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

Superior Dairy: Blow molding of plastic milk bottles

At this Ohio dairy manufacturer, one floor above the filling line, HDPE bottles are blown and flash is trimmed. Then bottles are transported through a pneumatic tube to a bagging machine.

May 31, 2002

Leaders (UNIVERSAL TAXONOMY PW): Page 1613

Filling/capping, liquid & viscous

Superior Dairy: Filling/capping for dairy products

Superior's 16-valve electronic weigh filler and eight-head capper are enclosed in a HEPA-filtered room.

May 31, 2002

Secondary Packaging

Superior Dairy: Stretch bundling of diary products

On Line Two, counter-rotating roll carriers on this stretch bundler stretch the film 150% as bundling is completed

May 31, 2002

Secondary Packaging

Superior Dairy: Robotic palletizing

The end effector on the robotic palletizer lifts and places slip sheets as well as layers of bottles.

May 31, 2002

Flexibles

DuPont to sell Clysar® to Bemis

DuPont agreed to sell its Clysar® shrink film business to the Bemis Co., Inc.

May 31, 2002

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Temporary relief for OTC convenience packs

FDA postpones May deadline for putting Drug Facts label on convenience-size OTC packages.

May 31, 2002

Controls & Machine Components

Hoffman: I/O enclosures

Hoffman (Anoka, MN) has added 10 new enclosure modules for I/O devices to its Inline® Instrumentation Enclosure Series. Full-length mounting brackets welded to the top and bottom of the enclosure provide flexible mounting.

May 31, 2002

Controls & Machine Components

Oriental Motor USA: Brushless DC speed control

AXN Series brushless DC speed control system from Oriental Motor USA (Torrance, CA) develops 125 watts of motor shaft power. The drive and controller are housed in NEMA 4 enclosure.

May 31, 2002

Controls & Machine Components

Rockwell Automation: Rockwell Automation: Integrated motion control

In response to packaging OEM and end-user demands for integrated motion control, the Allen-Bradley Kinetix™6000 servo drive from Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee, WI) is designed to make wiring, programming, operation, and diagnostics faster and easier.

May 31, 2002

Secondary Packaging

PBI-Dansensor Americ: Networked analyzer

PBI-Dansensor’s (Ringsted, Denmark) in-line oxygen and O2-carbon dioxide gas analyzer has built-in wireless networking capability. Designed for gas or vacuum modified atmosphere thermoforming and tray sealing machines, the unit allows troubleshooting and data transfer via “Blue Tooth”—a wireless networking standard—or standard LAN connections.

May 31, 2002

Controls & Machine Components

OMAC gains in Europe

OMAC (Open Modular Architecture Controls) Packaging Workgroup, which is trying to simplify the development, installation, and operation of packaging equipment, reported significant progress at its April meeting at interpack 2002 in Germany.

May 31, 2002

Containers

Medical transport packaging

Medicor® is a packaging system for the safe transport of diagnostic and infectious medical samples. It’s offered by Sonoco Absorbent Technologies, a joint venture between Sonoco (Hartsville, SC) and England’s Dyecor Ltd.

May 31, 2002

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Food labeling scandal rocks Japan

A series of food scandals, many of which involved misbranded or mislabeled products, has shaken the confidence of Japanese consumers.

May 31, 2002