The X-PUMP family aims to bring the airless pump out of its niche

Protected formulations, hygiene, fewer preservatives: for over thirty years, the airless pump has offered benefits that should appeal to all brands and consumers. Yet it has not reached the vast market it could rightfully claim and remains confined to uses where it is strictly essential.
But why isn’t the market opening up more?
For The Use Factory—an innovation and user-centered design agency that also invents and licenses its own patents—price isn’t the whole story. To overcome these barriers, the agency designed and patented the X-TREM valve, the core of a new family of pumps: X-PUMP.
Explanations by Mathias d’Estais, managing partner in charge of patents and licensing, and Jean-Yves Corbin, partner and co-inventor of the device.

For formulators, airless packaging meets specific needs: protecting active ingredients sensitive to oxidation, preserving fragile ingredients, preventing oils from going rancid, and ensuring hygiene where it is critical.
But its benefits go far beyond that: by isolating the formula from air and contaminants—particularly those introduced by fingers—airless packaging allows for higher concentrations of active ingredients and reduced reliance on preservatives, ensuring better skin tolerance. It minimizes product waste at the end of the bottle and preserves the formula’s effectiveness until the very last drop. Finally, it offers greater formulation freedom for moving upmarket.
These fundamentals thus give brands multiple reasons to choose airless packaging. Yet it must be acknowledged that today it is adopted only out of necessity. As soon as it is no longer a requirement, it is sidelined.
For it to be desired and adopted by choice, suppliers must address barriers and inconsistencies.

Why does airless packaging remain an unfulfilled promise?

Of course, the first barrier that comes to mind is cost. This is a reality and stems from a certain technical complexity that manufacturers, formulators, and packagers must manage. The additional costs add up, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) further penalizes the entire process.
This price factor can be significantly mitigated by reducing complexity. This is precisely what the X-PUMP family presented here aims to achieve. But The Use Factory also points to obstacles related to consumers and their relationship with the product:
The first obstacle lies in a certain level of environmental awareness that consumers have developed. They are paying increasing attention to labels. They know that packaging should be evaluated over its entire lifecycle and are sensitive to the fight against product waste. They expect purer products. A desire to “consume less to consume better” is slowly emerging. But in light of this growing awareness, what are they being offered? Pumps that convey an image of complexity, with a volume of plastic that doesn’t go unnoticed at the time of purchase—and even less so when it comes time to dispose of them. Technical materials, often mixed, that they suspect are poorly recyclable—not to mention the metal that is still sometimes present.
Finally, while consumers are tentatively opening up to refilling and reuse, airless options aren’t really up to the task.
The second obstacle lies in the act itself. Cosmetic rituals are full of subtleties: tactility, the emotional connection of touching the skin, and the sensation of textures. Yet airless packaging essentially involves applying mechanical pressure to a push button… The pump creates a distance between the product and the consumer: it cuts off all sensory experience by imposing a technical, mechanically driven activation. This is a far cry from the world of softness and well-being that brands seek to embody. For these devices to be truly adopted and become part of skincare rituals, they need to be imbued with sensuality. “Delivering a serum with a technically oriented dispenser makes sense, but the expectations are different when it comes to dispensing a cream,” notes Mathias d’Estais.

Unspoken Issues That Create Major Inconsistencies

In addition to these very real obstacles—cost, environmental awareness, application technique—there are two more issues that everyone is aware of but that we’re all too happy to sweep under the rug!

First unspoken issue: the product dries out before it exits the dispenser: between the pump valve and the outlet, the formula sits in a channel exposed to air. It dries out there, and the next dose comes out degraded. Although generally not very noticeable, the phenomenon is nevertheless perceptible. And when you start using a product again after it’s been forgotten for a while, the appearance of the first dose is often unacceptable. For a product category that promises to protect active ingredients, the inconsistency is total.

A second unspoken issue is that the dispenser opening is never clean: from the very first uses, its ridges and crevices inevitably trap residue. Here again, the claim of hygiene is undermined as the dispenser opening gradually becomes dirty. Not to mention the cap, which gets dirty itself and transfers that dirt to the pump opening…
You’ve surely seen these dried-out nozzles and half-clogged pumps… Well, consumers see them too! They accept them—or at least ignore them—on simple packaging or entry-level products. But on a more sophisticated product, is this even tolerable? “The consumer’s first encounter with the formula is precisely at the pump nozzle, insists Mathias d’Estais. They look at it just as they’re dispensing the product, and what they see is disappointing and undermines the credibility of the airless system.”

The Two Founding Principles Behind the X-TREM Valve

In response to these expectations—which encompass appearance, usability, performance, and cost—The Use Factory offers radically different pump designs based on a valve that combines two key insights: “From the very start of the project, the split diaphragm appealed to us because of its simplicity and the potential cost savings,” recalls Jean-Yves Corbin. “But when we launched the first generations of prototypes, we never imagined we’d one day achieve such a high level of protection and such a high quality of use!”
Combining the pump valve and the dispensing point: the entire formula remains upstream, protected until the moment of dispensing. From the first dose to the last, no channel or area is exposed to air.
Reducing the valve to a thin elastomer membrane with a nearly invisible slit: under pressure, the slit opens and allows the dose to pass through.
It closes as soon as the dose is extracted and returns to its original shape. When the dose is dispensed, the finger wipes the surface, which becomes clean again. Beneath the membrane, a patented platform ensures long-term airtightness (see technical box).

Three Applications of the X-TREM Valve

Based on this, The Use Factory designed the three pumps in the X-PUMP family. Each is tailored to very different industrial applications and market approaches.

X-PUMP Patch: An airless outlet for an existing pump
The valve is installed at the outlet of a standard pump. It adds less than half a gram of plastic. The design of the pump and the container remain unaffected. X-PUMP Patch is equally compatible with pumps on piston bottles, flexible pouch bottles, and flexible tubes. Installation on an atmospheric bottle with a dip tube would also be possible: the package would then not be airless, but it would significantly improve cleanliness and perceived quality.
“For manufacturers, this is a godsend,” smiles Jean-Yves Corbin. “All it takes is a slight modification to the cap’s outlet, without altering its components or assembly. The only requirement is to free up a small area for the membrane: a disc approximately 8 mm in diameter.”

X-PUMP Dome: The Redesigned Pump
A complete four-piece pump weighing approximately 5.5 g—roughly half the weight of a leading airless pump on the market, which weighs 10.5 g.
The elastomer dome serves a triple purpose: it acts as the chamber that holds the dose, the push button, and the spring. When compressed by the user, it gently returns to its original shape to draw in the next dose without the need for any additional return mechanism. Of the pump’s 5.5 g, the elastomer accounts for less than 0.5 g.
Thanks to its high vacuum, the X-PUMP Dome works equally well with pouch-style bottles and piston-style bottles. The pump can also be mounted on a tube, which further optimizes material weight.
The dome is made of either PE-based TPO or PP-based TPO, depending on the range of active ingredients to be dispensed and whether the container is made of PE or PP. Whether the pump is mounted on a bottle or a tube, the TPO content remains well below the 10% threshold of total weight set by RecyClass: enough to confidently aim for Class A.
This dome is a key element in eliminating the mechanical aspect of activation: “The dome compresses smoothly and gradually” explains Jean-Yves Corbin. Dispensing is intuitive and precise. This adds a truly sensorial experience, perfectly in tune with the world of skincare.”

X-PUMP Pod: the refillable airless pump with no compromises and PPWR compatibility
If only the reservoir is replaced, the new formula passes through a pump that has already been used, and the continuity of protection is no longer guaranteed. To refill an airless system, you must therefore replace the entire formula delivery system—meaning you have to discard the pouch and the entire pump with every refill.
A conventional pump and its pouch weigh between 12 and 18 grams: the material balance is unsustainable. Such waste runs counter to the PPWR’s objectives and increases the REP eco-contribution.
With the X-PUMP Pod, the pump and pouch are combined into a single-material cartridge weighing 7 grams. The waste becomes acceptable. “The X-PUMP Pod cartridge weighs less than two empty yogurt containers, comments Mathias d’Estais. It aligns with the PPWR’s principles and can aim for RecyClass Class A. ”
Here again, the assembly contains a minimal amount of TPO elastomer, which is always of the same type as the container to ensure its recyclability. The cartridge is replaced by simply snapping it into place. The entire system is thus renewed with each refill without any residue from the previous cartridge, ensuring a high level of hygiene.
Two design options are available. The first simply reveals the dome, with the cap completing the assembly. The second option involves adding a customized push button that transmits pressure to the dome. This preserves the dynamics provided by the elastomer but in a configuration that paves the way for more specific designs.

Partners for Scaling Up

The Use Factory is an innovation agency and does not manufacture products: its business model is based on development partnerships with manufacturers, which subsequently lead to patent licenses. These developments can be initiated by the manufacturer or arise from a three-way relationship between the manufacturer, the brand, and The Use Factory. “It’s a complete package!” explains Mathias d’Estais. “Brands must also assess the potential these changes represent in order to help kickstart projects among manufacturers in the sector.”
An initial project is already underway in the pharmaceutical industry: a specialized version of the X-PUMP Dome has been designed for a laboratory that markets a preservative-free active ingredient. This pump is currently undergoing back-contamination testing.
“The pharmaceutical industry is focused here on technical performance,” says Mathias d’Estais. “But it’s the cosmetics brands that can fully benefit from X-PUMP. So we’re looking for manufacturers and brands ready to open up this new market with us!”

And practical value meets brand image!

Design unifies the “drawing”—the aesthetics—and the “purpose”—the intention or function.
It is with this philosophy that The Use Factory upholds a conviction: a package’s image of quality is born at the moment of purchase. It must reveal itself upon first use and then satisfy the user right up to the last dose. The user experience thus becomes a pillar of perceived value, just like aesthetics and the brand. It builds brand awareness and fosters lasting consumer loyalty.

BUT WHAT’S BEHIND THIS MEMBRANE?

Seal. The Use Factory has put a great deal of effort into ensuring the natural leak-tightness of the slit. However, regardless of the material and geometry of this membrane and its cut, this leak-tightness can fail when a finger deforms the surface. That is why The Use Factory has developed an under-valve platform. It stabilizes the membrane and prevents any backflow of liquid. As a result, the X-TREM valve remains watertight in all configurations. It also provides long-lasting resistance to negative pressure, including that of a flexible tube at the end of its use.

Material and Process. The diaphragm is injection-molded from a polyolefin thermoplastic elastomer (TPO)—entirely olefinic (EPDM-free)—formulated with a PE or PP base depending on the material chosen for the rest of the packaging. To ensure a perfect seal with the pump head, the TPO is overmolded; the slot is then cut mechanically.

Patent. French priority date of 2021, patent granted in France (FR3127143B1). European and U.S. patent applications pending.

THE USE FACTORY, THE INVENTOR SERVING BRANDS AND MANUFACTURERS

An agency specializing in innovation, ergonomics, and user experience design, The Use Factory has been supporting startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large corporations in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics sectors for thirty years: 60 clients, 80 products designed, and 70 patents filed on behalf of its clients. Among its clients are Sephora, L’Oréal, Chanel, and Colgate in the beauty and personal care sectors, as well as Urgo, BD, Acteon, and Galderma in the healthcare sector. The agency is certified under the Research Tax Credit (CIR) program.

In addition to its agency work, The Use Factory conducts its own R&D, which is monetized through licensing: 10 patents, 12 licensing agreements, 4 ongoing joint ownership arrangements, and a subsidiary startup. A patent license for packaging is currently being negotiated with a major cosmetics group.

Contact: Mathias d’Estais, Managing Partner – m.destais@the-use-factory.com