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

Coding, Printing & Labeling: Page 274

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

Converting equipment

Colgate-Palmolive clarifies its polypropylene position (sidebar)

Colgate-Palmolive moves to a three-resin strategy

January 31, 1999

Converting equipment

Colgate-Palmolive clarifies its polypropylene position

A 1-L clarified polypropylene bottle for Ajax cleaner in Brazil uses 10% less plastic than a version for Europe while doubling its top-load strength.

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

Sustainability

3Com adds thermoformed plastic tray to its 'network'

Computer communications gear maker 3Com replaces a variety of materials with a plastic thermoformed tray that protects shipments of its network adapter cards and cuts manual packing time by half.

January 31, 1999

Additives, coatings & inks

Supplier news: International agreements

Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, MI) and LG Chemical Ltd. (Seoul, Korea) finalized a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies to produce, market and sell Calibre(TM) polycarbonate resins in the Asia/Pacific region, excluding Japan.

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

Additives, coatings & inks

Supplier news: Relocations, expansions

All North American facilities within the Clariant Masterbatches Div. (Easton, MD) have assumed the name Clariant, including Bay Resins (Millington, MD) and PMC (Milford, DE), which have become Clariant, Performance Plastics.

January 31, 1999