Flexibles

5-lb bag offers handle and spout

Retailers’ requests result in a smaller, value-added bag for EcoTraction from Earth Innovations.

April 5, 2009

Materials: Page 457

Protective/transport packaging

Expert analysis

April 5, 2009

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Liquids, metals, and RFID

It’s been long known due to the physics involved that the use of RFID around liquids or metal products or packages results in poor read performance.

April 5, 2009

Conveying & accumulation

Robots cement bagging operations

Sometimes the best 'person' for the job is a robot, especially when the job is hefting 80-lb of cement.

April 4, 2009

Additives, coatings & inks

Eco-friendly plastics additives

Milliken’s Hyperform® hyper-nucleating agent overcomes variables in the waste stream to simplify polypropylene recycling while Millad® clarifying additives enable polypropylene to be substituted for clear materials such as PET, PVC, PC, PS, SAN, acrylic and glass.

April 4, 2009

Flexibles

Recycled PET roll stock

IPF Integrated Packaging Films' ECO-THERM 100% Post Consumer Recycled content PET roll stock is produced 100% from recycled water, juice, soda and sports drink bottles.

April 4, 2009

Labels

Specialized rework: D-I-Y or bid it externally?

‘Under the radar’ packaging services require product manufacturers to decide whether to do the work internally or use a contract packager. Consider each cost factor carefully before deciding, says, Bill McNeil, president of Premier Packaging.

April 2, 2009

Flexibles

Squeezable pouch is perfect for Squish'ems!

A new vitamin-enriched fruit snack from Dole Packaged Foods Canada encourages kids to squeeze and slurp their food.

April 2, 2009

Flexibles

Brown sugar stays soft in a premeasured pouch

Imperial Sugar breaks from the commodity pack, introducing brown sugar in 1/4-cup pouches.

April 1, 2009

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Smart Box is smart packaging idea. . .

The HIDE-Pack Smart Box embeds an RFID within the box structure, providing companies with increased efficiency in the supply chain, reduced inventory costs, increased order accuracy, reduced loss due to theft and piracy, and simplified product recall, according to its maker, Krupack Packaging.

April 1, 2009

Sustainability

ConAgra uses recycled PLA shrink film

Film contains more than 50% post-consumer recycled content.

March 26, 2009

Secondary Packaging

Stretch film should stretch dollars

The overwhelming majority of packaged goods are unitized with stretch film, for good reasons, but not always with best cost-efficiency.

March 26, 2009

Conveying & accumulation

Video: robots for rainbow packs

To improve profits on variety packs, new robots automate the re-packing process.

March 19, 2009