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

Servo-driven vf/f/s machine

UVA-Butler (Richmond, VA) has introduced the Butler(TM) 3 vertical form/fill/seal machine that uses servo motors, an Allen-Bradley programmable logic controller 503 and a touch screen for production information and fault display.

September 30, 1995

Prepared Foods: Page 84

Case/tray packing

Combo unit improves process control

Based in Duluth, MN, Luigino's, Inc. has made its Michelina brand frozen pastas and entrees big sellers across the country. At the firm's Jackson, OH, plant, a packaging line that went into production last fall uses a Loma 7000 Combo, an integrated metal detect-ion/checkweighing system.

September 30, 1995

Flexible packaging

Pasta/produce combo gets tf/f/s treatment

Salinas produce marketer Tanimura & Antle thermoforms its own trays for the Broccoli Time combo pack. Will consumers get used to seeing such full meals in the refrigerated produce section?

September 30, 1995

Dairy

Pack size restrictions dropped

Thanks to a change in the uniform weights and measures regulations for dairy products, processors have new opportunities for marketing their products.

September 30, 1995

Flexibles

Sliced apples get the value-added treatment

Peeled, cored and sliced, fresh Granny Smith apples have joined the growing list of value-added fresh produce items available to consumers at retail.

September 30, 1995

Additives, coatings & inks

Part 2How purchasing copes with higher prices (sidebar)

Purchasers skewer vendors with increasing prices

August 31, 1995

Beverage

Environment-influenced packaging: It ain't over yet (sidebar)

Companies big and small

August 31, 1995

Secondary Packaging

Software proves "bueno" for Mexican food producer

Bueno Foods turns to software to more efficiently pack pouches and cups into corrugated shipping cases, then stack those cases onto a pallet. The result: Lower labor costs, reduced case inventories, and more space in the warehouse.

August 31, 1995

Prepared Foods

Five Alive tries a new look

Houston-based Coca-Cola Foods Co. began test marketing a new version of its Five Alive(TM) fruit beverage in some Pacific Northwest cities this past May.

August 31, 1995

Secondary Packaging

Case packer

The Econoline MGC-E case packer from Blueprint Automation (Richmond, VA) packs 1-oz to 10-lb bags into cases at speeds to 90/min. Designed for short production runs, changeovers take only two min.

July 31, 1995

Additives, coatings & inks

How purchasing copes with higher prices (sidebar)

Purchasers skewer vendors for increasing prices

July 31, 1995

Flexible packaging

Packaging pros take Greeley's advice and "Go West!"

If you want to test new packaging concepts, evaluate the latest in packaging technology or determine what new consumer packaging ideas are likely to be flowing through the American manufacturing-to-consumption pipeline in the next year or so, go West now.

July 31, 1995

Prepared Foods

States can say no to garbage

State governors would be able to restrict the import of out-of-state garbage under a bill passed by the Senate and under consideration in the House. Until now, the courts have considered garbage to be interstate commerce that only Congress can regulate.

June 30, 1995