Filling/capping, dry

Glaxo Wellcome counts its savings

An electronic tablet counter/filler for clinical trial drugs provides 15-min changeover, regardless of tablet size or shape.

August 31, 1996

Materials: Page 825

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Bass wraps up market flexibility

A highly flexible multipacker wraps 4-, 6- and 10-count bottles in paperboard to help Bass meet demands of disparate retail markets at home and abroad. Automatic servo-driven dimensional changeover takes 15 seconds.

August 31, 1996

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

Now beverage cans will open wide-- really, really wide

Suddenly, it seems, U.S. brewers are looking to change one of the most popular and endearing features of their cans--the easy-opening features. Last month (See PW, August '96, page 8), we reported on the conversion by Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI, from its standard, easy-opening stay-on tab (SOT) end to a large opening end (LOE) developed for Miller by Reynolds Metals Co.

August 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Robotics automate portion packing

Robotic packing cell case-packs delicate portion cups at speeds of 500 cups/min. Integrated system incorporates a stand-alone case erector and automatic tier sheet placer.

August 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Sugar producer sweetens bundling methods

When Savannah Foods switched from a paper bundler to a shrink film bundler for 4- and 5-lb retail bags, downtime was reduced sharply. Costs are down, too.

August 31, 1996

Sustainability

Packagers gain price cuts for recycled materials

Buyers of recycled plastics are seeing easing of prices, except for HDPE. Recycled paper prices have precipitously dropped as European economies stagnate.

August 31, 1996

Closures

Gas cylinder regs take attention from oxygen generators

Oxygen cylinders grabbed attention after the ValuJet crash. Now hazardous materials packed in gas cylinders are generating plenty of attention at federal agencies.

August 31, 1996

Flexibles

Resin marketers announce metallocene ventures

The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, MI) and BP Chemicals (Cleveland, OH) last month announced an alliance to develop and make available for licensing a combination of BP's Innovene+ gas-phase polyethylene process and Dow's Insite(TM) catalyst technology.

August 31, 1996

Flexibles

Toothpaste in a pouch

Thanks to their minimal environmental impact compared to rigid containers, flexible pouches have made steady inroads in one product category after another.

August 31, 1996

Closures

Supplier news: Relocations, expansions

Rexam Closures (Evansville, IN) has created a new business unit dedicated to supplying container and closure systems to the healthcare market.

August 31, 1996

Additives, coatings & inks

Supplier news: Achievements

ISO 9001 registration: ReedSpectrum's (Holden, MA) Albion, MI, and Minneapolis, MN, design and R&D facilities for making plastic color and additive concentrates; Watlow Controls (Winona, MN); Great Plains Packaging's (Hastings, NE) folding carton plant; Fletcher Corp.'s (Alpena, MI) paper plant; Alvey (St.

August 31, 1996

Coding, Printing & Labeling

New grips and a Clear Choice Award

Neither a sports drink nor an iced tea, Talking Rain Beverage Co.'s new Ice(TM) Flavored Water began appearing on store shelves this June in a custom-designed 24-oz bottle known as "The Grip." "It took two years to design this bottle," says John Stevens, founder of the Preston, WA-based company.

August 31, 1996

Containers

Supplier news: Achievements

ISO 9002 registration: ITW Angleboard's (Glenview, IL) Loveland, OH, plant; Jefferson Smurfit's (St. Louis, MO) Corona, CA, Boston, MA, and Shelby, NC, container plants, as well as its Ft.

August 31, 1996