Dairy

Headspace analyzer

Pac Check™ Model 225 headspace analyzer differs from other instruments in the series in that it is a hand-held, portable unit. It’s suitable for use in MAP meat, poultry, coffee, cheese, and snack applications.

December 31, 2002

Leaders (UNIVERSAL TAXONOMY PFW): Page 420

Beverage

Golden State Vintners: Wine bottle filling

The 1.5-L bottles are shown exiting the 28-head rinser and moving through the 48-valve filler. Ryan Packaging Solutions (Napa, CA) helped with line integration.

November 30, 2002

Inspection, Sorting & Weighing

Golden State Vintners: Wine bottle inspection

Emerging from the filler enclosure, wine bottles are conveyed through a Heuft (Downers Grove, IL) detection unit that uses a combination of photocells and high-frequency signals to check for cork presence, cork breakage, and improper fill height.

November 30, 2002

Beverage

Golden State Vintners: Capsule application for wine bottle sealing

Long slugs of nested PVC capsules are fed automatically to the capsule applicator. Wine bottles then move into the rotary station, whose tools shrink the capsules tightly around the bottle necks.

November 30, 2002

Beverage

Golden State Vintners: Labeling wine bottles

Exiting the capsule applicator, bottles move into the Cavagnino & Gatti labeler. This versatile labeler handles either pressure-sensitive (shown being applied here) or cold glue-applied labels.

November 30, 2002

Beverage

Golden State Vintners: Case packing of wine bottles

Model Flex 835 case packer from Hartness (Greenville, SC). It's preceded by a Hartness three-lane infeed section that relies on sensors to signal a gating device which lanes are in need of bottles.

November 30, 2002

Beverage

Golden State Vintners: Case coding for wine producer

Cases are conveyed past a Model 5200 hot melt ink-jet coder from Markem (Keene, NH). Twin-head, hot-melt, ink-jet coders bring the line to a close.

November 30, 2002

Prepared & Canned Foods

Hot fill bottles: Opting for diversity

For PET bottles, the HR process accommodates variations in product, bottle size, weight, fill temperature, blowing rate, and more. Sidel has been developing an array of solutions to respond to these many different packaging criteria.

November 30, 2002

Conveying & Product Handling

Wafers won't crumble under robotic handling

Bahlsen, a German manufacturer of cakes and biscuits, has modernized a packaging line with 24 SIG Delta Robots from SIG Pack Systems AG (Beringen, Switzerland).

November 30, 2002

Beverage

Kraft's bye-bye to the can-opener?

Kraft Foods has substituted a peelable membrane closure for the conventional steel end on the top of some of its Maxwell House-brand ground coffees.

November 30, 2002

Prepared & Canned Foods

Pez juice launched in pouch

In the candy business, Pez in its refillable dispenser is a classic. Now Leading Brands, Inc., is marketing a Pez shelf-stable juice, in a 8.54-oz (250-mL) “no-spill” stand-up pouch topped with a collectible Pez character.

November 30, 2002

Beverage

Q&A

Shown here are Eastman Kodak’s Jim Scott (left), director of Package Engineering & Graphics Design, and Paul Porter, director of Corporate Design & Usability Group, holding the Packaging Leader of the Year award presented to Eastman Kodak by the Packaging Education Forum at a reception during Pack Expo 2002. PW asked the two to answer a few questions about Kodak’s interdepartmental strategy.

November 30, 2002

Beverage

Face lift proves golden for ale

Widmer Brothers, Portland, OR, brewery and distributor, returned to Hornall Anderson Design Works (Seattle, WA) to help redesign/ reposition one of its more popular Pale Ale labels.

November 30, 2002