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Trouble Shooting Deodorant Batches
Hi there,
I am a process engineer at a contract manufacturing company and I am still pretty new to this industry. Our company has just begun batching and filling deodorant for customers for the first time and I became the go- to person for any trouble shooting during the filling procedure for the deodorant batches. I’m figuring things out as I go and R&D lab-scale methods don’t always translate well when we are scaling up (i.e. the lab lets the sticks cool down in ambient temperature, while I need to use a cooling tunnel)
I’m working with a propylene glycol stick and I notice that at times the stick loses it’s nice, shiny dome and becomes matte, or it sweats alot after it comes out of the cooling tunnel. (We are doing a bottom-fill btw) What are some solutions to these problems? Am I cooling the sticks too rapidly? Maybe shocking them? Any help would be appreciated.
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2 Replies
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What if you give a rapid cooling to the stick in the lab and see how it looks like, maybe then you would have your answer.
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Shawna, this is an old problem and will always occur eventually with the PG/sodium stearate stick systems as the product ages. The old alcohol types (SDA that is) didn’t do it as much. Having said that, here is your SUPER SECRET ANSWER: add a little cocamide DEA to the formula. Yup, THAT cocamide DEA. You may try lauramide MEA, cocamide MIPA or another alkanolamide, but Coco DEA works best at preserving that gloss finish - at least for a while. Also, it aids in propel-repel movement, sort of a lubricant, if you will. All hail Cocoamide DEA! Screw the California state legislature. I dare those hapless fools to come to Chicago and tell ME what to put into my deodorant stick. OK, I got that off my chest; stepping off the soapbox…..
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