Machinery: Page 1101

Sustainability

Saving more than just peanuts

Bookstore chain Borders Group moves to a customized loose-fill system for distribution of its products to stores nationwide. Yearly savings are in excess of one million dollars.

January 31, 1998

Controls & Machine Components

Controls: Unleashing a new productivity tool

Few topics in the packaging engineer's lexicon have changed as much as that of machine control. Not long ago, a controversial issue was the size of the start and stop buttons, or whether companies would pay extra for a discrete control panel that could swivel from one side of a machine to another.

January 31, 1998

Sustainability

Organic labeling rules proposed

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting comments on its proposal to establish uniform federal standards for use of the term "organic" in labeling both raw and processed foods.

January 31, 1998

Conveying & accumulation

Foam dunnage computes for GT's software

Minnesota is no stranger to snow. But at GT Interactive's Plymouth plant, located in suburban Minneapolis, a far different kind of blizzard was hampering operations.

January 31, 1998

Controls & Machine Components

Packaging machines speak up (sidebar)

Network facilitates data acquisition

January 31, 1998

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Tyson pleads guilty

After long defending itself against charges of giving some $12ꯠ in illegal gifts to then Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, Tyson Foods agreed to plead guilty and pay a $6 million penalty.

January 31, 1998

Conveying & accumulation

Robotic palletization protects Sandvik

Automated lifting and stacking of heavy boxes onto pallets helps this maker of mining products avoid worker injuries and $120ꯠ of additional labor costs.

January 31, 1998

Controls & Machine Components

A window into the packaging line

Amway's graphical human-machine interface for an entire packaging line reduces troubleshooting time by 75%.

January 31, 1998

Flexible packaging

DOJ kills Reynolds/Alcoa deal; will it chill Reynolds/Ball talks?

In late December the U.S. Department of Justice moved to prevent Reynolds Metals Co. (Richmond, VA) from selling its Muscle Shoals, AL, aluminum can stock rolling mill to Alcoa (Pittsburgh, PA).

January 31, 1998

Controls & Machine Components

Emerson Motion Control: Sizing servo motors

A how-to paper on servo motor sizing for position control applications is available from Emerson Motion Control (Chanhassen, MN). Provides plenty of examples of formulas that can be used to compute required torque, factoring in inertia, friction, acceleration and deceleration.

January 31, 1998

Converting equipment

Label livens line of indoor tanning products

Redesigned packaging played a key role in taking the Black Gold line of indoor tanning products from limited distribution in the Midwest to national and even international distribution.

January 31, 1998

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Sexual dysfunction

Incidences of sexual dysfunction by those taking Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Luvox (all selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) may be much higher than indicated on product labeling, and FDA is considering ordering labeling changes more reflective of reality.

January 31, 1998