Secondary Packaging

Camel 'keg' at 7-Eleven

In February, R.J. Reynolds began selling at 7-Eleven stores nationwide 40- and 60-count Camel and Camel Lights in the 'Camel Keg': a steel tin with a snap-fit lid and bright graphics.

July 31, 2000

Materials: Page 715

Labels

Special label has DNA 'alcopop' aglow

Wet Plant Beverages' DNA in 12-oz bottles features a no-label look and a back label with a neon green thumbprint that phosphoresces in blacklight.

July 31, 2000

Flexibles

Mead products use gravure printed film

The latest additions to Mead Johnson Nutritional’s Viactiv® nutrition supplement line are Spritzers in 8-oz glass and Energy Fruit Smoothies in 8-oz aluminum cans.

July 31, 2000

Closures

Aluminum bottle wows Cannex

At Cannex 2000 in Brisbane, Australia, in May, The Canmaker magazine announced the results of its Cans of the Year 2000 competition. The overall winner was the “bottle can,” a reclosable two-piece aluminum bottle developed by Daiwa Can (Tokyo, Japan).

July 31, 2000

Protective/transport packaging

Supplier sites: The pain and the promise (sidebar)

Capsule reviews

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Radius brushes away excess costs

Shrink sleeve bundling system enables Radius to unitize plastic cases of its unusual toothbrushes in film sleeves rather than the more costly folding cartons it had used.

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Capsule-counting tech comes to NAI

New equipment at this California contract packager includes a tablet/capsule line with the latest in tablet-counting technology. On-line thermal-transfer coding shines, too.

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

HDPE totes fit Pep Boys

Reusable HDPE totes in two heights with one footprint improve cube efficiency on pallets and lower damage at a Pep Boys distribution center.

July 31, 2000

Containers

Mission impossible?

Congress is trying to forge an agreement between branded product marketers and product diverting companies for packaging codes that help in product recalls.

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Government funds casing upgrade at Boyd Coffee

With R&D funding from Oregon’s OSHA, Boyd Coffee develops a custom case packer that addresses repetitive motion injuries attributable to manual packing. Machine also reduces giveaway.

July 31, 2000

Sustainability

Pitney Bowes totes reusable plastic containers

Corrugated plastic containers replace corrugated paperboard boxes for postage meter and mailing machine parts. Despite greater upfront costs, the new ‘totes’ save Pitney Bowes money by making hundreds of round trips.

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Portland nixes reshippers

Portland Brewing cuts costs and gains flexibility by moving away from reshippers and into bulk glass. It now forms its own six-pack carriers and corrugated shippers.

July 31, 2000

Flexibles

Stonyfield 'squeezes' yogurt

This month, Stonyfield Farm launches 2-oz tubes of Yo Squeeze™, an all-natural, portable lowfat yogurt, to compete with General Mills’ highly successful Go-Gurt™ yogurt.

June 30, 2000