AIMCAL winners reflect technical achievement

Winners of the 1995 AIMCAL competition were announced March 16 at the organ-ization's annual meeting in Phoenix AZ. The competition is open to packages and labels in commercial use that contain a metallized substrate. Winners included two flexible packages for candy a metallized carton for fishing line and a carton for a puzzle. Metallized Mighty Morphins One of the victorious packages is from candy manufacturer Brach & Brock Confections Chattanooga TN. It contains Mighty Morphin Power Rangers gummy snacks and fruit snacks (1). Introduced last September the product is based on the popular children's TV show and was created in cooperation with licenser Saban Entertainment Group. "When you're dealing with the top licensing property in the country" says Terri Kaminski director of public relations at Brach & Brock's "you just can't put your product in a brown paper bag." This multi-layer flexible package is hardly a paper bag. First Printpack (Atlanta GA) applies a proprietary coating to 75-ga oriented polypropylene film to give it a consistency suitable for embossing. The film is sent to Applied Physics Research (Roswell GA) a subsidiary of Printpack where a holographic pattern is embossed on it. Printpack then vacuum-metallizes the film producing the holographic effect. Next another layer of 75-ga OPP film is reverse-printed in six colors with transparent inks. It's laminated to the embossed and metallized film creating a hologram with a colored tint. The resulting structure is then laminated to a third film a 48-ga oriented heat-sealable polyester. The final lamination is shipped in rolls to Brach & Brock's where bags are produced and filled on a vertical form/fill/seal machine. "This product virtually pulls kids to the shelf and their moms are right alongside them" says Kaminski. "It's a hot seller." Mighty Morphin Power Ranger candy is mass-marketed nationally and is available in 1.9- 3.5- and 5.5-oz sizes. Candy for an older crowd Attracting a decidedly older consumer is Merci Crocant (2) chocolate candies from Westfalen Germany manufacturer Storck GmbH. The metallized bag material provides superior aroma gas and moisture barrier properties that protect the high-qual-ity candy. Yet because the bag also features a clear window customers can see the wrapped candies inside. The 200-g bag of chocolates was introduced last September in Germany. Austrian metallizer Hoechst Folien supplies Hueck & Cie (Weiden Germany) with a 1-mil OPP with "partial metallization" that leaves the window area clear. It's gravure-printed in six colors and overlacquered. This film is then laminated to another layer of 1.2-mil OPP so that the printed side ends up sandwiched between the laminated layers. This protects printing and metallizing from damage when vertical flowpack machines package the candy. Designer Wire The embossed metallized package for Spiderwire® Ice Line (3) may seem a bit extravagant for fishing line-but so is the $47 suggested retail price. "This is a designer fishing line for the ultimate fisherman" says a spokesperson for the Ontario CA-based manufacturer Safariland. The package starts with an 18-pt SBS board supplied by contract packager House of Packaging (City of Industry CA). Unifoil (Passaic Park NJ) laminates a 48-ga metallized polyester film from Vacumet (Wayne NJ) to the SBS. Metallized polyester was chosen over foil for its added brilliance and because it's less likely to crack at scoring points than foil. The lamination is then given a vinyl coating to allow reception of printing inks and to add scuff-resistance. It's sheeted to House of Packaging's specifications and returned to them for printing. They offset-print the board in seven colors then emboss for a three-dimensional effect. It's die-cut folded glued and then shipped to Safariland. Introduced to the market last August Spider-wire Ice Line is sold throughout the U.S. and in parts of Canada and Mexico. More Mighty Morphins The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers brought in another AIMCAL award for the package containing Milton Bradley's Metallic Puzzle Series (4). Van Leer Metallized Products (Franklin MA) provides 60-lb HoloPRISM® holographic paper to printer Seneca (Franklin PA). Seneca offset-prints in seven colors with various areas dropped out to allow the metallization to show through. Graphics are created by East Longmeadow MA-based Milton Bradley in conjunction with the licenser. Flat sheets are then sent to Milton Bradley which laminates them to chipboard and die-cuts producing the box. Introduced last April Mighty Morphin Power Rangers puzzles are sold nationally. Also honored at the competition was Deposition Technologies (San Diego CA). The company received the Technology of the Year award for its SecureClear(TM) transparent hologram coating. Advanced Deposition Technologies (Taunton MA) was also recognized for its Accu-Crisp® micro-wave browning and crisping bag which contains a patented fused susceptor.