Controls & Machine Components

Wanted: Packaging to Business integration

P2B (Packaging to Business) integration continues to pick up steam as one of the most highly sought after characteristics in the packaging machinery of today and tomorrow.

November 30, 2005

Beverage: Page 241

Protective/transport packaging

The wrap-up: What kind of a packer are you?

Are you a precision, attacker, slacker, or wacky packer? You can take the UPS Store quiz to find out about your packaging style as you prepare to ship products for the holidays.

November 30, 2005

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

Better access to machinery documentation

Machinery builders are making manuals, training, and troubleshooting easier for users by putting the documentation where it's needed most.

November 30, 2005

Coding, Printing & Labeling

GPS track-and-trace demo

UCLA researchers demonstrate a wireless GPS-sensor tracking system that targets the cold chain and other applications.

November 30, 2005

Containers

Design for shoppers

Leverage the design process to build leadership brands in store.

October 31, 2005

Controls & Machine Components

PackML and PackTags in use at SABMiller

SABMiller in its Newlands Brewery near Cape Town, South Africa, is among the early adapters of PackML, an OMAC standard that defines machine states.

October 31, 2005

Cartoning

BevOps covers advances in packaging machinery

Conference covers the technology revolution in beverage packaging machinery introduced at 3 recent trade shows.

October 31, 2005

Beverage

3-D printed prototypes

The Spectrum Z510 Full Color System from Z Corp. produces high-definition prototypes quickly and affordably. Ink-jet printing technology creates parts with crisply defined features, enhanced accuracy, and precise color for evaluating physical models of design concepts in their nearly finished state.

October 31, 2005

Spirits/liquors

Tape applicator

3M has introduced the next generation semi-automatic 3M-Matic™ S-867, an “L” clip tape applicator that instantly applies 9mm to 36mm tapes at speeds to 50 “L” clips/min.

October 31, 2005

Additives, coatings & inks

Barrier resin suitability

Invista has announced that its PolyShield™ MXD6 barrier resin is suited for use in food pkg. applications in the European Union in contact with all food types, except for fatty foods and foods with an alcohol content greater than 10%.

October 31, 2005

Beverage

Big Sky brews ink-jet upgrade

To better track product freshness and quality throughout distribution and eventual sale at retail outlets, Big Sky Brewery of Missoula, MT, recently began date-coding individual bottles of its unique beers, including Moose Drool, Scape Goat, and Powder Hound ales.

October 31, 2005

Beverage

Robotics improve brewery efficiencies

Medium-size brewery Pyraser Bier GmbH & Co. KG, Thalmassing, Germany, manufactures and markets several types of beer as well as carbonated beverages, juices, and other nonalcoholic drinks.

October 31, 2005

Beverage

PET TO LEAD EUROPEAN BEER PACKAGING

The annual growth of European beer packaging will be led by PET/PEN bottles, according to Schönwald Consulting. Through 2008, growth of beer in PET-based bottles is projected to reach 12% per year, to 70 million hectoliters by 2008.

October 31, 2005