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

New press focuses on flexibility

Converter Graphic Packaging's Franklin, OH, plant is the first in the U.S. to use a new press that can print flexible packaging by gravure and flexography, and dry-bond laminate and apply cold-seal or hot melt wax-coat in-line. Kroger's coffee bags represent the first commercial application.

July 31, 1996

Materials: Page 831

Conveying & accumulation

Premier Plastics grows PET bottle business

California blow molder is among the first in the U.S. to use a 24-cavity injection/stretch blow-molding machine that increases 1/2-liter PET bottle output by at least 40 million per year.

July 31, 1996

Additives, coatings & inks

Supplier news: Appointments, promotions

Chevron Chemical (Houston, TX): Ed J. Ueckert, national sales mgr., PE Molding Resins.

July 31, 1996

Additives, coatings & inks

Supplier news: Domestic acquisitions, agreements

NOVA Corp. (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) plans to purchase ARCO Chemical's (Newtown Square, PA) plastics business, including DYLITE® EPS and DYLARK® engineering resins product lines.

July 31, 1996

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

Delivery system for coding/marking

Algene's (Garfield, NJ) TR 9632 delivery system can be fitted onto most manufacturers' ink-jet printers and labelers, says the company. It uses an automatic feed hopper and a registration mechanism to provide accurate feeding of flat objects such as blister cards and folding cartons, at speeds to 120 pieces/min.

July 31, 1996

Converting equipment

Modular molds add flexibility to bottle molding

Unique system makes it easier for packagers to have custom bottles injection/ blow molded even when the number of bottles needed is relatively low.

July 31, 1996

Protective/transport packaging

HP puts packaging parts on fast track

A rapid prototyping process for developing EPS foam end caps helps Hewlett-Packard meet ongoing new model introductions for its popular DeskJet printers. Moving from initial CAD drawing to final molded parts can be done in four days.

July 31, 1996

Flexible packaging

New equipment revitalizes Amway packaging line

Filling speeds more than doubled and still continue to improve as Amway moves into full production with its new liquid filling line for men's and women's cosmetics.

July 31, 1996

Sustainability

No-label look hits PET bottles

For 17 years The Body Shop's hair, bath and fragrance products have been filled in HDPE bottles. Now PET is taking over, along with a disc-style closure and a no-label look.

July 31, 1996

Flexibles

New thermoform makes tuna salad easier

After a '90s makeover, Charlie the StarKist Tuna resurfaces on packages of a new product, Ready Mixed Tuna Salad & Crackers. The product is a more convenient form of the Lunch Kit that StarKist Seafoods, Newport, KY, has been marketing for about four years.

July 31, 1996

Closures

Inverted margarine squeezes easy

Van den Bergh Foods, Lisle, IL, has introduced a truly user-friendly container for its Country Crock® and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter® squeezable margarine products.

July 31, 1996

Sustainability

Delaney nearing revision

The longstanding battle to reform the decades-old Delaney Clause, which prohibits the use of any carcinogenic additive in processed food, is moving forward in Congress.

July 31, 1996

Containers

Shrink graphics fire up hot sauce sales

Bold shrink band graphics that simulate molten lava erupting from 5 oz glass bottles of Little Freddy's Hot Lava hot sauce have spurred product sales by 15 to 20%.

July 31, 1996