Building on its historic growth in recent years, St. Louis-based Barry-Wehmiller Design Group has merged with New Hampshire-based Stahlman Group Inc. The merger with Stahlman further expands Design Group’s service offering and client base in the food and beverage arena. Both parties are enthusiastic about the growth and expansion opportunities presented by the merger.

TranSystems Corp., Kansas City, Mo., has opened a new office in Minneapolis that will serve as a centralized hub for the company’s services specializing in consumer-goods storage and processing facilities and site development and infrastructure projects. In accordance with TranSystems’ regional office strategy, the added location also will serve as a portal to the entire range of transportation/distribution architectural, engineering and planning services the company brings to the market.

In a collaborative effort with York, Pa.-based Applied Solutions, Columbia, Pa.-based Facilities Design & Construction Co. is working with the team at Vertis’ Chalfont, Pa., facility to develop a strategy to increase their storage capacity and improve their material handling and inventory management. Vertis is a leading provider of targeted advertising, media and marketing services that drive consumers to marketers more effectively. At the conclusion of the initial work-in-progress and finished-goods study, facility expansion and automation will commence.

In other Facilities Design news, the Virginia Department of Corrections has chosen the company to manage and engineer the conversion of the existing laundry facility at the Powhatan Correctional Facility to a state-of-the-art milk processing plant. With this conversion, the Department of Corrections will have a certified processing facility that meets or exceeds all state and federal standards for dairy/food processing. When in operation, the plant will be able to provide milk to all correctional facilities in Virginia.

Willis, Texas-based InkJet Inc. has been certified ISO 9001:2000 by Perry Johnson Registrars Inc., a world-leading quality management systems registrar. The quality management standards for the ISO 9000 series program were developed by the International Organization for Standardization based in Geneva, Switzerland. In order to receive certification, a company must document its quality management system and provide objective evidence that it follows this system. Once registration is achieved, the company is subject to continuing review and audit to maintain certification.

In September, Newport News, Va.-based PBM Plastics Inc. won SPE’s Consumer Housewares Award at the SPE Thermoforming Conference held in Indianapolis. The award category was for roll-fed parts and the winning product was PBM’s consumer squeeze bottle liner. The uniqueness of the product and patented Melt-Phase™ forming process were keys in the selection process, the company says.

York, Pa.-based Graham Packaging Company LP has won two of three awards given in the beverage container category at the AmeriStar Awards competition sponsored by the Institute of Packaging Professionals. The company won for two of its recently introduced innovations — an ATP single-serve, hot-fill PET bottle and a rectangular 64-ounce hot-fill PET bottle. The awards were presented at the 15th annual AmeriStar Awards reception held November 9 at the Hyatt McCormick in Chicago.

The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) has acquired the remaining shares of Expopak de las Americas Inc., a joint partnership between PMMI and Oprex, a Mexico-based tradeshow producer and annual generator of ExpoPack México. Following the deal, PMMI owns 100 percent of Expopak del las Americas Inc.

PlantWeb University, the online process automation educational Web site sponsored by Emerson Process Management, Austin, Texas, recently celebrated its two-year anniversary of providing free instruction on using PlantWeb digital plant technologies to meet common operational challenges in the process automation industry. To access to PlantWeb University, visit PlantWebUniversity.com

Portola Packaging Inc., San Jose, Calif., has completed a licensing agreement with Midbrook Inc. for the production, marketing and sale of Portola’s Cap Snap water equipment. Midbrook, with manufacturing locations in Jackson, Mich., and Sao Paulo, Brazil, is a manufacturer of metal parts washing and drying equipment and robotic and conveying systems.