Flexible packaging

Stand-up pouches push the retail envelope

Nabisco rolls out Mini Chips Ahoy! cookies in a resealable stand-up pouch while Patrick Cudahy uses a pouch for frozen, precooked meats. And in Ecuador, an integral straw helps kids sip fruit drinks from a stand-up pouch.

September 30, 2000

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling: Page 47

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Illinois Instruments: Oxygen analyzer

The Model 6500 oxygen analyzer from Illinois Instruments (Ingleside, IL) measures headspace oxygen levels from 0.001% to 100% in flexible or rigid packages.

August 31, 2000

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Milestones

eWinWin(www.ewinwin.com), an enabler of group buying, achieved its first transaction in the packaging field. In the eWinWin group-buying model, the more buyers that sign up to buy from a given supplier in a specific transaction, the lower the price based on a discount schedule worked out in advance by the seller.

August 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Notable web sites

Materials MarketplacesB2BPKG.com (www.b2bpkg.com) is a packaging materials marketplace that allows users to constuct a private catalog of vendors for online procurement.

August 31, 2000

Cartoning

Food marketers focus on schools

New packaging equipment is helping two California food processors grow their school foodservice businesses.

August 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Automation Robotics: Automation Robotics: Robotic casepacker

The Robopack 1500 from Automation Robotics (Richardson, TX) operates using a pneumatic drive instead of servos, brakes, clutches and mechanical stops.

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Radius brushes away excess costs

Shrink sleeve bundling system enables Radius to unitize plastic cases of its unusual toothbrushes in film sleeves rather than the more costly folding cartons it had used.

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Capsule-counting tech comes to NAI

New equipment at this California contract packager includes a tablet/capsule line with the latest in tablet-counting technology. On-line thermal-transfer coding shines, too.

July 31, 2000

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

Conveying & accumulation

Palletizer demo/test room opened

In a new 5ꯠ-sq' room, packagers can see first-hand how their boxed product will stack up on a palletizer before buying it. Or view it on videotape.

June 30, 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

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

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Ilapak, Inc: Vf/f/s system

Ilapak’s (Newtown, PA) Vegatronic® 1000 vf/f/s system operates at speeds to 99 bags/min, making it suitable for use in medium-sized and small plants.

May 31, 2000