Conveying & accumulation

Picking, packing, and palletizing with robots

Robotics—a flexible automation system that improves productivity, quality, and workforce capabilities—continues making inroads into packaging.

August 9, 2007

Meat/Poultry/Seafood: Page 40

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Poultry/pork processor bags big benefits

Albertville Quality Foods saves labor, improves bagging speeds, cuts giveaway by installing intermittent-motion vf/f/s machine and radial scale.

August 9, 2007

Cartoning

Automation initiative brings sweet results

A robotic solution lets Necco put its popular Sweethearts Conversation Hearts on a fast track to greater throughput at higher speeds with reduced labor costs.

August 8, 2007

Blisters/clamshells/thermoforming materials

Shelf-stable seafood cups

In January 2007, H.J. Heinz Co. Australia Limited, in cooperation with EDV Packaging (www.edvpackaging.com), launched Greenseas-brand value-added, shelf-stable, single-serve chunky salmon and tuna products packaged in retortable, 100-g, high-barrier cups made of white PP/EVOH/PP.

July 11, 2007

Closures

Sausage adds convenience

German meat processor Stockmeyer packs sausage into multilayer tubs.

July 9, 2007

Meat/Poultry/Seafood

Survey takers speak out

Upskilling was at the center of an online survey conducted by Packaging World in early 2007 that drew more than 200 respondents. Here are some responses to the question, What technologies would you like to have schools teaching to support your packaging machine maintenance operations?

June 11, 2007

Cartoning

Thermo Fisher Scientific: Weigh Engine is small but mighty

Measuring just 3" x 3" x 4", this little black box—better known as a Weigh Engine—can bring check-weighing functionality to a variety of packaging machines.

June 11, 2007

Flexibles

Pickle packs debut

Retortable single-serve barrier cups have generated a number of headlines lately. First was cat food, then tuna for humans, and now, from Mt. Olive Pickle Company of Mt. Olive, NC, pickles.

June 11, 2007

Flexibles

Deli-quality sandwiches in microwave packaging

Madison, WI-based Oscar Mayer, a unit of Kraft Foods, has teamed up with Graphic Packaging International, Inc. (www.graphicpkg.com) to launch Oscar Mayer Deli Creations refrigerated, modified atmosphere-packaged sandwiches in GPI QuiltWave™ microwave receptor trays.

June 11, 2007

Labels

Which comes first--structural or graphic branding?

Let each project’s specific needs, rather than a formal protocol, determine who leads.

June 4, 2007

Meat/Poultry/Seafood

Microwave meats

Ninety-two percent of homes in the United States have microwaves and meat processors are taking advantage of the fact, meeting the growing consumer demand for convenience

May 31, 2007

Additives, coatings & inks

Virus as food additive

The FDA approved the first ever bacteria killing virus to be sprayed on meats prior to packaging.

May 31, 2007

Beverage

South Africa's poor hit with counterfeit food

Poor people in outlying and rural areas of South Africa are seeing a growing number of fake food products.

May 31, 2007