Conveying & Product Handling

Shrink bander sets a quicker pace

Replacing a p-s labeler with a shrink bander nearly triples production speeds for vials of "super glue" used to attach artificial fingernails. Additional benefits include longer shelf life and stronger sales appeal.

December 31, 1996

Leaders (UNIVERSAL TAXONOMY PFW): Page 539

Beverage

Study confirms bottles affect wine buying

A recent study on American wine purchasing shows that glass wine bottles play a key role in determining which wine is purchased. Marketers considering dropping glass in favor of some other packaging material would do well to analyze the study-perhaps even duplicate it in their own product categories-before making a move.

December 31, 1996

Conveying & Product Handling

Multipacks double the ante for bottles

A European brewer is first to offer two-layer multipacks for glass bottles. The tall 24- and 30-packs present more graphic billboard area and permit easier handling for consumers.

December 31, 1996

Prepared & Canned Foods

Plastic beer bottle could be big

Australian brewing giant Carlton United Breweries has high hopes for a barrier beer bottle made of plastic. In the meantime, it's launched a monolayer PET bottle that's causing quite a stir.

December 31, 1996

Beverage

Shrink label gives this mule a kick

From Russia by way of the U.K. comes a vodka-based drink called the Smirnoff Mule in a glass bottle with a label that's nearly as exotic as the beverage itself.

December 31, 1996

Beverage

Coke surges ahead with new soft drink

Surge, Coca-Cola USA's "fully loaded citrus soda," hits store shelves across the country this month in both cans and bottles. The 12-oz cans use an EZO wide-mouth end for easy drinkability.

December 31, 1996

Beverage

Recycling programs

Return Logistics (Elmhurst, IL) offers recycling programs for industrial packagers aimed at increasing the number of steel drums that are returned to the proper recycling facilities.

November 30, 1996

Inspection, Sorting & Weighing

New bottle packers help Modelo deal with refillables

Southern Mexican brewery installs high-speed rotary bottle packers that are now used throughout Modelo's system. Efficency soars even with returnable cases of marginal quality.

November 30, 1996

Prepared & Canned Foods

Uncanny developments at Campbell Soup

Campbell Soup Co. (Camden, NJ) has an undeserved reputation as a one-product/one-package company. It almost never has been a single product company, and it has always used a variety of packaging forms.

November 30, 1996

Bakery & Snack

Only leaders need apply

In the year 2000, say Packaging World sources, the key ingredient in a director of packaging will be dynamic leadership skills. The candidate had better be a people person, too, and be able to wear a number of interdisciplinary hats.

November 30, 1996

Dairy

Duralam presses for short and sweet runs

Flexible packaging converter Duralam is among the first to use a quick changeover flexo press for short-run jobs. One of its most challenging is a reverse-printed OPP structure used for bags of Sun*Maid candy.

November 30, 1996

Beverage

Going with the flow

New centralized ink system keeps ink flowing for hassle-free ink-jet printing at Arcadia Farms. Ink supply can be changed on the fly.

November 30, 1996

Beverage

Oregon nixes expanded bottle-deposit law

Oregon voters decisively rejected a ballet initiative that would have expanded the current bottle-deposit law, which applies only to beer and carbonated beverages, to include more than 800 products, including paperboard packaging containers.

November 30, 1996