Flexibles

A 'cool' data-logging sensor

An economical and compact temperature-tracking device has been field tested by Cool Dog Inc., Shirley, MA, for sample boxes of its frozen, individually wrapped hot-dog-and-bun-shaped ice cream novelties.

June 30, 2005

Sustainable Packaging: Page 530

Coding, Printing & Labeling

IBM's RFID man in Europe

Thierry Mottaz, IBM’s Integrated Supply Chain quality and customer support manager, server engineering, is leading a team developing an in-house RFID track-and-trace solution in Europe.

June 30, 2005

Sustainable Packaging

Status of packaging education

Packaging education, and especially its role in industry, was the topic under discussion at a recent packaging meeting. A packaging designer reported that “packaging design is not popular” among students these days.

June 30, 2005

Flexible packaging

Trends in pharma validation

What do pharmaceutical companies need from technology providers and packaging machinery OEMs to make FDA validation run more smoothly?

June 30, 2005

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Carb loading

The Food and Drug Administration is set to bring some order to a ‘Wild West’ array of label claims about carbohydrates on food packs.

June 30, 2005

Labels

IFCO's asset tracking produces results

A digital-based color wheel track-and-trace technology for IFCO’s RPCs brings ‘tremendous’ benefits.

June 30, 2005

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

Building flexibility into a machine's DNA

A key goal of the Make2Pack initiative—a joint effort by the World Batch Forum and the OMAC Packaging Workgroup aimed at better integrating the processing and packaging functions in manufacturing—is to get people to approach packaging machinery programming in terms of modular code or function blocks that can be reused and reimplemented.

May 31, 2005

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Our road to RFID

My personal journey reflects views and visions on how supply chain inefficiencies can be changed through RFID.

May 31, 2005

Containers

Natrasorb® 900 moisture adsorber

NatraSorb 900 MoldedNatrasorb® 900 offers a moisture adsorber and a structural part in one and can replace product components such as:* Metal or plastic parts* Ballasts* Insulators* Shock pads and more Natrasorb 900 offers several distinct advantages for your packaging:* Extremely versatile composition has high moisture-adsorptive qualities, yet has good strength* Can be machined like nylon or aluminum* Ideal solution where restricted space or weight limits are an important design criteria* One or more structural parts may be made of Natrasorb 900, providing the needed adsorptive capacity without adding to the bulk weight of the product, component, or assembly Typical applications include:* Electronics* Refrigeration* Optics* Aerospace Controlled Adsorption RateNatrasorb 900 is an activated crystalline silico-aluminate with organic binders which gives the finished desiccant properties similar to those of thermoset plastics.

May 31, 2005

Sustainable Packaging

Marketing to Brand China

“Made in China” appears on virtually everything we buy these days, from underwear to vacuum cleaners to heavy-duty machinery.

May 31, 2005

Coding, Printing & Labeling

IBM's RFID RPCs

RFID-enabled reusable plastic containers (RPCs) will be used to shore up the 1귔-mile supply chain between IBM’s Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) operations in Montpellier, France, and Dublin, Ireland.

May 31, 2005

Coding, Printing & Labeling

California coalition targets packaging labeling

The California Packaging Alliance is opposing a bill introduced in the California State Assembly that would require a blanket, statewide label on packaging to distinguish between what is “recyclable,” “compostable,” and “trash.”

May 31, 2005

Flexible packaging

Filling and retorting (sidebar)

Upstream from the robotic case packing and palletizing operation at Fresenius, pouches are filled and sent through a retort operation. As might be expected, the systems involved are every bit as sophisticated as those responsible for secondary packaging.

May 31, 2005