Operational Excellence

'Oven Box' design delights Thelma's Treats

Company bakes homemade cookies fresh to order, delivering them in a keepsake folding carton that resembles and opens like an old-fashioned oven.

January 16, 2014

Leaders (UNIVERSAL TAXONOMY PW): Page 823

Flexibles

Pocket Shot hunts for pouch sealing solution

Ultrasonic sealing virtually eliminates leakers attributable to a previous hot-seal/cold-seal approach.

January 16, 2014

Secondary Packaging

Eighteen robotic palletizers ensure quality at tobacco company

Lorillard Tobacco Co. installs 18 robotic palletizers to speed the in-house identification of nonconforming product and enable product tracking for 40 billion cigarettes/yr.

January 16, 2014

Contract packaging

Shapely new Domino Sugar bottle is a first

Domino Foods introduces a ‘table-worthy’ bottle, with a graceful, carafe-like shape and easy-dispense closure for two varieties of its Domino Sugar and C&H Sugar brands.

January 16, 2014

Filling/capping, liquid & viscous

Hirzel doubles down on aseptics

This fourth-generation Ohio marketer of tomato products believes there is a certain segment of U.S. consumers who want a package format other than a can.

January 16, 2014

Secondary Packaging

Secondary packaging done offline at Carlsberg

Carlsberg Germany creates offline center for secondary packaging of nonstandard packaging formats, replacing manual packing and increasing output to 14,400 bottles/hr.

January 16, 2014

Contract packaging

New plant feeds growing Greek yogurt trend

A new plant for Alpina Foods produces primarily Greek yogurt, with a capacity of 39,000 cups/hr, offering capacity for the company’s own brand as well as co-packed products.

January 16, 2014

Contract packaging

HPP extends shelf life of fresh dips

Because it ‘busts up the bacteria’ with minimal loss of flavor or nutritional value, High Pressure Processing made it possible for these hummus and lentil dips to go nationwide.

January 16, 2014

Contract packaging

Two-count blister packs for ‘smart pills’

Tucson-based Brainiac Supplements LLC wanted to market its Study Buddy nutrient-based study aid capsules in high-impact packaging.

January 15, 2014

Controls & Machine Components

B&R: Hollow shaft angular gearbox

Designed for flange sizes 60 to 142 mm, B&R’s 8GA75 premium-grade angular planetary gearbox features a hollow shaft, making it possible to feed cables, fluid lines, and material strands through the drive axis.

January 15, 2014

Controls & Machine Components

Bodine: Low-voltage, right-angle gearmotors

Bodine’s line of INTEGRAmotor high-performance right-angle gearmotors now includes 34B4/FV-5N gearmotors which combine Bodine’s 34B brushless DC motor with a compact right-angle gearhead, a built-in PWM speed control, and an optical encoder.

January 15, 2014

Sustainable Packaging

Greener Package Top 10 countdown

The 10 most-read stories on the Greener Package website in 2013 point to readers’ wide-ranging interests, from new packaging materials and formats to topics such as resource conservation.

January 14, 2014

Conveying & accumulation

Craft brewer automates to grow

From an overhead depalletizer that handles both cans and bottles to a robotic case packer that greatly reduces the risk of broken bottles, new capabilities at Troegs are impressive.

January 14, 2014