Flexible packaging

No-strings-attached tea bag

Honest Tea, Bethesda, MD, launched a whole-leaf, natural tea line in fall 2000, sealed in what it calls a first-of-its-kind integral "Tag-and-Bag" supplied by Copack Intl. (Carlstadt, NJ). This nonwoven, filter tea bag and tag replaces the standard string, staple and printed tag. A four-side, sealed kraft overwrap pouch locks in the freshness.

January 31, 2001

Materials: Page 702

Additives, coatings & inks

Connector spout for soft drinks

Plano, TX-based Dr Pepper/Seven Up was instrumental in the development of a new connector spout on syrup bags. Designed for soft drink dispensing systems, the spout could make life a lot easier for bottlers and foodservice institutions across the country.

January 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

Pack gains Annie's approval

Annie’s® Homegrown Inc. in September introduced Microwavable Single Servings Mac & Cheese Meals in a “dual pouch” that holds organically grown macaroni in one pouch and powdered cheese sauce in a second, smaller pouch.

January 31, 2001

Flexibles

No beef with new packaging

RMH Foods’ precooked beef products were so good they won two top awards in last year’s competition held by Cattlemen’s Beef Board. However, the Morton, IL-based company didn’t feel the packaging was doing an equally good job of winning consumers.

January 31, 2001

Closures

Prize figures are 'capped'

São Paulo, Brazil-based bottler Ambev takes the winning-cap promo concept to a new level. The company’s 237-mL (7.9-oz) Antarctica-brand guarana beverage bottles have a Pokémon™ figure onboard, contained within the patented, hollow Cap Container from Cap Design Intl.

January 31, 2001

Blisters/clamshells/thermoforming materials

All-purpose medical pack

An award-winning thermoform package for Becton Dickinson’s surgical scalpel serves as a sterile barrier, a protective shipper, a sterile transfer tray from preparation to operating rooms and a point-of-use product dispenser. A blue-tint PETG outer tray, HIPS inner tray and a Tyvek lid replace an injection-molded box and foam insert.

January 31, 2001

Flexibles

E-Marketplace as Resin Price Barometer

“The PE resin market is so volatile, it trends up for a while and then the cycle goes down,” says Protective Lining’s Steve Howard.

January 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Specialized Sourcing Made Quick and Easy

Gift wholesaler and manufacturer K & Co., Parkville, MO, learned of PackagingFinder.com (www.packagingfinder.com) in August 2000 through Microsoft Network’s search engine (www.msn.com).

January 31, 2001

Secondary Packaging

E-commerce-enabled Suppliers

Impaxx (www.impaxx.com), which owns several companies that supply packaging materials and labeling equipment, permits customers to access online proofing, order status and inventory management information.

January 31, 2001

Protective/transport packaging

Crafty Buyer Saves 20% on PE Bags Online

When it was time to find a supplier of protective packaging for its decorative aluminum products, Mount Joy, PA-based PA Metal Crafts went straight to the Internet.

January 31, 2001

Protective/transport packaging

New package development: When collaboration is king

Twelve collaborators. Four time zones. Two countries. One Web site. The story of how 3Com used the Web to develop packaging for its new Internet appliance.

January 31, 2001

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

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