Conveying & accumulation

New level of packaging technology reaches Jim Beam

Managers at Jim Beam's Clermont, KY, plant began with a filler/capper monoblock to build its modernized 1.75-L glass line for spirits. New techniques for inspection and conveying will enable line to handle future needs.

April 30, 1997

Beverage: Page 393

Beverage

Supplier news: International agreements

Macbeth Div. of Kollmorgen Instruments Corp. (Waltham, MA) and Gretag Color Control Systems Div. of Gretag AG (Regensdorf, Switzerland) announced plans for a merger.

April 30, 1997

Contract Packaging

Rhapsody in blue

Rochester, NY-based Global Beverage's striking cobalt blue-tinted polyethylene terephthalate container is credited with firing up sales of its Bl Botol brand spring water since it debuted about 10 months ago.

April 30, 1997

Flexibles

Plastics under seige in Massachusetts

A plastics recycling bill has been introduced in the Massachusetts state Senate that would, if passed, doom the sale of most plastic packaging. The bill bans plastic packaging for consumer products unless at least 80% of Massachusetts residents have access to plastics recycling facilities by December 31, 2000.

April 30, 1997

Sustainability

Turning the shoe industry on end

Italian shoemaker challenges packaging conventions by adopting a vertical gable-top package that resembles both a doctor's bag and a milk carton. Patented carton design offers environmental advantages in waste-conscious Europe.

April 30, 1997

Protective/transport packaging

Promo employs unusual clamshell

"The pitcher was initially developed for an on-premise bar-kit promotion. Only later, after the pitcher was designed, did we decide to do an off-premise promo with it." That's how Karen Kurylo, packaging manager at Southfield, MI-based Hiram Walker & Sons, describes the origins of an unusual clamshell package used for 750-mL bottles of Kahlua liqueur.

April 30, 1997

Flexibles

Getting noticed is now packaging mission #1

In today's market, there are more serious packaging developments than the emergence of beverage containers with walls purposefully bent out of shape.

April 30, 1997

Closures

Aseptic carton with screw cap juices sales

Dublin, Ireland-based Batchelors Ltd.'s share of the overall juice market in Ireland has risen approximately 10 percentage points since last October.

April 30, 1997

Conveying & accumulation

Cans are really shaping up at Coke

Hot on the heels of its curvy Coke can (see Packaging World, March '97, p. 8), Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. is shaking up the can industry again.

April 30, 1997

Flexibles

Add-on packaging revs up Coors' sales

First things first. Yes, it's a real package. No, it's not actually shipped that way. But when retailers hand-erect the faux carburetor valve covers and insert the tabs into die-cut slots on 24-count multipacks of the new "engine block" package for Coors Light, they've got a clever floor display that has jump-started sales of the brand in a recent promotion, says the Golden, CO, brewer.

April 30, 1997

Flexible packaging

Nestlé puts new faces on mix containers

A multi-material oval can in the U.K., a twin-pack of pouches in Switzerland, and a high-density polyethylene oval in the U.S. each deliver kid-oriented retail punch for Nestlé's powdered milk mixes.

March 31, 1997

Closures

Fiber drum liner

A new smooth-walled LDPE liner is manufactured specifically for use with 55-gal open-head fiber drums with a 21.5" dia. It's extrusion blown, FDA-approved LDPE with an average wall thickness of 15 mils.

March 31, 1997

Dairy

Rim flattener

Paper Machinery's (Milwaukee, WI) PMC-125 rim flattener automatically flattens the rims on paper cups at speeds to 250/min. It offers a broad rim surface for increased area of membrane sealing.

March 31, 1997