Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

Light shines on carded blister

Netherlands-based Philips Lighting Co. packages its Marathon brand of nonincandescent household bulbs to the American market in a carded pack that contains a recycled, amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (APET) blister set in an outer card. Changing from solid unbleached sulfate board to recycled board helped make an ecologically friendly, cost-saving package.

January 31, 2001

Materials: Page 699

Flexibles

International agreements

WCM-Beteiligungs und Grundbesitz AG (Frankfurt, Germany) has acquired 40% of the outstanding shares of Klöckner-Werke AG (Duisburg, Germany).

January 31, 2001

Blisters/clamshells/thermoforming materials

Relocations, expansions

Captive Plastics (Piscataway, NJ) has added a controlled-environment production area to its Phillipsburg, NJ, facility. —Dow Performance Foams (Midland, MI) has announced the plans for a new production line to be added to each of its mfg.

January 31, 2001

Closures

Dialing into new packaging

Variotec Innovative Packaging Systems (Kaufbeuren, Germany) has launched a new dispensing concept called Dialpack. First used in Germany in 1999 for Variotec’s own Variosun brand sunscreen, the Dialpack system allows consumers to select their preferred level of SPF protection between every application. A dial on the front panel of the polypropylene “bottle” can be adjusted to meet specific sunscreen needs.

January 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

New double-bag system in Japan

An unusual double-bag system is being used for delivery of liquid for enteral nutrition in various Japanese hospitals. The system includes an aseptically filled inner Elopouch® bag, the kind often used for UHT milks.

January 31, 2001

Converting equipment

Can packagers maintain productivity improvements?

As we progress into the new year, nervousness about the economy abounds. And it’s coming from a lot of fronts, including people in the packaging business.

January 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Something fishy about HACCP

FDA and USDA plan to re-examine seafood and meat inspection programs, and to consider possible tightening of regulations.

January 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

SeaShell drives away damage (sidebar)

Seagate serves two customer ‘streams’

January 31, 2001

Protective/transport packaging

SeaShell drives away damage

Disk drive manufacturer Seagate reduces damage by 60% and saves more than $4 million per year in freight and materials costs by switching to a thermoformed ‘SeaShell’ clamshell.

January 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Correctional facility bars wasted food, materials

A specially developed film applied to reusable trays on a heat-shrink machine helps the Milwaukee County House of Correction provide inmates with a tamper-evident package that reduces wasted food and packaging materials.

January 31, 2001

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

Fresh pasta maker romances long shelf life (sidebar)

Serving sauce for Sargento

January 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

Fresh pasta maker romances long shelf life

Romance Foods pasteurizes its cooked, packaged pastas using a combination microwave/convection oven to achieve 75-day refrigerated shelf life.

January 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

New look for oyster packs

Induction-sealing is a key element in Minterbrook’s redesigned oyster package. Shelf life is extended, tamper evidence improved, and costs cut.

January 31, 2001