Conveying & accumulation

Scale system shines at Diamond

A twin-head, triple-pan scale system at Diamond of California’s Robertsdale, AL, plant reduces giveaway, lessens labor costs, and saves on forklift rental costs.

November 30, 2001

Materials: Page 692

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

Label print station cuts fulfillment costs

American Tack & Hardware upgrades label printers for speed and quality images and gets healthy savings in the bargain.

November 30, 2001

Flexible packaging

Listerine packs strips in 'vials'

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, Morris Plains, NJ, debuts Cool Mint Listerine PocketPaks™, tiny hinged "vials" within a carded blister pack. The vials, which measure 1 3/4’’ x 1’’ x 1/4’’, contain paper-thin, postage stamp-sized oral care strips. The strips dissolve instantly on the tongue where they kill germs on contact.

October 31, 2001

Closures

Achievements

Owens-Brockway Closure (Toledo, OH) was named the 2001 Manufacturer of the year by the National Assn. of Container Distributors. —ISO 9001 Certification: Liberty Carton (Golden Valley, MN).

October 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

NECCO mints in a snap

New high-intensity Ultra mints from NECCO (New England Confectionery Co.) reached national retail stores in June packed in a 4 1/2-oz, 1.4-mil polypropylene bag with a laminated cast PP snap closure.

October 31, 2001

Flexibles

Pouched gels prove 'fun and different'

“I think people respond to the package initially because it’s fun and different. But once they use it, they find it’s functional as well.” That’s how Amy Baldwin of Plano Molding Co. of Plano, IL, describes consumer response to the stand-up pouch recently added to the firm’s Caboodle’s Pure Heaven line of bath and shower gels.

October 31, 2001

Flexibles

Pouch replaces Hawaiian Punch box

An unusual, shaped stand-up pouch is now bringing kids the taste of Hawaiian Punch in seven southeast states. Hawaiian Punch is a brand of Cadbury Schweppes plc, packed for Mott’s, Stamford, CT.

October 31, 2001

Closures

Abita tests pasteurizable beer in PET

Abita Brewery next year plans to commercialize beer in a one-way multilayer plastic bottle that’s pasteurizable. Until now, the plastic bottles typically used for beer didn’t have sufficient thermal resistance to withstand pasteurization, so brewers choosing to use plastic have had to rely on some form of cold filtering or flash pasteurization. But the availability of this new tunnel-pasteurizable bottle could make one-way plastic beer bottles a viable option for a lot more brewers. Abita Brewery, based in Abita Springs, LA, is a regional craft brewer.

October 31, 2001

Labels

'Tis the season for apple gum pack

Just in time for the fall season is Amurol Confections’ Caramel Apple Bubble Gum, packaged in a reusable apple-shaped polypropylene cup and a removable acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene lid. A polyvinyl chloride heat-shrink label conforms to the shape of the container, delivering graphics via a modified flexo press.

October 31, 2001

Flexibles

Notable web sites

Application Service Providers: InterchangeDigital (www.interchangedigital.com) offers Satellite™ 1.0 that gives users the power to access, manage, and unite digital assets from anywhere in the world via an Internet Web browser.

October 31, 2001

Flexibles

Canny cosmetics

In a market where impulse purchases rule, Markwins Intl., has raised the visibility of its cosmetics through unique packaging. The City of Industry, CA-based company’s “glam in a can™” cosmetics that were introduced at select mass merchandisers nationwide in August are packaged in transparent 1-gal paint cans.

October 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Harmonizing U.S. and Canada nutrition labels

Health Canada, our northern neighbor’s counterpart to the Food and Drug Administration, has proposed amendments to its regulations governing nutrition labeling, nutrient content claims, and diet-related health claims.

October 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Labeler proves 'berry, berry' good for Fabri-Kal

A new clamshell labeling system increases speed while reducing labor costs and downtime at the Greenville, SC, plant of thermoformer Fabri-Kal.

October 31, 2001