Packaging

In an effort to address the growing global plastic pollution issue, ENSO Plastics, an environmental plastic solution provider, announced two new technologies, ENSO Renew and ENSO Restore that company President Danny Clark hopes will change the way plastics are used around the globe.
   

Jim Lucas, evp, Global Insights & Strategy, Schawk Inc. asks packaging suppliers, "Are you maximizing your packaging to BE RELEVANT AND VALUABLE for today's consumers?" As Lucas explains, "With the first quarter of 2013 behind us, where lies the greatest potential for packaging? These top shopper/consumer trends are not predictions, but rather opportunities for packaging in the remainder of 2013 and beyond. Each of these opportunities is based on providing consumers with something that is useful or valuable. With that in mind, we look at five areas with positive potential."

A nucleating agent has helped push homopolymer polypropylene (PP) into thermoformed packaging applications with the promise of better haze and less yellowing compared to conventional nucleated PP homopolymers.

Next Generation Films (Lexington, OH) has ordered another 3-layer blown-film line from Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. with an addition system being specified out. The latest system will be a three-layer Varex with a 134-inch working width, grooved feed extruders (105.30/135.30/105.30D), Optifil P3 gauge-control system, Opticool high-output air ring and a 35.43-inch Maxicone C die.

Two new members of BASF's biodegradable plastics family have been introduced: a thermoformable version for food trays and the first injection-molding grade for complex and high quality packaging, including thin-wall applications.

Inland Label's MAXX Scoop IML label family beat out 231 entries from packaging suppliers and graphic design firms throughout North America to win the GOLD PAC Leadership Award at the Packaging Association of Canada's (PAC) biannual Awards Gala held in Mississauga, ON.

If you're an attendee of a conference, of any kind, typically the drama factor is pretty low, especially toward the end of the day when people are more concerned about if they will order steak or fish at dinner and if a bottle of wine is a bit excessive for a Tuesday night.

Milliken & Co. will present its advanced additives for packaging applications at PACKEX Toronto (May 14-16, 2013 at the Toronto Congress Centre, presented by PlasticsToday parent UBM Canon).

Goya Foods Inc., the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the U.S., launched a redesign of its marinade product line, converting 12-oz (355-ml) and 24.5-oz (725-ml) products from glass to PET bottles from Amcor Rigid Plastics.

Long-delayed equipment investments, a resurgent automotive market, and one of the world's largest plastics shows came together last spring to help push a number of equipment suppliers in North America to record performances in 2012, including automation and injection molding machine supplier Engel.

"[NPE2012] certainly didn't hurt; we really couldn't have timed it any better," Engel North America President Mark Sankovitch told PlasticsToday. "The show was just one part of multiple pieces-everything aligned."