Flexible packaging

Co-packing industry assesses opportunities and challenges

The contract packaging industry has no shortage of opportunities and challenges, and some of them were discussed formally and informally at the Contract Packaging Association’s annual meeting, which concluded April 2 in Tucson, AZ. First, the opportunities. One of the hottest segments of contract packaging today is pharmaceutical products, and it’s promising even more growth for co-packers with the right facilities, capabilities, and certification approvals. Speaking to association members, Bill Sharpless said the $400 billion pharma industry is growing at 3% annually. Sharpless is marketing director of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and medical packaging at Alcoa Flexible Packaging.

April 17, 2007

Flexible packaging: Page 119

Flexibles

Compartmentalized pouched water for on-the-go 'Fidos'

The fetching 16-oz, dog-bone-shaped stand-up pouch is reclosable and features two compartments.

April 10, 2007

Flexibles

Reducing Total Cost Of Ownership

By switching from a PLC-based controls architecture to a functionally integrated controller, Talon builds a simpler machine that costs less to build and to maintain.

April 3, 2007

Flexibles

Design firm bags new Pringles Select packaging

Say the word “Pringles,” and the image of a saddle-shape chip in a cylindrical container comes to mind. But when LPK (www.lpk.com), the design agency for Procter & Gamble’s Pringles’ brand, came up with a design for the company’s new Pringles Select gourmet potato chips, the firm dropped the cylindrical can in favor of a block-bottom pouch.

April 3, 2007

Flexibles

Plastic bags provide looks, strength for horsefeed

TizWhiz horsefeed is corralled into durable, rain-repellent woven OPP bags that replace paper bags.

March 23, 2007

Flexibles

Design firm bags new Pringles Select packaging

Gourmet version in four flavors drops the composite can in favor of a block-bottom pouch.

March 20, 2007

Flexibles

Artisan chocolate bars on-the-go in sleeve-pouches

Recchiuti chocolate bars in three varieties are all dressed up in reclosable, foil-lined packs.

March 16, 2007

Flexible packaging

Smooth operation

A modified liquid filler helps one commercial skincare products company clean up its act.

March 9, 2007

Flexible packaging

Single-dose HIV pack takes the right PATH

FPA awarded a Special Citation for Social Responsibility for a multilayer foil-laminated pouch that allows HIV-positive mothers in Kenya, Africa to give their newborn babies a dose of Nevirapine oral suspension within 24 hours of birth, when the fast-acting drug is most effective in reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1.

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Chips bag print reflects gold

New York Style Lightly Salted Organic Pita Chips earned a Gold Award for Printing Achievement for Genpak (www.genpak.com).

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Shaped SUPs replace pasta/sauce jars

Buitoni, a unit of Swiss-based Nestlé, and CLP Industries Ltd. (www.clp-packaging.com) have garnered an FPA Gold Award for Packaging Excellence in recognition of the development of shaped, stand-up retort pouches for Buitoni pasta and sauce products.

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Gourmet sweets in a 'green' package

Winning a Gold Award for Environmental Achievement was Northern Flair of Maple Plain MN. Its 5-oz stand-up pouch of Malto Bella Gourmet Malt Balls, filled by a contract packager, is produced by C&H Packaging (www.chpack.com) from a three-layer adhesive lamination of 48-ga polyester/48-ga metallized polyester/low-density polyethylene heat-seal layer. The clear polyester on top is reverse-printed in seven colors on a flexo press.

March 9, 2007

Flexibles

Replacement for #10 can

Cryovac Food Packaging Div. of Sealed Air Corp. (www.sealedair.com) was awarded a Gold for Technical Innovation for its coextruded Flavour Mark™ retort material. Made of an unidentified multilayer coextrusion, the film is intended as a replacement for #10 cans to be used with the Cryovac Onpack vertical form/fill/seal system.

March 8, 2007