Conveying & accumulation

Bottling water for millions

Tak Fat now supplies pure bottled drinking water to eight million consumers in China's Guangzhou area. The next target is the total Guangdong province of 69 million, and then on to the rest of the country. Integrated 5-gal line delivers 400 bph.

May 31, 1997

Industries: Page 835

Flexibles

Gauging demand for calendered plastics (sidebar)

Calendering developments show steady growth

May 31, 1997

Beverage

PEN polymers lure beverage marketers (sidebar)

Beer in PET, PEN bottles studied

May 31, 1997

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Supplier news: Relocations, expansions

Mobil Chemical Co., Films Div. (Pittsford, NY) will use a new orienter to help boost its annual OPP packaging and labeling film capacity by 33 million lb at its Kerkrade, The Netherlands, plant.

May 31, 1997

Recycling

Can lines to dwindle; can recycling rates up

The number of can lines producing two-piece drawn-and-ironed aluminum cans for beer and beverages in the U.S. will drop 15%, from 178 to 151, between 1996 and 2001.

May 31, 1997

Controls & Machine Components

Encyclopedia updates packaging technology

"Ten years agoo/ooservo drives were for airplanes, sous vide was French for vacuum and Crown Cork and Seal was an also-ran in the world of can makers.

May 31, 1997

Closures

Gardeners get a friendlier fertilizer pack

"Now it's just shake and go." That's how Greg Moore of Agway, Inc., describes how much easier it is for home gardeners to dispense Agway's eight specialty fertilizers since the Syracuse, NY, firm switched from a bag-in-box approach to a rigid container with dispensing closure.

May 31, 1997

Protective/transport packaging

PEN polymers lure beverage marketers

Superior thermal properties, chemical resistance, and high barrier to oxygen transmission have made PEN and other naphthalate-based materials irresistable for a hot-filled isotonic drink and for citrus juices.

May 31, 1997

Conveying & accumulation

Bottle drinks from the stream of technology

American Beverage Marketers warm-fills its Finest Call cocktail mixes into new PET bottles, then injects liquid nitrogen. The LN2 prevents bottle paneling and helps to extend shelf life. The PET bottle replaces PP, providing greater clarity and appeal for the product's introduction to the retail market.

May 31, 1997

Closures

Ocean Spray restages drink concentrates in wide-mouth PET bottles

Around our way, clear, hot-filled plastic bottles of Ocean Spray shelf-stable juice drink concentrates began showing up on supermarket shelves in late March.

May 31, 1997

Sustainable Packaging

Mass. bill opposed

Industry is marshalling its forces to fight yet another tough environmental bill in the Massachusetts Senate. The Massachusetts Citizens Right-to-Know bill would require warning labels for consumer products whose contents or packaging contain carcinogens, mutagens, endocrine disrupters, neurotoxins and any chemicals causing serious or irreversible health effects in humans.

May 31, 1997

Contract Packaging

Solid change for pet food

The rapid expansion of pet store chains and specialty pet food products is ample evidence that pet food is a growing category. What's yet to grow is pet food packaging, though Solid Gold Holistic Animal Healthcare may be in the process of changing that.

May 31, 1997

Sustainability

Plastics' broken loop

Recycled-content legislation has receded, environmentalists have been quiet and virgin PET is plentiful and cheap. Packagers are divided on whether to continue their commitments to use post-consumer resin in the U.S. market.

May 31, 1997