Beverage

A wide-mouth first in PET

Shatter-resistant and lighter than glass, narrow-neck polyethylene terephthalate bottles for hot-filled beverages have enjoyed steady growth lately. But only now is a wide-mouth PET jar for hot-filled food being commercialized as Tree Top Inc.

February 28, 1998

Leaders (UNIVERSAL TAXONOMY PFW): Page 524

Beverage

New bottle, label for Mogen David

To broaden the appeal of Mogen David chillable red wines, San Francisco-based The Wine Group chose design firm SBG Enterprise (San Francisco, CA) to update the packaging with a more contemporary look without alienating the product's current loyal following.

February 28, 1998

Dairy

Widemouth cups will expand beverage packaging options

We've been looking at the newest generation of Ensure® nutritional supplement packaging and thinking that thermoformed or injection-molded cupsin some advanced stage of developmentcould be beer and carbonated beverage containers (CSDs) in the future.

February 28, 1998

Beverage

Bass is bullish on beer in plastic (sidebar)

Dando at Nova-Pack '98

February 28, 1998

Meat, Poultry & Seafood

Shaped cans south of the border

"I have seen shaped cans from Europe and I have never seen anything like this." That's what Lawrence Boro, marketing manager for privately held Grupo Jumex, Xalostoc, near Mexico City, Mexico, says about the company's newest shaped steel three-piece can.

February 28, 1998

Beverage

Twister takes a whole new shape

For its Twister brand juice beverage, Tropicana North America has launched a 1.75-L (59.3-oz) heat-set bottle made of polyethylene terephthalate that the Bradenton, FL, firm describes as "the first heat-set, hot-filled (180°+) rectangular PET bottle" for a juice beverage in the U.S.

February 28, 1998

Beverage

Drum containment unit

Rand Materials Handling Equipment (Pawtucket, RI) has introduced a 4-Drum Containment Unit with a removable drum pallet that allows the drums to be loaded at floor level and lifted on or off the sump base by a forklift truck.

January 31, 1998

Conveying & Product Handling

Saving more than just peanuts

Bookstore chain Borders Group moves to a customized loose-fill system for distribution of its products to stores nationwide. Yearly savings are in excess of one million dollars.

January 31, 1998

Conveying & Product Handling

Foam dunnage computes for GT's software

Minnesota is no stranger to snow. But at GT Interactive's Plymouth plant, located in suburban Minneapolis, a far different kind of blizzard was hampering operations.

January 31, 1998

Conveying & Product Handling

Robotic palletization protects Sandvik

Automated lifting and stacking of heavy boxes onto pallets helps this maker of mining products avoid worker injuries and $120ꯠ of additional labor costs.

January 31, 1998

Beverage

DOJ kills Reynolds/Alcoa deal; will it chill Reynolds/Ball talks?

In late December the U.S. Department of Justice moved to prevent Reynolds Metals Co. (Richmond, VA) from selling its Muscle Shoals, AL, aluminum can stock rolling mill to Alcoa (Pittsburgh, PA).

January 31, 1998

Dairy

Should paperboard buyers turn white with fright?

EPA "cluster" rule forces bleached pulp mills to spend millions to clean up air and water emissions. Quality, cost, even availability may become a question mark.

January 31, 1998

Beverage

Smirnoff 1.75 L relaunched in proprietary PET

Hoping to boost sales, United Distillers and Vintners, Hartford, CT, has relaunched its Smirnoff premium vodka in a proprietary 1.75-L polyethylene terephthalate package whose rollout was to be completed this month.

January 31, 1998