Filling/capping, liquid & viscous

Single line pours out many SKUs with new options

One packaging line plus 10 different containers equals 60 SKUs, thanks to new end-of-the-line bundling and tray-pack equipment and film.

July 31, 2001

Multipacking: Page 32

Secondary Packaging

Axxis Intl.: Tray packing and shrink wrapping

At this contract packager of personal care products, bottles are collated in the appropriate pattern so that a pick-and-place head on the Cermex pick-and-place packer can close on them and lift them into a waiting tray. A short distance later, shrink wrapping (from EDL Packaging Engineers) secures the bottles in their trays.

June 30, 2001

Secondary Packaging

Catering to convenience (sidebar)

Other winners

May 31, 2001

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Nabisco wins with inserter

Thanks in part to an inserter from Unique Solutions (Lake Zurich, IL), lucky Nabisco consumers nationwide will find a winning game piece at the bottom of their Planters’ Cheeze Mania canisters.

May 31, 2001

Cartoning

Sliced apples stay fresh for 36 days

Reichel Foods has moved from nacho chips and dip to luncheon meat to PBJ ‘Snax’ to carrots to celery, all in thermoformed trays. Now comes sliced apples with a 36-day refrigerated shelf life.

April 30, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Downtime shrinks with new wrappers

When Georgia-Pacific needed to speed up wrapping rates for its 9” Dixie paper plates, management picked servo-driven, side-seal shrink wrappers that maintain high speed and tight registration.

April 30, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Six-sided wrapping speeds Spencer

Two new stretch wrappers that run in sequence on the same line greatly increase speed and output while eliminating labor costs to band pallets of mail-order catalogs printed by Spencer Press.

April 30, 2001

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

Hot-stamp imprinter

Marking a 1 7/8”x1 7/8” area at speeds to 250 cycles/min, the CodeRunner hot-stamp imprinter from Norwood (Downers Grove, IL) mounts easily onto continous-motion overwrapping machines, labelers, and f/f/s systems.

March 31, 2001

Secondary Packaging

Splenda's sweet on carton design

In November, McNeil Specialty Products introduced at retail a no-calorie sweetener called Splenda, a granular product packed into folding cartons containing either 1.9 or 3.8 oz, which it says offers the “sweetness equivalent” of 1- or 2-lb of sugar for baking or cooking.

March 31, 2001

Secondary Packaging

Technical prowess, flexible style

Two improved package materials, one for cup lidding, one for microwave wrapping, secured Technical Innovation awards in the Flexible Packaging Assn. competition. Printing and Environmental Achievement awards also went to new technologies.

March 31, 2001

Secondary Packaging

Diners find film packs ideal for every meal course

From soups and salads to poultry, foods of all types become winners at the market—and in the 2000 Flexible Packaging Assn. competition.

March 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

No-strings-attached tea bag

Honest Tea, Bethesda, MD, launched a whole-leaf, natural tea line in fall 2000, sealed in what it calls a first-of-its-kind integral "Tag-and-Bag" supplied by Copack Intl. (Carlstadt, NJ). This nonwoven, filter tea bag and tag replaces the standard string, staple and printed tag. A four-side, sealed kraft overwrap pouch locks in the freshness.

January 31, 2001

Secondary Packaging

Club stores applaud multipack

When club store managers told Del Monte Foods that they wanted canned fruits and vegetables in multipacks more elegant than the ring carrier arrangement they’d been receiving, Del Monte responded.

January 31, 2001