Conveying & accumulation

Six-pack bundles get a handle on water market

In its new bottling line, McKesson Water tries a six-pack concept common in Europe but still new to the U.S. Shrink wrapping and tray-packing also shine.

December 31, 1996

Materials: Page 813

Sustainability

Thinking small pays off big

High-accuracy monobloc filler/dropper tip inserter/capper at CP Packaging handles thin, softwall bottles and lightweight tips at 60/min for 3-mL containers of diagnostic reagents.

December 31, 1996

Sustainability

Plastic beer bottle could be big

Australian brewing giant Carlton United Breweries has high hopes for a barrier beer bottle made of plastic. In the meantime, it's launched a monolayer PET bottle that's causing quite a stir.

December 31, 1996

Flexible packaging

Header labels applied automatically

Three years in the making, a machine that automatically applies header labels to pouches produced on vertical form/fill/seal machines is ready for the packaging marketplace.

December 31, 1996

Converting equipment

Graphics, coex make for noteworthy tube

Colgate-Palmolive Canada is counting on graphics representing a trio of Looney Tunes characters from Space Jam to spark sales of its Colgate Junior brand toothpaste.

December 31, 1996

Converting equipment

AquaPenn bottles Gerber, adds band

Milesburg, PA-based AquaPenn Spring Water Co. signed an agreement with Gerber Products Co., Fremont, MI, that gives AquaPenn the rights to fill 1.5-L of Gerber® Baby Water into clear polyethylene terephthalate bottles.

December 31, 1996

Flexibles

Supplier news: International agreements

DuPont Packaging and Industrial Polymers (Wilmington, DE) will invest more than $15 million at its DuPont Packaging France S.A. shrink film production facility in Le Trait, France.

December 31, 1996

Additives, coatings & inks

Supplier news: International agreements

The Specialty Chemical Additives Div. of Ciba Additives (Tarrytown, NY) and the Industrial and Agricultural Products Div. of Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc.

December 31, 1996

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Shrink label gives this mule a kick

From Russia by way of the U.K. comes a vodka-based drink called the Smirnoff Mule in a glass bottle with a label that's nearly as exotic as the beverage itself.

December 31, 1996

Flexibles

Patent infringement suit judgment expected soon

As Packaging World goes to press, a U.S. Federal District Court judge in Chicago had yet to make a final decision concerning the dollar amount awarded to Viskase (Bedford Park, IL).

December 31, 1996

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

CR packages: another bone of contention

Among the packaging regulatory battlegrounds between Europeans and Americans is child resistant packaging. It is covered by ISO 8317, which is considerably weaker than the law established here by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

December 31, 1996

Sustainability

COPE, CONEG unit, PET recycler to close

At a Pack Expo eye-opener briefing in Chicago, analyst Tim Burns of Cranial Capital (Chagrin Falls, OH) opined that anti-packaging forces stirred up by "environmental hooligans" were now in retreat.

December 31, 1996

Containers

Recycling programs

Return Logistics (Elmhurst, IL) offers recycling programs for industrial packagers aimed at increasing the number of steel drums that are returned to the proper recycling facilities.

November 30, 1996