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

Hot-stamp imprinter

Marking a 1 7/8”x1 7/8” area at speeds to 250 cycles/min, the CodeRunner hot-stamp imprinter from Norwood (Downers Grove, IL) mounts easily onto continous-motion overwrapping machines, labelers, and f/f/s systems.

March 31, 2001

Machinery: Page 927

Controls & Machine Components

Pacific Scientific: Brushless servo motors

Three brushless servo motors in Pacific Scientific’s (Rockford, IL) PMA1 series offer a standard frame length of 125 mm to 175 mm or 150 mm to 200 mm with integral brake.

March 31, 2001

Secondary Packaging

Bag palletizer

Columbia/Okura’s (Vancouver, WA) robotic bag palletizing systems lay bags up to 100 lb in overlapping patterns at speeds to 1길 cycles/ hr.

March 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Hot melt units

Thermojet II hot melt units from Valco Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) offer 3.5- to 180-kg tanks and 16 independently controlled heating zones. Set-up and adjustments are made via touch pad, and the units feature self-tuning microprocessor PID controllers and motor-driven gear pumps.

March 31, 2001

Controls & machine components

Machine vision system

The Inspector, IC Vision’s (Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada) new “self-learning” machine vision system, is designed for cap- or container-making companies.

March 31, 2001

Converting equipment

Appointments, promotions

—FoxJet (Arlington, TX): Jim Barbone, gen. mgr.

March 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Label biotech foods

Virtually all consumers in a series of 12 focus groups organized by FDA in spring 2000 feel bioengineered foods should be labeled so that consumers can decide whether to purchase them or not.

March 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Mexico may require labeling of biotech foods

The Mexican Senate approved an addendum to its General Health Code that would require biotech foods to be labeled as “transgenic” or as containing biotech ingredients.

March 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

A heads up to food manufacturers

The proliferation of new food products in which botanicals and other novel ingredients are added to conventional foods prompted the Food and Drug Administration to send a cautionary letter.

March 31, 2001

Secondary Packaging

Splenda's sweet on carton design

In November, McNeil Specialty Products introduced at retail a no-calorie sweetener called Splenda, a granular product packed into folding cartons containing either 1.9 or 3.8 oz, which it says offers the “sweetness equivalent” of 1- or 2-lb of sugar for baking or cooking.

March 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

SoBe goes plastic for sport drinks

“With this package, we’re marrying functionality of the package with sports nutrition in the product,” says Bill Meissner, director of brand development for South Beach Beverage, Norwalk, CT.

March 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

'Gray' workers add black to Bonne Bell's bottom line

As this observer continues to move ever closer to “senior” status (already a veteran of several years with AARP), a talk with Jess Bell, vice chairman of Bonne Bell, Cleveland, OH, helps to energize both body and spirit.

March 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

A different kind of portal (sidebar)

Capsule reviews

March 31, 2001