Coding, Printing & Labeling

Merit re-tools for a global marketplace

This medical device maker says goodbye to extra labels and replaces them with on-line, thermal-transfer printing on lidding material. Print now includes important symbols required by customers overseas.

August 31, 2000

Sustainable Packaging: Page 570

Flexibles

Growth accelerates in flexible materials

Volume of flexible packaging materials continues to outpace growth in both the overall economy and for all of packaging. FPA report does identify some potential problems, however.

August 31, 2000

Closures

Miller unveils plastic cap

As television ads touting its plastic beer bottle begin to appear with some frequency, Miller has completed its development of an injection-molded plastic closure that replaces ROPP aluminum. Easier-to-recycle package is spotted in Chicago.

July 31, 2000

Protective/transport packaging

HP cushions for B2C sales

Hewlett-Packard Corp., Palo Alto, CA, is using a new grade of Arcel® moldable foam from Nova Chemicals (Pittsburgh, PA) for protective cushioning for LaserJet™ Model 4050 printers distributed worldwide.

July 31, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Portable, vendable canisters

Snax-Pak™ canisters from Sonoco, (Hartsville, SC) are designed to package all types of snack products, as well as wrapped and loose candy. The 211x414 canisters can be sold as multipacks or stand-alone packages in vending machines or convenience stores.

July 31, 2000

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Achievements

Tesa Tape (Charlotte, NC) was awarded the Mayor’s Intl. Community Award for 2000, a tribute to foreign-owned firms that have made significant contributions to the city’s nonprofit sector.

July 31, 2000

Closures

Aluminum bottle wows Cannex

At Cannex 2000 in Brisbane, Australia, in May, The Canmaker magazine announced the results of its Cans of the Year 2000 competition. The overall winner was the “bottle can,” a reclosable two-piece aluminum bottle developed by Daiwa Can (Tokyo, Japan).

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Radius brushes away excess costs

Shrink sleeve bundling system enables Radius to unitize plastic cases of its unusual toothbrushes in film sleeves rather than the more costly folding cartons it had used.

July 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

HDPE totes fit Pep Boys

Reusable HDPE totes in two heights with one footprint improve cube efficiency on pallets and lower damage at a Pep Boys distribution center.

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

Sustainability

Keeping up with the competition

Icco Cheese Co. of Orangeburg, NY, makes grated cheese for sale under its Old World brand, and it also packs the Ronzoni and San Georgio brands for New World Pasta of Harrisburg, PA.

June 30, 2000

Flexibles

Pudding in paperboard

In the U.S., ready-to-eat refrigerated pudding is often sold in multipacked plastic cups with flexible lidding. But in Helsinki, Finland, dairy giant Valio Ltd.

June 30, 2000

Coding, Printing & Labeling

The legend of Jimmi; an ode to cosmetics

Last month in this space, you learned a bit about how some of us view package design, another way of saying, the “cosmetics” of packaging: how great printing or decorating of a container can attract customers.

June 30, 2000