Cartoning

Passing data horizontally from processing to packaging

Treating processing and packaging as disjointed tasks hurts efficiency and retards speed to market. New views of controls and integration could bring the two closer together.

August 31, 2004

Coding, Printing & Labeling: Page 203

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Drive Integration with Standards

As companies find many reasons to integrate data from process manufacturing and packaging with each other and with the rest of the company’s business applications, engineers are turning to standards and models from the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA), OMAC Packaging Workgroup and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for help.

August 31, 2004

Labeling

Pharma labels are triple-checked

Three smart cameras on a labeling system use sophisticated image-processing technology to ensure accuracy and readability of lot, date, and bar code.

August 31, 2004

Coding, Printing & Labeling

RFID tags becoming easier to read

On the other hand, return on investment for packagers will remain invisible for the near term. Now Wal-Mart softens stance on deadlines.

August 31, 2004

Coding, Printing & Labeling

RFID tags becoming easier to read

On the other hand, return on investment for packagers will remain invisible for the near term. Now Wal-Mart softens stance on deadlines.

August 31, 2004

Conveying & accumulation

Water bottled in Kuwait has U.S. flavor

A portable bottling line housed in a 20’x8’x81¼2’ container is quenching the thirst of troops and personnel in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Started up in fall 2003, the 25 bpm self-contained line provides 1.5-L bottled water on-demand for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) troops and support personnel, according to AAFES Food and Theatre program manager Tom Wilson.

July 31, 2004

Conveying & accumulation

Sites

New or enhanced Web sites

July 31, 2004

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Companies

Rockwell Automation opened a new radio-frequency identification (RFID) test lab at its global headquarters in Milwaukee. The lab is designed to help manufacturers facing production and inventory mandates from retailers understand how they can make RFID part of their distribution operations.

July 31, 2004

Coding, Printing & Labeling

House subcommittee passes allergen labeling

The House Subcommittee on Health mirrored action in the Senate by passing legislation requiring food labels to state in clear, plain language if the product contains one or more of the eight major food allergens.

July 31, 2004

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Voluntary COOL legislation

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Ranking Minority Member Charles Stenholm (D-TX) introduced legislation to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a voluntary country-of-origin labeling program.

July 31, 2004

Cartoning

Italian OEMs come on strong

Aggressive PACK EXPO 2004 presence shows why imports of packaging machinery from Italy to the U.S. were up 11.6% in 2003.

July 31, 2004

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Drug companies test RFID on pharma bottles

A group of pharmaceutical manufacturers has revealed that it began shipping bottles of prescription medications with radio-frequency identification tags July 12.

July 31, 2004

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Wal-Mart VP to address RFIDfresh seminar

Michigan State University will present “RFIDfresh, Meeting Retailer Requirements and Challenges in the Perishables Packaging Supply Chain,” Sept. 21-22 at the Monterey, CA, Marriott Hotel.

July 31, 2004