EAA Looks Forward at Fall Meeting... For this year’s Fall meeting, the Eastern Aerosol Association (EAA) returned to Mahwah, NJ, the familiar site of the association’s annual spring meetings. On October 9, over 60 aerosol industry stakeholders arrived at the Sheraton Mahwah, located at the feet of the Ramapo Mountains near the New York state line, to take in the day’s events. After opening remarks by EAA president Chris Nyarady, Montebello Packaging, the schedule commenced with Joel Gregier of Lion Technology. Gregier’s presentation, U.S. Aerosol Shipping, focused on keeping domestic shipping labels and protocols compliant in an ever-evolving regulatory environment. Gregier focused on Hazmat compliance, limited quantity exceptions and the nuances involved in labeling packaging for air or water travel, as opposed to ground. According to Gregier, the three basic concerns with packaging should be the following: 1. Meeting all general requirements 2. Using authorized packaging 3. Complying with special provisions Jim McBride, MBC, gave the audience a lesson in the history of aerosol filling, going back to the “bug bombs” supplied to G.I.’s during World War II, which are considered by many to be the “first” aerosol. The presentation then proceeded to describe—and demonstrate with video—the various other aerosol filling methods in the order in which they came into being, including cold filling, through the valve (TTV), under the cup (UTC) and bag on valve (BOV), as well as relatively new advancements 20 Spray December 2014 such as plastic aerosols. Lisa Reeves from Precision delivered a presentation titled Investigating Failures in the Aerosol Package. Reeves relayed the process undertaken when a customer reports a complaint or failure in an aerosol can, before describing the various problems and how they might occur and/or be prevented. The first step, said Reeves, is a simple visual inspection of the package. Next, the package must be checked for actuator or valve clogs, as well as gasket swell. If these checks fail to diagnose the issue, there could be a problem with the container (blistering, rust or corrosion) or the propellant/formulation itself. In conclusion, Reeves stated that the most important things to maintain when preventing packaging failures are a thorough investigation, in-depth training, a documented process and a willingness to contact the supplier. Lisa Reeves from Precision gave a presentation titled, "Investigating Failures in the Aerosol Package." As part of an update on the association's activities, EAA trustee Mac Bhuta described his latest project: aerosol101.com, a website designed to help share his wealth of aerosol technology knowledge with the rest of the industry. Dan Witham, Plastic Technologies, spoke on the nature and benefits of plastic aerosol packaging, particularly that manufactured using polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Despite the technology’s relative youth in the industry, over 50,000 patents have been filed regarding plastic aerosols. According to Witham, plastic aerosols provide certain benefits that metal cans do not, such as greater differentiation potential in shape, color and clarity, no rust, light weight and relatively low material cost. Plastic technology is not without obstacles, however, most notably the regulatory environment, which still needs to catch up to this rapidly-growing sector. Because plastic aerosols behave differently than their metal counterparts, an entirely separate set of standards must be developed. Jim McBride, MBC, spoke about the history of aerosol filling Dan Witham from Plastic Technologies spoke about plastic aerosol packaging
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