Secondary Packaging

Foam, glorious foam!

Molded foam end caps with a living hinge improve protection, increase warehouse space and reduce shipping costs for Hughes, a telecommunications satellite equipment manufacturer.

July 31, 2000

Leaders (UNIVERSAL TAXONOMY PW): Page 1699

Secondary Packaging

Government funds casing upgrade at Boyd Coffee (sidebar)

Ergonomics: Oregon’s hands-on, proactive approach

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

Controls & Machine Components

Tops Engineering Corporation: Software update

New features and enhancements are included in TOPS Pro 4.00, the latest version of the packaging design and palletization software available from Tops Eng.

June 30, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Rockwell Automation: Rockwell Automation: AC motors

Rockwell Automation (Greenville, SC) has released a brochure on the Reliance Electric washdown duty AC motors for severe wet and corrosive environments.

June 30, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Balluff: Packaging sensors

Balluff (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) has released a brochure highlighting various sensors in the company’s PackPRO packaging sensors program. The program was designed for full automation and includes optoelectrics for presence, color mark and luminescence detection; Micropulse® noncontact magnetostrictive linear position transducers; noncontact Power remote systems; limit switches and many more.

June 30, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Rollstock, Inc: Rollstock, Inc: Yield/cost calculations

Witt Plastics (Greenville, OH) has taken the yield/cost calculator function from its Web site and placed it on a CD-ROM titled “The Witt Yield Advantage.” The tool allows users of plastic sheet and rollstock to calculate cost, yield, size and weight of the product.

June 30, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Sonics & Materials: Hand-held welding sealer

Compact and rugged, Model H-520 from Sonics & Materials (Newtown, CT) is a 500W, 20kHz hand-held welder designed for spot welding and reaching difficult areas.

June 30, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Better Packages: Reinforced tape dispenser

Model 555e is patented in form and function, says maker Better Packages (Shelton, CT), for dispensing reinforced gummed tape. Microprocessor-based control system monitors tape use, productivity and maintenance.

June 30, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Hot-melt tank

New Valet hot-melt tank from Valco Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) is a full-featured tank for light-duty applications. Has 8-lb capacity and 8-lb/hr melt rate with motor-driven gear pump and Teflon®-coated reservoir.

June 30, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

George Gordon Assoc., Inc: Pen dispenser

George Gordon’s (Merrimack, NH) HSPE-338 dispenser groups pens and other cylindrical products—with or without clips or uniform cap orientation—and advances them downstream.

June 30, 2000