710851Overcoming materials & manufacturing challenges for a novel feminine hygiene product - Calla Lily Personal Care LtdClosedGRD Proof of ConceptInnovate UKThe design of feminine hygiene products has remained unchanged for many decades; Callaly is a new innovation that will change this situation. A leading gynaecologist in our team has created a novel, patent protected “hybrid” tampon and sanitary pad combination that provides women with a step change in comfort and hygiene. The product fuses the best features of pantyliners and tampons combining them into a product that is inherently more hygienic during use. To-date our team has developed our “hybrid” tampon on a manual basis in addition to conducting initial favourable user trials and taking substantial steps to project the concept IP. Our challenge now, and the subject of our current project, is to translate our current handmade design into a format that is suitable for mass manufacturing. To make this transition we face the following research & development challenges: 1 – Material selection of key components that enhance the function of the hybrid tampon; 2 – Design for manufacture study on the current device to ensure volume production is feasible and economic; 3 – production of a limited number of prototype hybrid tampons to enable confirmatory trials to be conducted.