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

Vf/f/s system

Eliminating forming tubes and sealing jaws, Wright Machinery (Uxbridge, England) employs a carousel to carry formed bags through separate filling and sealing stations on its Pacwright 200 vf/f/s system.

August 31, 1999

Controls & machine components: Page 324

Controls & Machine Components

AutomationDirect: Encoders

Automationdirect.com (Cumming, GA), formerly PLCDirect, has introduced a line of optical rotary encoders for positioning and motion control applications.

August 31, 1999

Conveying & accumulation

Bosch Automation Technology: Conveyor catalog

Bosch Automation's (Racine, WI) conveyor catalog features 114 pages of drawings and specifications on the TS1 high-speed assembly conveyor components.

August 31, 1999

Controls & Machine Components

Cutler-Hammer: Cutler-Hammer: Basic component education

Cutler-Hammer (Westerville, OH) has introduced its 101 Basics Series, which are free Web-based courses on the fundamentals of adjustable frequency drives, sensors, control networks such as DeviceNet, electricity and electrical distribution.

August 31, 1999

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

Mettler-Toledo Hi-Speed, Inc: In-line checkweigher

Hi-Speed Checkweigher (Ithaca, NY) introduces the S-Series of in-line checkweighers for bottles, cartons, blister packs, bags and other containers.

August 31, 1999

Conveying & accumulation

Custom Conveyor, Inc: Conveyor

Custom Conveyor (Greensburg, IN) has added the new Center Drive unit design to its High-Capacity Belt-Driven Live Roller accumulation conveyor. The compact Center Drive unit is powered by a direct-coupled geared motor design, eliminating the need for chains and sprockets.

August 31, 1999

Controls & Machine Components

MRM/Elgin Corp.: Rotary piston filler

MRM/Elgin Corp.'s (Menomonie, WI) RPF-4 rotary piston filler includes no-tool changeover and a no-container/no-fill feature. The filler handles containers with a 5" maximum dia at speeds to 60 containers/min.

August 31, 1999

Controls & Machine Components

Eastman Chemical Company: Invisible marker brochure

Eastman Chemical's (Kingsport, TN) new brochure describes the advantages of Eastman's ClirCode invisible markers. ClirCode markers incorporate small levels of near-infrared fluorescent compounds that are invisible to the human eye.

August 31, 1999

Cartoning

Strong gains projected for machine vision in packaging

The pharmaceutical and food industries are expected to report 10%-plus gains annually in use of machine vision systems, says this report from a prominent trade group.

August 31, 1999

Cartoning

Packagers prepare for Y2K

Most manufacturers Packaging World contacted have found only minor potential Y2K problems on their packaging lines. Still, bugs can be elusive, especially for more automated plants.

August 31, 1999

Controls & Machine Components

Packagers appear prepared for Y2K

Confidential survey of readers identifies some problems, but assures that fixes have been offered. Performance guarantees are few and far between.

August 31, 1999

Controls & Machine Components

Controls suppliers push toward e-commerce

While few packaging machinery and materials suppliers have begun selling their products on their Web sites, controls and automation suppliers are finding it eminently easier to sell via cyberspace.

August 31, 1999

Containers

Machine vision affords economic inspection

Inexpensive machine vision frees up two workers, provides 100% on-line inspection for cosmetics producer.

August 31, 1999