Conveying & accumulation

Government funds casing upgrade at Boyd Coffee

With R&D funding from Oregon’s OSHA, Boyd Coffee develops a custom case packer that addresses repetitive motion injuries attributable to manual packing. Machine also reduces giveaway.

July 31, 2000

Case/tray packing: Page 99

Conveying & accumulation

Portland nixes reshippers

Portland Brewing cuts costs and gains flexibility by moving away from reshippers and into bulk glass. It now forms its own six-pack carriers and corrugated shippers.

July 31, 2000

Cartoning

Zambelli Packaging Machinery opens U.S. operations

Zambelli Packaging Machinery, headquartered in Bologna, Italy, has established operations in the U. S., in Petersburg, FL.

June 30, 2000

Secondary Packaging

E-commerce seminar analysis

Packagers, material suppliers and other firms addressed ‘Packaging for e-commerce direct-to-consumers’ at a June conference. Here’s an analysis from one of the conference's panel moderators.

June 30, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Case taper fills tall order

E-Z Mix replaced a manual operation with a first-of-its-kind taping machine that top- and bottom-seals tall cases. Change to longer tape rolls also saves money.

June 30, 2000

Cartoning

Planters picks a packing line

Consumers are clearly fond of single-serve “tubes” of Planters nuts. An automated packaging line helps keep the nationwide pipeline full.

June 30, 2000

Secondary Packaging

Robotic case packer

Starting at less than $250ꯠ, the RP 240 robotic case packer from Edson (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) top loads light or heavy products into small or large packages at speeds to 15 cases/min, or 50 layers/min.

May 31, 2000

Secondary Packaging

Star Linear Systems, a Div. of Mannesmann Rexroth: Star Linear Systems, a Div. of Mannesmann Rexroth: Linear motion

Star Linear Systems (Charlotte, NC) has introduced Mini Compact Slides and Tychoway® Miniature Ball Rails®. Both provide linear motion for packaging machines such as fillers, case packers, palletizers and wrappers.

May 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Software brews line efficiency at Miller

Brewer sees quick payback on a multimillion-dollar investment in software that’s increasing output at six breweries nationwide. The software will be used for 57 lines, for cans, glass and plastic bottles.

May 31, 2000

Labels

Sleeve label dresses exotic Chai teas

Celestial Seasonings’ stunning full-body sleeve label provides marketing advantages for tapered, square bottles of hot-filled Mountain Chai tea lattes.

April 30, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

New code's legibility smears its predecessor

Casa de Oro Foods’ new date coder produces a clean, legible date code on taco-shell cartons, tortilla bags and corrugated shippers. Downtime is minimal.

April 30, 2000

Flexible packaging

Packaging of chicken wings takes off

When Canadian poultry producer Olymel automated the packaging of its chicken wings, it was able to redeploy 12 operators formerly required for manual packaging.

April 30, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Siemens solidifies growth with packaging investment

Packaging of hot-selling cordless phones is being automated at Siemens’ Austin, TX, manufacturing facility. Labor costs are reduced and appearance improved significantly.

April 30, 2000