Lipstick Manufacturing Malfunction
A cosmetic manufacturer in the North East was receiving customer complaints about their high end lipstick breaking before completely being used. The manufacturer was able to isolate the problem, however discovered that there may be a significant amount of product effected, which would translate into a large financial loss. One of their engineering employees had learned about TQC’s x-ray inspection services at an industry trade show and gave us a call.
How X-Rays were a Great Detection Solution for a Manufacturing MalFunction
The cosmetic manufacturer sent TQC a sample of the lipstick known to be defective to see what we could detect. Our fluoroscopic x-ray system detected the cause of the breakage, pin holes and air bubbles in the lipstick. The company then sent the lipsticks to our warehouse for inspection. The lipsticks came to us in cases on shrink wrapped pallets. The cases were opened and each individual lipstick box was xrayed then re-cased and re-shrink-wrapped.
Cost Savings for Inspection vs Complete Destruction
We ran the job in less than 2 days and as a result saved our client thousands of dollars , while avoiding the destruction of large quantities of product. Less than 8 % of the lipsticks inspected were defective. They were isolated and shipped back toe the company for further evaluation and disposal. They were able to get these lipsticks to their clients in time for a national promotion.