging.

Medicinal ointment products are filled in the ointment tube, the whole production and filling process must be completed in a clean environment, the health and safety requirements are very high. The phenomenon of "rebound" after extrusion of plastic pipe and aluminum-plastic composite pipe will lead to the direct contact of external air into the pipe and drugs, which will increase the risk of pollution after drug opening.

In contrast, the aluminum hose is made of 99.7% pure aluminum. It is malleable and will not bounce back after extrusion. It can avoid air infiltration into the inside of the ointment tube after opening and using, causing pollution. The surface of aluminum and its alloy will generate a layer of dense oxide protective film, this layer of protective film can effectively isolate the outside water, oxygen and so on, producing barrier. The aluminum hose is processed, and the inner wall of the tube is sprayed with a layer of resin, which can prevent the direct contact between drugs and packaging materials, and improve the health and safety of drugs. Spraying tail glue on the end of the tube is helpful to improve the air tightness and ensure the effective quality of the product after filling.

In general, plastic medical hose and aluminum ointment tubes have the advantage of beautiful appearance, but they must be carefully used to avoid being used in ointment and ointment products with poor chemical stability, which will affect the efficacy and shelf life of drugs.

In recent years, the production technology of aluminum hose for medicinal use has been continuously improved, and aluminum tubes with plastic cleaning heads and needle-nosed eye ointment tubes with cleaning heads have been developed, which can avoid the blackening of aluminum caused by repeated friction of pipe threads, and further improve the cleanliness of drugs and the safety of drugs.

Along with the continuous marketization and internationalization of Chinese pharmaceutical industry, the improvement of drug quality and the optimization of drug packaging materials have been the consensus of the whole industry and the expectation of consumers. Pharmaceutical aluminum tube is always close to the needs of consumers in the future in the pharmaceutical hose packaging industry will continue to maintain a broad market space.