Industry Watch

A quick run-down on the latest supplier news, mergers, expansions, and people.

ContributorsContributors

Mar 1st, 2012

Companies

Sealed Air and Ecovative Design LLC will work together to accelerate the production, sales, and distribution of Ecovative’s EcoCradle® Mushroom™ packaging.
Intelligrated® will expand its Mason, OH, headquarters to accommodate local job growth.

Rollprint Packaging Products, Inc., is expected to be the first sterile packaging manufacturer to convert pouches in a certified cleanroom environment. Construction of a 6,000 sq-ft clean room is expected to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2012.

Pro Mach, Inc., acquired Edson Packaging Machinery, Ltd.

Perfecseal certified its Oshkosh, WI, sterile medical pouch and bag manufacturing facility to ISO 14644-1 (1999) Class 7 cleanroom standards.

People

Matt McLean was promoted to engineering manager for EPI Labelers.

Gregg Davis was appointed Southern regional sales manager for
Sato America, Inc.

Ed Wiegand was hired as executive vice president for The Matlet Group.

Duro Bag Mfg. Co. named Kevin Hart as president and COO of its Duro Standard Products Co.

Scott Steele was appointed president of Plastic Technologies, Inc.

Rick Brandt was promoted to executive vice president of sales for Berlin Packaging.

Randy Spahr was hired as national sales director for Polypack, Inc.

Larisa Vereshchagina was appointed corporate account executive for Norwood Marking Systems.

Marc Wolf joined B&R Industrial Automation as business development manager.

The Lindal Group appointed Lisa Kopac and Mark Arnold as sales managers for North America.

ESS Technologies uses three Fanuc robots to collate more than 160 cosmetic tubes/min for feeding to a case packer.

Robotics Special Report: Vision Enables Tube Picking/Placing at 160/min

A new SCARA robotic cell developed for the collation of cosmetic tubes uses vision software and specially designed end-of-arm tooling.

The PMMI Foundation provides financial support for packaging and processing education throughout the U.S and Canada.

PMMI Scholarships Help Pave the Way for Next Generation

Association awards students three scholarships totaling $15,000 for processing, mechanical and electrical engineering.

ABB’s new IRB 390 FlexPacker delta robot for e-commerce applications will be launched at the end of 2020.

Robotics Special Report: E-Commerce Requires new Solutions

New robot technology addresses the specific needs of e-commerce packaging, including mixed pallet loads, labor challenges, and a variety of secondary packaging formats.

Getty Images Robot Employment (1)

Workers Wanted? Contact the Robot Employment Agency

Start-up MusashiAI introduces intelligent autonomous robots for quality inspection and forklift driving—allowing the redistribution of human labor to more value-added jobs.

In fall of 2019, Columbia/Okura and Universal Robots developed the miniPAL, a mobile palletizing cobot integrating Universal Robot’s UR10e.

Robotics Special Report: Cobots Continue to Advance

According to a PMMI robot report, cobots accounted for about 3% of all robot sales in North America in 2017; by 2025, that number is expected to increase to 34%. Here are some of the new cobot technologies driving that growth.

Biodegradable and Compostable Packaging

Despite COVID-19’s unwelcome intrusion into our lives this year, sustainability continues to be a substantial area of opportunity for brands and retailers. Increasingly, consumers around the world are demanding more environmentally-friendly packaging.

Pandemic Cancels In-Person PACK EXPO International

PMMI Media Group launches new live, web-based event: PACK EXPO Connects 2020.

Dr. Will's BEFORE the redesign

Bold Punctuation on Condiment Label Compels Consumers to Stop and Think

An attention-grabbing exclamation-point logo for U.K. condiment brand Dr. Will’s dominates new graphics for the packaging of its all-natural ketchup, mayo, and BBQ sauce.

Premier Tech has developed the PSR robotic solution to speed the sorting of nuts at the final stage of the conditioning process.

Robotics Special Report: Addressing Labor Shortages can ‘Help Feed the World’

Robot manufacturer develops a system to alleviate the lack of labor in the nut industry that can sort nuts at the final stage of the conditioning process.

The interior illustration depicts the animals of the Royal Menagerie attending a coronation celebration surrounded by the precious Royal Regalia at the Tower of London.

A Jewel of a Presentation Box for Royal Salute Whisky

A new addition to the Royal Salute whisky range, The Treasured Blend gets a presentation box with double-door design that opens to a stunning, gold foil menagerie fit for a queen.

Leinenkugel’s to Update Logo, Trader Joe’s Says “No”

The Miller Brewing Company brand will remove the image of a Native American from its packaging in 2021, but Trader Joe’s stands firm against public pressure to remove “racist” packaging references.

Nesquick packaging AFTER the redesign

Nesquik Bunny Quiky Reimagined for Brand Expansion

Facing competition in the RTD category, Nesquik updates its packaging to emphasize its nutritional value for all ages, resulting in a more mature, silhouetted bunny mascot.

Dr. R. Andrew Hurley

E-Comm Package Storytelling

Unlike retail packaging, e-commerce packages are first viewed after purchase, providing brand owners the opportunity to present a new insight or character of the brand with each shipment.

Quest developed a flexible robotic system to load meat and poultry into an Ossid ReeForm E40 thermoformer.

Robotics Special Report: Food-Safe Solutions Emerge

New opportunities for the direct and indirect handling of foods emerge as manufacturers begin developing robots for handling unpacked goods.

2800 Series Mini Laser Pro in production at Cannabiz Supply Headquarters

Digital Label Printing Comes In-house

Cannabiz Supply, a packaging company serving a variety of businesses in the cannabis industry, recently improved its production capabilities with in-house digital label printing.

Getty Images Resized

Hand Sanitizer Spike Here to Stay

U.K. co-packers’ association reports that inquiries for personal care items rocketed by more than 500% shortly after the coronavirus lockdown was implemented.

CP/CMs Navigate COVID-19

Sean Riley, Senior Director, Media and Industry Communications for PMMI, speaks with CPA Managing Director Ron Puvak about how COVID-19 has affected the co-pack/co-man industry.

Kawasaki Robotics Trend Manager failure prediction software is designed to help companies avoid unexpected downtime by allowing them to predict failures and fix issues before loss of production.

Robotics Special Report: Big Data is the New Currency

New software systems for robotics collect and analyze data to increase OEE, protect against cyberattacks, and predict failures.

At PACK EXPO Las Vegas in fall 2019, Syntegon’s Pack 102 horizontal flow wrapper with three Fanuc robots was demonstrated loading meal kits.

Robotics Special Report: Vision for the Future

New vision systems for robotics, including 2D and 3D machine vision, enable broader packaging applications.

Oan Fallas Speedybot

End-of-line Specialist Moves Toward Condition Monitoring

Fallas Automation places an even greater emphasis on integrating early warning systems for predictive maintenance since COVID-19 set in.

More in Home

The Spider 200i from BluePrint Automation uses a multi-axis robot to pick snack bags on-the-fly and vertically case pack them into a cassette that forms a vertical pack pattern.

Robotics Special Report: Mass Customization Demands Flexibility

A growing omnichannel environment requires that CPGs have the flexibility to produce a range of package sizes and styles. Automation provides that capability.

According to Ekroth, the paper bottle initiative is a step-by-step journey to reduce and replace the need for polymers.

Absolut Sustainability

Karin Ekroth, Senior Manager of Communications & Sustainability for The Absolut Company, shares how the world’s sixth-largest international spirits brand—with production of nearly 26 million gallons in fiscal year 2018/19—works toward a circular economy.

ASDA will introduce a 100% recyclable own-label crisp (potato chips) tube.

Recycling drives sustainable packaging

COVID 19 has caused significant disruption to the packaging industry across the world. However, sustainability remains an important area of opportunity for anyone involved in bringing new packaging to market.

The MSP-200 features semi-automated changeover, which allows it to convert to different case configurations in less than 10 minutes.

Robotics Special Report: Case Packer for Croutons Saves Dough on Corrugated

Specialty food products manufacturer installs a robotic case packer for croutons that can keep pace with the rest of the packaging line, while saving costs on shelf-ready packaging, as well.

CPA Webinars Offer Help During COVID-19

In other news from CPA, The Association for Contract Packagers and Manufacturers, the group announces its new board as well as its annual scholarship winners.

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Can Shortages Hit Food and Beverage Industries

Supply chain issues with aluminum, steel, and tin cans are ramping up as COVID-19 changes buying patterns, resulting in a trickle-down effect on product offerings and time-to-market.

Covid19 Getty Images 1205740031 5eb02f3fd8674

Packagers Stay the COVID-19 Course

Packaging pros adjusted fast to the ‘new normal’ of a pandemic, and have been maintaining for months now, a new Packaging World survey reveals. Three months on from our first survey, we see improvements in CAPEX freedom and a reduction in hiring freezes.

The Cobot Expo will take place online July 28-30.

Cobot Deployment Shines in COVID-19 Pandemic

Leading up to its virtual Cobot Expo this week, Universal Robots highlighted several cases where small companies have been using collaborative automation to keep production going amid the crisis.

Mark O’Malley, CPA President and President/CEO of Paket Corp.

CP/CMs Meet COVID-19 Challenges

When I assumed the role of President of CPA, I never could have predicted our collective experience since that day.

Volatility Breeds Leaps Forward

I may have mentioned it here before, but one of the advantages of reading every issue of Packaging World from cover to cover is the speed at which I can pick up on trends or recurring themes.

Robby Martin, Engineering Specialist, Bush Brothers & Company

The Purpose of Honesty; The Place for Negotiation

Truly effective relationships between CPGs and co-mans/co-packs call for a kind of honesty that does more than just tell the truth when we speak or write. They go deeper into a level of honesty that causes both parties to find common ground.

At 33 meters in length, 13 sub-machines, up to 33,000 bottles an hour – the new packaging machine at Rotkäppchen-Mumm not only has an impressive set of statistics but also provides outstanding flexibility.

Big Packaging Line in a Small Footprint? No Problem if it Handles a Dozen Formats

With the large but flexible Innopack TLM packaging system, a KHS and Schubert collaboration, this many-SKU winery used just one machine to pack a dozen formats and varieties.