Sustainable Packaging

Building better bonds between makers and buyers of packaging machinery

People I talked to at Ipack-Ima 2006, held February 14-18 in an architectural wonderland called Fiera Milano on the outskirts of Milan, were cautiously hoping that the show may be a sign that economic recovery is on the way.

January 31, 2006

Industries: Page 517

Conveying & accumulation

First labeler retrofit with award-winning ELAU servos

Yakama Juice plant manager Jack West says “when K2 said they could do everything on one machine, I was really impressed.”

January 31, 2006

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

TI's well-calculated Gen 2 RFID rollout

Texas Instruments' E&PS calculator business unit did its homework before it became the first Wal-Mart supplier to tag cases of product using Gen 2 RFID technology.

January 31, 2006

Cartoning

Coordinate package design with machinery capabilities

At the Package Design 2006 Conference, designers saw how innovative package designs sometimes require all-new machine designs – and why it pays to collaborate with packaging engineering up front.

January 31, 2006

Controls & Machine Components

General Mills on packaging controls

Gregg Stedronsky, director of packaging engineering at General Mills, shared these thoughts recently in a phone conversation:

January 31, 2006

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

Food service packaging/bag machine

Food service items such as sauces, stews, refried beans, and other similar products can be packaged on General Packaging Equipment's Model 642WLC vf/f/s machine in 7.5 L to 2 gallon packs.

January 31, 2006

Beverage

Former Baldor CEO and Chairman passes away

Roland S. Boreham, Jr., CEO of Baldor Electric Company from 1978 to 1981 and Chairman from 1981 through 2004, passed away on Sunday, February 5.

January 31, 2006

Controls & Machine Components

National Instruments: HMIs for LabVIEW

Engineers and scientists can now use National Instruments’ new flat-panel touch-screen, touch-panel computer and panel PC HMI with the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment to develop user interfaces.

January 31, 2006

Controls & Machine Components

Hershey reveals new direction on controls

“We invested heavily in controls technology, but in the last few years we’ve changed directions because in too many cases the technologies we implemented were complicating, not simplifying, our packaging operations.”

January 31, 2006

Closures

Water bottler opts for glass packaging

Naya Sparkling Water launched by Danone Canada, Laval, Quebec, and co-packed by Delta Beverages, entered Canadian markets late last year.

January 31, 2006

Flexibles

MAP pepperoni taps retail markets

Swiss American Sausage Co., a division of Provena Foods, Inc., Lathrop, CA, is a major supplier of pepperoni products to foodservice outlets.

January 31, 2006

Beverage

FUNDS RAISED FOR PACKAGING HALL OF FAME MEMORIAL

More than $11ꯠ in fundraising dollars will be used for the design and construction of a permanent Packaging Hall of Fame memorial at Michigan State University’s School of Packaging.

January 31, 2006

Sustainable Packaging

Envisioning a new environmental package design

Since innovative thinking on ways to balance packaging and the environment is always in short supply, I was curious to see if Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World by Daniel Imhoff would contribute something new to the dialog.

January 31, 2006