You send finished bulk. We fill it into laminate, ABL or aluminium tubes, seal and crimp the tail, code the crimp and return finished units ready for sale.
ø [X]–[X]
TUBE DIAMETER, MM
[X]–[X]
FILL VOLUME, ML
UNITS MOQ
WEEKS LEAD TIME
Contract tube filling is a service in which a filler takes a brand’s finished bulk — a cream, gel, balm, ointment or paste — fills it into the brand’s chosen tubes, seals and crimps the tail, applies the batch code and returns finished units ready for sale.
We fill tubes. We do not sell tubes, and we do not sell filling equipment. That sentence exists because most of what you will find searching for this is one or the other: equipment vendors, and component suppliers selling empty laminate. We are neither. We run our own lines on your product.
The bulk arrives finished and released by you; our responsibility starts at goods-in and ends when the pallet leaves. If you need the paste or cream developed as well as tubed, PharmaHemp does that too — it is quoted as contract manufacturing rather than as filling.
Diameter sets the fill volume, the seal type and the shoulder geometry, so it is the first thing to confirm. If your tube is already specified, send the drawing; if it is not, this table is where the conversation starts.
| Tube diameter | Fill volume | Tube material | Seal method | Closure | Fill tolerance | MOQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ø 19 mm | [X]–[X] ml | ABL · PBL · [aluminium?] | [hot air / ultrasonic] | screw cap · flip-top | ± 1 % | [X] |
| ø 22 mm | [X]–[X] ml | ABL · PBL · [aluminium?] | [hot air / ultrasonic] | screw cap · flip-top | ± 1 % | [X] |
| ø 25 mm | [X]–[X] ml | ABL · PBL · mono-material PE | [hot air / ultrasonic] | screw cap · flip-top | ± 1 % | [X] |
| ø 30 mm | [X]–[X] ml | ABL · PBL · mono-material PE | [hot air / ultrasonic] | screw cap · flip-top | ± 1 % | [X] |
| ø 35 mm | [X]–[X] ml | ABL · PBL · mono-material PE | [hot air / ultrasonic] | screw cap · flip-top · [stand-up?] | ± 1 % | [X] |
| ø 40 mm | [X]–[X] ml | ABL · PBL · mono-material PE | [hot air / ultrasonic] | screw cap · flip-top · [stand-up?] | ± 1 % | [X] |
ABL is aluminium barrier laminate — the foil-cored tube used where the product needs an oxygen and flavour barrier. PBL is plastic barrier laminate, with an EVOH barrier instead of foil and a softer feel. Mono-material PE has no barrier layer but is designed to be recycled in the polyolefin stream. Which one your product needs is a stability question, not a preference — send a sample and we will say.
A tube is filled from the open tail, upside down, then closed permanently. There is no re-work — a bad seal makes the unit scrap — which is why the seal parameters matter more than the fill.
[Euro hole punching — confirm availability] can be added at the crimp for tubes that hang on a peg rather than stand on a shelf.
Tube filling attracts a few kinds of enquiry this service does not cover. Ruling them out here saves everyone a week — and where the answer is “different service” rather than “no”, it says so.
A tube is a container, not a category. What governs your project — regulation, documentation, certification scope — depends on what is inside it, so each route below has its own page.
Cosmetic bulk filled into laminate and aluminium tubes under ISO 22716, with the batch record, CoA and traceability your Product Information File needs.
Toothpaste is the tube format we run most. This page covers filling a paste you supply; if you need the paste formulated and made as well as tubed, that is a manufacturing project and it has its own page.
Anhydrous and emulsified topicals, filled warm or cold depending on the base, with fill temperature controlled so the product sets evenly in the tube.
Filling something that is not a tube? Bottle filling services covers glass, PET and HDPE with neck finish and capping torque, and CBD oil and tincture bottling. Liquid filling services covers dosing method and viscosity bands from free-flowing to above 50,000 cP, including how each carrier oil behaves on the line.
Tube runs carry a set-up cost that does not scale down: the line is changed over for your diameter, the seal parameters are re-qualified, and the first units are sacrificed to settle the crimp.
Our minimum is 100 units per SKU and lead time is 2–3 weeks — counted from the last of three things arriving, not the first: approved artwork, approved bulk on site, components on site. Where you supply the tubes and caps, their delivery date usually sets the schedule; component lead times run to [X] weeks and are the most common cause of a slipped date. Changeover between diameters costs [X] hours, so one run at one diameter always prices better than the same volume split across two.
Certification. Tube filling runs under the same scope as the rest of the facility — ISO 22716:2007 cosmetic GMP, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 22000 and HACCP for food-grade work, and GMP for Food Supplements. Ask for the certificate rather than the logo and read the scope line: a certificate scoped to a different operation covers nothing you are buying. See all certifications →
Diameters, fill volumes, materials, seal types, tolerances and MOQ on one page, for your procurement file.
Normally you do, and most brands prefer it because the tube is a branded component with printing and a cap they have chosen. We can source tubes to your specification where that is easier, but it is quoted separately — we are a filler, not a component supplier.
ABL is aluminium barrier laminate, with a foil layer that blocks oxygen and flavour migration. PBL is plastic barrier laminate, using EVOH instead of foil — softer in the hand, better for high-gloss print, but a weaker barrier. Products with volatile actives or a long shelf life usually need ABL.
[Confirm.] Aluminium is closed by folding and crimping rather than welding, which is a different tooling set-up from laminate. It is the usual choice for pharmaceutical ointments and for products that must not be squeezed back full of air.
Usually yes, and it is worth asking before you order more. Send us the tube drawing or a dozen samples and we will confirm the diameter, shoulder and tail length run on our tooling. Stock printed with an old batch format or a different fill volume is the one thing that cannot be worked around.
It is embossed or printed into the crimp at the moment the tail is sealed, together with the expiry date. Coding into the crimp rather than onto the body means it survives handling, and it ties each finished unit back to the bulk lot you supplied.
From 100 units per SKU. Because changeover for diameter and seal parameters is fixed, the per-unit cost falls steeply above [X] units — if you are close to a break, it is worth asking where the next one sits before you fix the batch size.
Send these seven things and the quote comes back complete rather than as a list of questions: bulk type and viscosity, fill volume per tube, tube diameter and material, whether you supply the tubes, closure type, batch size, and artwork status.
