Trends: Page 660

Controls & machine components

Showtime in Vegas once again

Pack Expo Las Vegas, now in its fourth edition, runs Sept. 10-12 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. The Packaging Solutions Conference 2001 and co-located IEFP add to the excitement.

July 31, 2001

Contract Packaging

Mixed forecast for equipment purchases

Pharmaceutical, paper, and food segments will likely increase packaging machinery spending this year. But overall, a PMMI survey says U.S. domestic equipment sales will equal last year’s $4.9 billion.

July 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Case coders sparkle at Blue Diamond

New equipment delivers three lines of type for bulk boxes of nuts. The case coders reduce labor costs, downtime, and ink loss associated with previous units.

July 31, 2001

Secondary Packaging

Tech-Con Automation, Inc: Palletizer data sheet

Data sheet from Tech-Con Automation (Burlington, Ontario, Canada) describes robotic palletizer/depalletizer. Available in linear and gantry designs, unit is suited to handle plastic and corrugated containers.

July 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Rock-Tenn Company: Paperboard making

Rock-Tenn’s (Norcross, GA) MillMask™ System prevents oil, fat, or grease from staining the printed claycoated paperboard surface for folding cartons and other paper-based packaging.

July 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

TechnaSeal: Automated control system

The Series V automated control system on all lines of pneumatically powered thermal impulse heat sealers from TechnaSeal (Livermore, CA) is designed to increase safety, operating efficiency, and control/validation.

July 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Dover Flexo Electronics: Dover Flexo Electronics: Integrated interface/amplifier

Dover Flexo Electronics (Rochester, NY) has released a special option for idler-roll tension transducer pairs: an integrated interface/amplifier that outputs a 10 v DC signal proportional to tension.

July 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Clippard Instrument Laboratory, Inc: Clippard Instrument Laboratory, Inc: Spherical rod ends

Clippard Instrument Laboratory (Cincinnati, OH) announces the addition of spherical rod ends to its line of accessories for stainless-steel cylinders.

July 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

OMAC Meeting at Pack Expo

The OMAC Motion for Packaging working group will meet at Pack Expo Las Vegas. The group’s subcommittees are expected to issue initial position statements declaring packaging-specific open architecture requirements for motion control programming languages, commmunications networks and machine states.

July 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

FDA on vitamin health claims

FDA settled a lawsuit by reaching an agreement on a health claim for B vitamins and vascular disease. The agency will allow the following health claim on labels of dietary supplements containing folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12: “As part of a well-balanced diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol, folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 may reduce the risk of vascular disease.*” But the claim must be immediately followed by the following sentence in the same size, type face, and contrast as the first sentence: “*FDA evaluated the above claim and found that, while it is known that diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol reduce the risk of heart disease and other vascular diseases, the evidence in support of the above claim is inconclusive.” FDA disallowed health claims relating antioxidant vitamins (vitamin C and vitamin E, alone or in combination) to reduced risk of certain kinds of cancer or of individual cancers (cancer of the bladder, breast, cervix, colon, rectum, oral cavity/pharynx, esophagus, lung, prostate, pancreas, skin, and stomach), finding that the scientific evidence against the relationship was greater than that for the relationship.

July 31, 2001

Flexibles

Domestic acquisitions, agreements

Interfilm Holdings, Inc. (Piedmont, SC) has signed a distribution agreement with the Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, MI) to be a distributor of Opticite polystyrene label films.

July 31, 2001

Converting equipment

The CP moves my cheese

A couple of months ago, I prepared a packaging trends report for the conference program that accompanied the Converting Machinery/Materials Intl. show.

July 31, 2001