Current Status and Development Trend of Laundry Capsule

Zhao Jianhong

Guangdong University of technology, China

Guangzhou Research Institute of Daily Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., China

Abstract This paper introduced the laundry capsule's characteristics, current situation, and the development of its technical standards. analyzed the problems that encountered in the development of laundry capsules.In addition, the future of Laundry capsule in China were prospected.

Key words laundry capsule; compact detergent; functional; industry standard; development trend

China laundry capsule development

Review of the development of laundry capsule in market

Laundry capsule is a new form detergent that uses a water-soluble polymer film to encapsulate a fixeddose concentrated laundry liquid. It was first launched in China in 2014. Its launch brings the most disruptive change in China laundry market in the past 10 years.Fabric detergent has the largest yield compared to other types of detergent. And the fabric detergent market has experienced three significant changes in the past 10 years. First, liquid detergent have been accepted by the market and continue to grow. The sales volume of laundry detergent has growed rapidly since 2008. Under its impetus, the total production volume of liquid detergent exceeded the detergent powder for the first time in 2014.Second, the concentrated detergent was continuously promoted in various forms. The bulk density of powder detergent of leading brands has nearly doubled since10 years ago; several leading brands in the laundry liquid market have launched concentrated liquid; the third is the rapid development of ecommerce. The proportion of online retail sales to total retail sales of consumer goods increased from 1.1% to 15% in the past 10 years. The laundry capsule products are in line with the development trend of concentrated detergent and liquidization, and also meet the demand for light, high value-added consumer goods for the online retail channel, It has received high attention from consumers as well as manufactures since its introduction.

In 2014, Procter & Gamble launched its first generation of laundry capsules which is made in Japan on the e-commerce channel. Since 2016, Lonkey and other companies have launched their own localized production laundry capsules.The product is 20 g / capsule/ packed in boxed and pouch. Its key proposition is deep clean. Since 2017, more and more brands have entered the laundry capsule market. And there are 8g, 15g and other smaller-dose products as well as duo cavity and three-cavity product format. These products also claimed color protection, sterilization, long-lasting fragrance benefit. In 2018, the e-commerce is still the main sales channel for laundry capsules. The market share of laundry capsule in China is close to 1%.

In global market, laundry capsules became an important format. It first launch in Europe in 2000. The market bloomed since 2010. In 2017, the global sales of the laundry capsules was about 3.1 billion US dollars.In the previous 5 years, the growth rate of the laundry capsules market was higher than 10%. At present, the United States is the largest capsule market globally. The capsule share in total laundry market is 17%.

Quality of laundry capsules in China market

The test results of fifteen brands show that the overall quality of laundry capsules is very well, the active content is higher than 60%, and the highest one has 86% active level; the pH is generally neutral, mild; the detergency is obvious higher than conventional detergents, but the detergency varied from different brands.

1) The total active substance of the capsule product is generally higher than 60%, which is highest active content product in the market.

Figure 1. Total actives of commercially avalible laundry capsule,%

2) pH value is neutral, product is mild.

Figure 2. pH value of commercially avalible laundry capsule

3) The difference in detergency is large.

Figure 3. Detergency of different brands capsule

Problems encountered in development

The laundry capsules launched as one disruptive format. However, it also met challenges in terms of technical specification,market cultivation and new technology development etc.

Establishment of technical specifications for new forms of high concentrated products

Now,formulation technology is relatively mature.The 60～80% active formulation technology is an innovation, and the formulation is more difficult to be compatible with the packaging film. Some problems have occurred in this process, such as discoloration of the laundry capsule, membrane rupture etc. With the maturity of new raw material technology applications,the development of laundry capsule formulation technology and the maturity of packaging technology,these problems have gradually improved and there is still room for improvement.

National and industry standards for detergent have always been used to ensure product quality through specification on actives and detergency. However, highconcentration products does not simply mean increase surfactant level. The reduction of water content in the formulation allows for the stable application of many new materials and provides a suitable environment for the biological enzymes application. The development of concentrated formulation technology can achieve higher efficiency of washing power and reduce the amount of surfactant. Also, using detergency as only indicator to evaluate the quality of the product is not suitable for the evaluation of detergent with multiple functions. The product standards of traditional detergent are not suitable for evaluating new forms of highly concentrated products.Current standard brings the constraint to laundry capsule development and evaluation to some extent.

High value-added laundry capsule products

The water-soluble film and special packaging process make manufacturing cost more expensive than conventional fabric detergents. So its selling price is also at the high end. At present, the high price is justified by intuitive feeling, which is novelty, fun and lightness. The consumer group who is willing to pay extra cost is much smaller than that of traditional detergent. Make the capsule more attractive to consumers need to improve its functionality,bring more perceivable benefit to consumers.

Product quality improvement and technology localization

The manufacturing process and cost of capsule can be further optimized.

Mainstream brands are using internally brand film and packing machine, whose cost is high. If these technologies can be localized, the cost will be significantly reduced.The quality of local film domestic is constantly improving.And most early problems, such as trachoma, yellowing and hardening have been solved. As for the machine,there are only a few manufacturers in China can carry out independent research and development of machines and molds. The mainstream foreign imported machines are equipped with a single single-cavity production mold now.The local single-chamber packing technology becomes more and more mature after several years' development.Multi-cavity packing technology is quite new in China.There are few manufacturers has this technology, and the design is simple, and does not have many options.

The localization of high-level packaging film and packaging machine has important value for cost control and product development.

Development of laundry capsule industry standards

As the earliest developer of laundry capsules in China,the author and the colleagues realized that the benign development of laundry capsule requires the norms and guidelines of industry standards and actively promoted the preparation of standards. The China's laundry capsule industry standard officially kicked off in May 2018,and was led by the National Surfactant and Washing Products Standard Committee, Lonkey and Procter &Gamble. It has a positive role in regulating the quality requirements of laundry capsule products, guiding market healthy competition and development, and guiding and promoting the development of concentrated functional detergent products.

New format

The water-soluble film of capsule is greatly affected by the climate. The cold resistance, heat resistance, dry resistance and moisture resistance ensure the integrity of the product stored in different conditions. And the pressure resistance and the instantaneous pressure resistance reach a certain value to prevent the laundry capsule from being damaged or penetrated during the transportation process.

Safety

As an emerging laundry product, the laundry capsule has a convenient benefit for the consumer. At the same time, it is very attractive to infants and young children with adorable appearance. From safety perspective,the static solubility index was set. It can avoid capsule dissolved too quickly in young children's mouth in case it was eaten by mistake. On the other hand, to ensure that the laundry capsule can be completely dissolved in the laundry process and does not have residue, it is necessary to set the stirring solubility index.

Development trends

Diversified product benefit and appearance

At present, for consumers, the high added value brought by the high price of laundry capsules is vague, and the market growth is relatively slow. The cost-optimized way to achieve the growth and sustainable development of the laundry capsule market share is not the embodiment of the core competitiveness of capsule products.

For laundry capsules that have new forms and super-concentrated,endogenous high-quality, it is necessary to demonstrate its competitive advantage from the product performance itself. If the bio-enzyme technology and high-efficiency washing technology are realized under the super-concentrated formula system, the amount of surface activity can be further reduced; the multi-cavity laundry capsule can realize different benefit, including long-lasting fragrance, highefficiency sterilization, long-acting antibacterial, color enhancement, etc, which is difficulty for conventional laundry product to formulated. Then laundry capsule is clearly differentiated from the traditional products.

In addition, the shape of laundry capsule would be so many kinds .When the flat-panel packing and shape-cutting technology is mature, there will be more flexibility to develop capsule shape and add more fun to this format.

Product safety

The safety of the use of laundry capsules has always been of concern to manufacturers and consumers. The small, soft-elastic form is easy to attract children, causing ingestion. In order to prevent that and improving the safety of use of products, foreign laundry capsules have been improved from three aspects: First, the requirements for packaging safety. The prominent location of the outer packaging material reminds the parents to keep them away from children and prevent them from being taken. At the same time, the opening and closing of the outer packaging material is set to a certain difficulty,so that children can not easily take it. Second, adding a bittering agent to the water-soluble film, in case the child accidentally swallowed the capsule, the strong bitterness prompted them to spit out. The third is to set a minimum value for the instantaneous dissolution time,and it can be broken after a certain time in the mouth. In the future, how to further improve the safety of the use of laundry capsules from the packaging and products inherently requires the industry to jointly explore and practice.

Establishment of evaluation criteria for functional washing products

With the continuous development of technologies,materials science as well as the changes of consumer habit and needs, how to evaluate high-performance,multi-functional detergents will affect the development of laundry capsule products. For example, with the realization of some new technologies, such as bio-enzyme application technology, the surfactant level is not linearly related to product detergency. It is considered to set basic surfactant level in formulation specification, concentrated product toward a better direction. In the evaluation of detergency, in addition to the determination of three kinds of stains in the current national standard method, it is considered to add new stains for judging.