Controls & Machine Components

THK America, Inc: THK America, Inc: High-efficiency actuator

THK’s new Type VLA Actuator has fewer components and a low overall cost, by using a TLK LM guide for its base.

March 9, 2007

Industries: Page 474

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Label applicator is a perfect fit

Sea Breeze deploys low-volume printing solution.

March 9, 2007

Conveying & accumulation

Data flows from ERP to packaging machines

Just five operators run two lines that span three floors and churn out 600 bottles/min. An automated order system plays a pivotal role in streamlining changeover.

March 9, 2007

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

CAN-based concepts run food slicing machine

A CAN network links I/O, a checkweigher, and an optical weigher over a distance of 164’.

March 9, 2007

Flexible packaging

Smooth operation

A modified liquid filler helps one commercial skincare products company clean up its act.

March 9, 2007

Flexible packaging

Single-dose HIV pack takes the right PATH

FPA awarded a Special Citation for Social Responsibility for a multilayer foil-laminated pouch that allows HIV-positive mothers in Kenya, Africa to give their newborn babies a dose of Nevirapine oral suspension within 24 hours of birth, when the fast-acting drug is most effective in reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1.

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Chips bag print reflects gold

New York Style Lightly Salted Organic Pita Chips earned a Gold Award for Printing Achievement for Genpak (www.genpak.com).

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Ready-made, portable beer cooler pack

Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI, and Curwood, a Bemis Company, (www.curwood.com) are recipients of an FPA Gold Award for Packaging Excellence in recognition of the Curwood Express Tote™ marketed as the Miller Lite Chill Bag.

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Shaped SUPs replace pasta/sauce jars

Buitoni, a unit of Swiss-based Nestlé, and CLP Industries Ltd. (www.clp-packaging.com) have garnered an FPA Gold Award for Packaging Excellence in recognition of the development of shaped, stand-up retort pouches for Buitoni pasta and sauce products.

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Gourmet sweets in a 'green' package

Winning a Gold Award for Environmental Achievement was Northern Flair of Maple Plain MN. Its 5-oz stand-up pouch of Malto Bella Gourmet Malt Balls, filled by a contract packager, is produced by C&H Packaging (www.chpack.com) from a three-layer adhesive lamination of 48-ga polyester/48-ga metallized polyester/low-density polyethylene heat-seal layer. The clear polyester on top is reverse-printed in seven colors on a flexo press.

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Replacement for #10 can

Cryovac Food Packaging Div. of Sealed Air Corp. (www.sealedair.com) was awarded a Gold for Technical Innovation for its coextruded Flavour Mark™ retort material. Made of an unidentified multilayer coextrusion, the film is intended as a replacement for #10 cans to be used with the Cryovac Onpack vertical form/fill/seal system.

March 8, 2007

Confection/Candy

Digital plates deliver for Hershey's converter

Pardon the pun, but The Hershey Co. is a pretty sweet customer for flexible packaging manufacturer/converter American Packaging Corp. (www.ampkcorp.com). So when the Hershey, PA-based confectionery/snack food company introduced its limited-edition Hershey Mounds Island Orange candy last year, it needed stunning packaging graphics to convey the candy’s bold orange and coconut flavors. APC prints the secondary bag that holds 11.1-oz of 24 individually packaged candy bar miniatures, earning a Flexible Packaging Assn. Gold Award for Printing Achievement.

March 8, 2007

Flexibles

Retorted pouch-within-a-pouch protects sensitive yeast products

Wyeast Laboratories, Inc., Hood River, OR, a leading producer of pure liquid yeast products (fermentation cultures) for beer- and wine-making, and Ampac Flexibles (www.ampaconline.com), a unit of Ampac Packaging LLC, have earned FPA’s 2007 Highest Achievement Award, including Gold Awards for both Packaging Excellence and Technical Innovation. These awards are in recognition of the “Smack Pack” 50-mL and 125-mL retortable stand-up pouch packaging system for Wyeast’s home brewer’s and vintner’s lines of products.

March 8, 2007