Encyclopedia updates packaging technology

Packaging technology in all of its manifestations has more than shifted; it has radically changed." This observation comes from Drs. Aaron Brody and Kenneth Marsh, editors of the second edition of the Wiley Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology. Published by John Wiley & Sons (New York, NY), this version follows ten years after the first edition. Spanning more than 1ꯠ pages, the hard-cover reference book covers packaging technologies ranging from acrylic plastics to wrapping machinery. Included are more than 250 articles written by field experts. The subjects for these articles appear in alphabetical order. This edition is nearly a third larger than the earlier one. The reference book contains an appendix listing conversion factors, abbreviations and unit symbols. Another appendix serves as a glossary of packaging terminology and definitions. An alphabetical index completes the publication. "During these 10 years," the editors write in the introduction, "we've been apprised by environmentalists of the impact of packaging in the environment; influenced by economics which dictate low, low and lower; driven by dramatic alterations in the distribution structure for consumer and industrial goods which alter the manner of protection and communication to be offered by packaging; hit by the new computer-controlled and managed engineeringo/oo. "We operate on a small planet where a development in Japan is known in Germany in the morning and is being reengineered in North America by the afternoon," say Brody and Marsh.