Seeking to enhance brand identity or personalize packaging? Need to safeguard your brand against tampering and counterfeiting? Want to learn more about RFID and smart packaging? Need to find a supplier with renewable, sustainable packaging material?
All of these needs can be met at Pack Expo and the Conference at Pack Expo Oct. 29-Nov. 2 in Chicago.
More than 50,000 attendees are expected for the trade show and conference, including over 6,000 international visitors from more than 75 countries. Pack Expo International will feature more than 1,600 exhibiting companies utilizing over 1.2 million net square feet of exhibit space. It is sponsored and produced by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI).
There are several themed pavilions on the exhibit floor, including a mixture of returning favorites and new entries. Themes include brand protection, contract packaging, containers and materials, and RFID.
One of those is The Showcase of Packaging Innovations™, a special pavilion highlighting the year's most innovative package designs from around the world. All of the packages featured in The Showcase of Packaging Innovations have been recognized for outstanding design by prominent international organizations.
"Today's consumer has a staggering array of brand choices," says Charles D. Yuska, president of PMMI. "Savvy marketers are leveraging innovative packaging designs that are highly focused and meet the specific needs of the target audience to communicate positively to the consumer and have a strong impact at point-of-sale. Pack Expo International is the only place consumer goods companies can be exposed to the complete spectrum of global packaging innovations and concepts to increase retail sales, grow brand loyalty and build greater market share."
While visiting The Showcase of Packaging Innovations, attendees will be invited to participate in a new awards program being unveiled at this year's show: Pack Expo Selects.
All packages featured in the Pack Expo Selects display will be designs commercialized, developed and produced by one or more Pack Expo exhibitors. Credit will be given to those companies who participated in the package's development, design, converting or production.
During the show, attendees will be able to vote for the package they deem most innovative via their My Pack Expo™ portal, which will be accessible at multiple kiosks around McCormick Place. Votes will be accepted each day, with results announced after the show closes on Nov. 2.
Great programs
The Conference at Pack Expo will feature three days of great programs on the hottest topics in packaging.The extensive program is divided into five time periods each day, with four concurrent sessions planned for each time slot. Conference sessions are organized into several "tracks" including RFID Opportunities, Materials/Containers Advances, Safety Issues, Management Strategies, Improving Operations, Brand Protection, Sustainability Strategies and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Each day's program will also feature a keynote presentation from top executives representing the following influential global packaging companies: Sonoco Products Company, NatureWorks LLC and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
"The Conference at Pack Expo adds even more value to an already comprehensive trade show," says Yuska. "After reviewing the latest technology in operation on the show floor, the conference sessions will help packagers apply what they've seen to their own businesses. A flexible schedule and broad range of topics ensure there is something for everyone."
Need help finding the sessions most suited to your interests? Since Sept. 7, all registered attendees will have access to My Pack Expo™, a free, personalized, password-protected web portal that can be accessed 24/7. Based on data inputted into a short profile upon registration for the show, My Pack Expo will intelligently mine the show's list of conference sessions (as well as contacts, products and services) to generate a custom report tailored to individual needs and interests.
Discounted registration for the Conference at Pack Expo is currently available online at www.packexpo.com. For registrations received on or before October 10, the cost will be $55 per session.
Sidebar: Pack Expo at a Glance
Floor Hours:9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Thurs., Nov. 2: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Conference at Pack Expo:
Oct. 30 - Nov. 1
Registration and housing:
www.packexpo.com
Boston Gear
Sidebar: Booth Highlights
Boston Gear - Booth N-3671Boston Gear announces the availability of Helical Planetary Precision Gearheads- high-quality gearheads designed for direct attachment to popular servo and stepper motors. Superior engineering and design come together in these gearheads, which include patented planet carrier design, patented input and output sealing designs, and special heat and surface treatments. Stainless steel Boston Gear precision gearheads provide almost zero backlash with virtually no slippage. The true helical gear design for increased tooth-to-tooth contact produces smooth, quiet operation. Patented input and output sealing systems design eliminates friction and heat generation. Balanced planetary kinematics and associated load sharing make the Boston Gear planetary gearheads ideal for servo applications including machine tool, assembly, medical, robotics, automotive and packaging Constructed of long-lasting materials, all exposed gearhead parts are stainless steel for high performance. Housings are available in black anodized aluminum for standard applications and epoxy-coated for wet and washdown applications.
Phone: 617/328-3300
www.bostongear.com
Columbia Machine Inc.- Booth N-4045
Columbia Machine will introduce a high throughput/small package palletizer ideal for companies packaging their products in cases as small as 5" wide. The system has been designed to combat common issues conventional palletizers face with small high center gravity cases, including the tendency to top over when hitting a case stop or when a flight bar row pusher contacts the row. Columbia's redesigned infeed includes improvements to four areas on the palletizer: the metering, turning, row forming and layer forming sections. The traditional metering belts have been replaced with new modular plastic belts for smooth transitions. The addition of Columbia's soft turn technology with the use of close roll centers allows for accurate turning and eliminates product damage. To positively transfer a row of product, Columbia added a wide overhead reciprocating row pusher. The final improvement is to the layer accumulating table where plastic belting is used to allow for smooth transition from the row forming area to the layer forming area.
Phone: 360/694-1501
www.palletizing.com
Hayssen
Hayssen will demonstrate several new vertical and horizontal form/fill/seal packaging systems at PACK EXPO International 2006. These include:
- Two new continuous motion bag makers - the 15" CM with Ishida Scale and Hayssen's 10" CM VFFS Machine - feature true high-pressure washdown capabilities for the harshest environments.
- The high speed Ultima TR with Yamato 514 SW, a continuous motion poly VFFS system.
- Hayssen's Ultima ST with Mateer Burt 1900C Auger offering economy level value and and integrated single point control.
- The Ultima SV with Yamato 314SD, featuring a high speed compact packaging system with bag maker mounted computer combination scale.
- The Ultima POC with Zipper Application & POC Yamato 223R Scale, which demonstrates the advantages of remanufactured or upgraded Hayssen systems.
- A high-speed hermetic seal horizontal system - the RT2000 HFFS with TopZip™ Slider Zipper - to be displayed at the AMI Equipment Division/Zip-Pak booth (#S-1214).
- The Ultima SV running InnoFlex pre-applied top zip material. This system will also be demonstrated by Hudson Sharp (Booth #S-800).
Phone: 864/486-4000
www.hayssen.com
Evergreen Packaging Equipment - Booth S-2840
The Unibloc Model BFCE-32/32/8 PPV features the latest in continuous bottle filler technology to offer flexibility in rinsing, accurate fills and quick changeover. The machine has a neck handling design that will run 3 oz to 32 oz HDPE bottles at speeds up to 18,000 bottles per hour. The neck handling design allows size changeover of less than two minutes and requires only a touch of a button by the operator. Bottles enter the machine by a customer-supplied air conveyor system and are transferred to the 32-head dual rinsing turret. This turret allows ultimate flexibility in rinsing. The rinser grasps the bottles by the neck and inverts them prior to injection of the rinse solution. Catch pans and a return pump system are also included to allow recycling of solutions if desired. After rinsing, the bottles are transferred to the 32 head Electronic Fill System (EFS). The filled bottles are capped by peracid treated screw caps. Each cap is positioned with a pick & place device and accurately torqued in place. The Unibloc is fully enclosed in stainless steel interlocked enclosures and uses two HEPA zones for enhanced shelf life.
Phone: 319/399-3200
www.evergreenpackaging.com
PIAB Inc. - Booth N-4257
PIAB's new COAX® vacuum solution for quick and reliable handling of plastic bags combines the company's powerful vacuum pump, the P6010, with the company's air-saving Cruise Control (PCC) option and new BL40-3P Polyurethane, dual durometer suction cup. Designed to combat errors and machine stoppages typically resulting from bag handling with suction cups, PIAB's new plastic bag handling solution delivers higher process reliability by decreasing downtime that can result from dropped or damaged bags. A key feature of the solution is the P6010 vacuum pump, which provides up to 40% more flow than conventional vacuum pumps, while still reducing overall energy consumption. The BL40-3P's sealing lip is a very soft and thin (30 shore) durometer, while the multiple bellows is a more rigid (70 shore) durometer.
Phone: 800/321-7422
www.piab.com
Sidebar: Barrier Materials Among the Offerings at Pack Expo
Brand owners seeking the latest film and rigid container technologies developed specifically to extend shelf life and enhance product freshness will find a multitude of options at Pack Expo International 2006. Ilene Gordon, president of Alcan Packaging Food Americas, (Booth #E-8605) cites improved barrier films as one of the primary trends in flexible packaging. For instance, Alcan's award-winning ClearShield™ high-barrier shrink bag for bone-in meats is a co-extrusion of polyethylene and polyamide that is oriented using a proprietary process. The combination produces a film with outstanding puncture resistance, clarity, barrier and ease-of-use for packaging bone-in meat products.Toray Plastics Inc. (Booth #S-2941) recently introduced a line of PC metallized propylene films that are specifically designed as replacements for foil laminates. Earlier this year, Unilever chose the new Torayfan® PC1 film to replace the traditional PPFP (paper-polyethylene-foil-polyethylene) packaging used for its popular Knorr and Lipton products.
Exxon Mobil Chemical Company (Booth #N-4533) has also developed film designed to replace foil laminates. The company's Very High Barrier Metallyte™ film is a new generation of Exxon's Metallyte OPP film that features enhanced barrier protection, making it an attractive replacement for aluminum foil.
