Coding, Printing & Labeling

Ground beef labeling

Packages of ground beef at two leading supermarket chains, Wegman's Food Markets of Rochester, NY, and Giant Food Inc. of metropolitan Washington, DC, now sport a bright, new red and yellow label advising consumers to cook the meat to a temperature of 160°F.

February 28, 1999

Labeling: Page 180

Conveying & accumulation

Marprint, Inc: Corner labeler

The Corner Wrap applicator from Paragon(TM) (White Bear Lake, MN) is suitable for labeling products, cartons, cases and pallets at 15/min. The applicator detects the product or package as it moves along a conveyor, causing a p-s label to be printed and dispensed onto a 90 vacuum grid positioned in the path of the pro-duct.

February 28, 1999

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Willett America Inc: Label applicator

The Labeljet 210 from Willett America (Fort Worth, TX) is a microprocessor-controlled label applicator. Its integral stepper motor drives the label web at up to 1겨"/min.

February 28, 1999

Flexible packaging

Flexible materials earn Green Globe Award

Heath Manufacturing wins a Green Globe Award from the Flexible Packaging Assn. for a bird suet cake package that uses less material than its predecessor. New equipment increases productivity while saving labor costs.

February 28, 1999

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Supplier news: International agreements

HealthStar, Inc. (Randolph, MA) and Sasib Labeling Machinery Sp.A. (Mantova, Italy) have signed a distribution agreement that makes HealthStar the exclusive distributor of Sasib labeling equipment and after-market products in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

February 28, 1999

Bag/pouch fill/seal (pre-made bags)

Multivac Inc: Form/fill/seal system

Multivac's (Kansas City, MO) Model R-330 vacuum packaging machine can accommodate two complete die sets mounted on the machine, with the changeover between them being as simple as selecting the desired, pre-programmed set.

January 31, 1999

Conveying & accumulation

Seneca sets its sights on plastic

Seneca Foods was among the first to convert from glass to hot-fillable plastic jars for applesauce. Now it fills both glass and plastic containers on essentially the same line.

January 31, 1999

Sustainability

Bottle-to-bottle PET recycling beckons in Germany

German mineral water and soft drink marketer Rosbacher installs a first-of-its-kind stretch blow molder and seeks to popularize closed-loop recycling of PET beverage containers.

January 31, 1999

Filling/capping, liquid & viscous

Anheuser-Busch operators monitor 'mirrored' lines

Packaging equipment operators on Houston's two new bottling lines evolve from 'machine watchers' to 'process monitors.'

January 31, 1999

Flexible packaging

HDPE-bottled dairy beverages 'milk' 90-day shelf life

Canadian dairy products marketer Natrel is the first North American user of an ultra-high-temperature processing/aseptic filling line. The process permits Natrel to launch single-serve milks and shakes with a 90-day refrigerated shelf life.

January 31, 1999

Coding, Printing & Labeling

SmithKline software simplifies specs management

Packaging specifications software helps SmithKline Beecham tame paperwork associated with an unwieldy packaging component inventory.

January 31, 1999

Tamper-evident machinery

FDA 'tampers' with gel capsule labels

The Food & Drug Administration capped its regulatory efforts to make two-piece gelatin OTC capsules harder to tamper with by requiring manufacturers to seal capsules and to use at least one "tamper-evident" packaging feature.

January 31, 1999

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Supplier news: International agreements

ITW Auto-Sleeve (Twinsburg, OH) has signed a "Technology Agreement" with PDC Europe (Montdidier, France), enabling Auto-Sleeve stretch labels to be applied by PDC Europe's new high-speed labelers.

January 31, 1999