Canadian Packaging_September 2018

Chris Hobbs, Vice-President, Premium Foods & Direct Poultry

Augo Pinho, Owner & President, Premium Foods & Direct Poultry

HOME TO

ROOST

Chicken processor puts a huge premium on product safety with advanced X-Ray inspection technology Story on page 12

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COVER STORY SEPTEMBER 2018 VOLUME 71, NO. 9

12

SENIOR PUBLISHER Stephen Dean • (416) 510-5198 SDean@canadianpackaging.com EDITOR George Guidoni • (416) 510-5227 GGuidoni@canadianpackaging.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Alanna Fairey • (416) 510-5228 afairey@canadianpackaging.com MEDIA DESIGNER Brooke Shaw • (519) 428-3471 bshaw@annexbusinessmedia.com

RULING THE ROOST

Chris Hobbs, Vice-President, Premium Foods & Direc t Poultry

by George Guidoni Leading poultry processor puta all major bones of contention to bed with high-performance bulk X-Ray inspection technology on its chicken breast line.

ACCOUNT COORDINATOR Barb Comer • (888) 599-2228 ext 210 bcomer@annexbusinessmedia.com

Augo Pinho, Owner & Presid ent, Premium Foods & Direc t Poultry

HOME TO

ROOST

Chicken processor pu ts on product safety wit a huge premium h advanced X-Ray inspection technology

Cover photography by Naomi Hiltz

Story on page 12

CIRCULATION MANAGER Anita Madden • (416) 442-5600 x3596 AMadden@@annexbusinessmedia.com

CHICAGO AWAITS! YOUR SPECIAL

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PACK EXPO INTERNPREVIEW OF ATIONAL 2018

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ANNEX PRIVACY OFFICER Privacy@annexbusinessmedia.com Phone: 800-668-2374 DISCLAIMER: No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission. ©2018 Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is for informational purposes only. The content and “expert” advice presented are not intended as a substitute for informed professional engineering advice. You should not act on information contained in this publication without seeking specific advice from qualified engineering professionals. Canadian Packaging accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported or advertised in this issue. Canadian Packaging receives unsolicited materials, (including letters to the editor, press releases, promotional items and images) from time to time. Canadian Packaging, its affiliates and assignees may use, reproduce, publish, republish, distribute, store and archive such unsolicited submissions in whole or in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort.

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By George Guidoni 4-5 NEWSPACK

Packaging news round-up.

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ROMAN FEAST By George Guidoni Venerable Montreal processor of Italian deli meats starts up a new high-throughput thermoform packaging system to give its authentic premium products extra shelf-life and retail flair.

MANY SILVER LININGS By George Guidoni Innovative Quebec manufacturer of automatic cap lining machines continuous to upgrade its extensive product pofolio with leading-edge PC control technologies.

GOOD THINGS MADE BETTER Fast-growing granola bar manufacturer installs a scalable automation solution to optimize line efficiencies and beef up its production capacity to handle future brisk growth.

THE RIGHT ROUTE TO SUCCESS Made-in-Canada CNC router technology enables venerable protective foam packaging manufacturer to come up to full speed to defend its market share.

THE SUMS OF ALL PARTS By George Guidoni Busy automotive plant supplier installs a highperformance automatic tray-forming workcell to spare its packing staff the time-consuming grind of manual box assembly.

37-53 SPECIAL REPORT WELCOME TO THE SHOW! Our exclusive preview of next month’s PACK EXPO International 2018 show in Chicago 37 SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

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RECALL OF DUTY By Maria Ferrante

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COLD AS ICE By Sean Riley

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BETTER LINKS IN THE CHAIN By Jorge Izquierdo

42-53 SHOW AND TELL!

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 3

NEWSPACK

NATREL REWRITES THE BOOK ON COTTAGE CHEESE WITH THREE SMOOTH FLAVORS For Canadian consumers looking to reap the health benefits of cottage cheese without having to suffer through the off-putting chunks, Montrealheadquartered dairy co-op Natrel has come up with a smooth new solution earlier this month—in three tantalizing f lavors.

High in protein but low in calories, the innovative new Natrel Whipped Dip & Spread—available in Chive & Garlic, Roasted Red Peppers and Plain varieties—has been specially formulated to retain all the key nutritional benefits of cottage cheese without its somewhat unappealing clumpy texture.

Whipped to smooth and creamy perfection, the new guilt-free snack contains only 25 calories per two tablespoons (30 grams), according to Natrel, while offering three grams of protein and plenty of Vitamins A and C. Made from 100-per cent Canadian milk and real all-natural ingredients, the innovative new

product is packaged in recyclable plastic black containers remanufactured by the St-Damien, Que.-headquartered IPL, Inc., and decorated with elegant color-coded labels designed by Montreal-headquartered branding specialists Lg2.

According to Natrel, “This innovative whipped dip can be enjoyed at any time of day by the entire family.

“The savoury Chive and garlic or Roaster Red

Peppers will be a hit with vegetables, crackers or a baguette, while the Plain dip and spread can be savoured with fruit, granola, honey or sweet syrup to achieve a blanked breakfast or a perfect finishing touch on a light dessert.

“The variety of f lavour offers endless possibilities to delight the taste buds, while ref lecting Natrel’s branding proposition of creating pleasure for all the senses.”

CANADIAN CRAFT BREWER MAKES A WINNING IMPRESSION AT BEER CHAMPIONSHIPS Real product innovation deserves cutting-edge packaging to support it, as the folks at Burlington, Ont.-based craft brewer Nickel Brook Brewing Co. have done with two of their specialty beers basking in international acclaim.

As bronze-medal winners in this past summer’s U.S. Open Beer Championship competition in Ohio, the company’s wittingly-named Peach Uber Summer Bear and Kentucky Bastard Imperial Stout are a testament to the company’s insatiable thirst for innovation and excellence in all aspects of it business.

“With the Peach Uber beer, we wanted to wanted to elevate the beer to the same status as wine and spirits,” says Nickel Brook’s manager for corporate sales and marketing Matt Gibson, pointing out that this year’s U.S. Open was the biggest competition in the vent’s history, featuring over 6,300 different beers representing some 117 beer styles.

Packaged in dark-tinted glass 500-ml glass bottles custom-made for the brewer

by Phoenix Packaging, Inc. and decorated with a stylish label created by local designer Dan Brandon, The Peach Uber—launched across Ontario at the province’s LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) stores this past summer—placed third in the competition’s Berliner-Style Weisse category.

Described as a “sparkling sour wheat ale is brewed with fresh peach puree, expressing a fresh summer peach aroma with an effervescent and tart finish,” the Peach Uber is a good example of “pushing the boundaries of what beer can be,” according to Gibson.

“It is a naturally-produced high-quality beer with real fruit that deserves a place at any table,” Gibson says.

“Napoleon once referred to the Berliner Weisse style as the ‘Champagne of the North,’ and we wanted to bring that idea back—partly by using outstanding packaging to present it.”

With a third-place finish in the U.S. Open’s the Wood/BarrelAged Strong Stout category, the Kentucky Bastard is set for a province-wide launch later this winter, says Gibson, crediting local designer Walter Leipurts for creating an authentically agedlooking label depicting a Kentucky Derby rider on a galloping horse.

“With the barrel-aged beers, we want to project a more rustic, rugged air, while still driving home the quality and tradition behind it,” says Gibson, citing the application of melted wax streaking down the dark bottle’s crown.

The wax is applied by hand, in-house, to create a better seal and to prevent oxidation of the beer,” Gibson states.

“We do this on all our higher-end barrel-aged beers, as they can be aged in a cellar just like wine.”

According to Nickel Brook, the Kentucky Bastard Imperial Stout is distinguished with “has rich chocolate, coffee and dark fruit f lavors, combined with a vanilla and oak warmth from being aged in bourbon barrels for a full year.”

Says Gibson: “Winning awards for doing what we love to do is always a good day.

“Our team works hard to make innovative, artisanal beers,” he states, “and we are very honored to have them recognized against so many great competitors.”

BECKHOFF BOOSTS CANADIAN PRESENCE WITH NEW QUEBEC OFFICE Leading German industrial automation technologies supplier Beckhoff Automation has increased its direct sales and support presence in Canada with the recent opening of new office in the Greater Montreal region in Laval, Que. According to the Mississauga, Ont.-based Beckhoff Automation Canada Ltd., the new 2,223-square-foot facility boast plenty of collaborative space for Beckhoff customers and employees to develop innovative automation and control projects.

“Beckhoff strives to meet customers where they are to provide expert service on an individual level,” says Beckhoff Automation Canada’s managing director Calvin Wallace.

“The strong legacy of manufacturing in Greater Montreal, and Quebec in general, spans a number of industries that increasingly rely on PC- and EtherCAT-based control technologies,” he says.

Wallace points out the new Laval location features a dedicated training room for to increase their engineering knowledge of Beckhoff PC-based control solutions and to enhance programming expertise in areas such as PLCs (programmable

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logic Controllers), motion control, safety technology and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), among others.

“Flexible, high performance solutions from Beckhoff are perfectly suited for all manufacturers in the region, from machine building, to automotive assembly, consumer products and more.”

Ted Sarazin, the company’s regional sales manager for Quebec and Eastern Canada, has been appointed to runs day-to-day activities of the Laval facility.

“We are excited about all the new opportunities that the Laval office now makes possible,” says Sarazin.

“Customers across Canada, and regionally here in Quebec, have recognized the benefits of control systems that feature PC-based hardware, EtherCAT networking and TwinCAT software technology,” Sarazin states.

“This office location makes direct interactions with customers more efficient as we provide local product support and application engineering to help their business operations grow.”

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

NEWSPACK

NEW NUTRITION BARS PACK BIG PROTEIN BOOST Canadian consumers may feel rightly overwhelmed with the vast choice of nutrition bars staring back at them from the grocery store shelves, but for real healthand-wellness enthusiasts and foodies, a new line of snack bars lunched this past summer by the Mississauga, Ont.based Kashi Canada is a joy to behold on many levels.

Made in Canada and only available in Canada, the new nut bars are grounded in a delicious base of Kashi joi whole nuts and are bursting with real, simple ingredients selected with care for both their taste and their inherent nutritional value, according to the company.

Developed specifically to catering to today’s so-called ‘foodie culture,’ the Kashi joi bars offer delightfully imaginative f lavour combinations as a healthy snack or a quick boost to support an active lifestyle.

According to Kashi Canada, a subsidiary of California-based Kashi Company—a division of The Kellogg Company—the Kashi joi product family was developed with the aim of “turning functional eating into joyfully real nourishment.”

Notably, all the Kashi joi products are Non-GMO Project Verified, glutenfree, soy-free and Kosher, with no artificial f lavours or colours.

“The Wellness aisle in any grocery store can be overwhelming, with consumers often sacrificing taste for familiarity,” says Chet Dhole, senior brand manager with Kashi Canada.

“Hence Kashi joi is shaking that up with purposefully selected ingredients and carefully crafted f lavor combinations to satisfy the unmet need within the growing health-and-wellness market,” Dhole states.

“In fact, we called the bars Kashi joi because we believe this space will welcome the joyful eating experience and exciting choices that our bars

provide.”

Retailing individually or by the dozen— primarily in the designate Wellness aisles where single-serve nutrition bars are sold— the joi product line two distinct bar formats created for differing consumer needs, with and each of the six f lavours tells a unique story.

Available in three f lavors that include Raspberry Dark Chocolate Hazelnut, Pistachio Fig & Lemon and Coconut Cranberry Almond, the Kashi joi Nut Bars are made from wholesome ingredients to provide six grams of protein in a single 55-gram bar.

For its part, the Kashi joi Almond Butter Energy Nut Bars—comprising Dark Chocolate Espresso Nut, Banana Chocolate Nut, Blueberry Maple Pecan f lavors—use almond butter as primary ingredient to help prepare consumers for physical activity with nine to 10 grams of protein per serving.

Marketed as ideal companions to take along on a hike or for a satisfying midafternoon snack, the perfectly Kashi portable joi bars can be easily enjoyed onthe-go at any time of year.

“I love every Kashi joi bar,” says well-known holisitic nutritionist and culinary consultant Peggy Kotsopoulos.

“Simply look at the label and you’ll see why.

“They deliver on taste with delicious and surprising f lavor twists, and yet they also offer an excellent source of protein in a nutritious bar,” she says.

“As both a nutritionist and foodie, I highly recommend Kashi joi bars as a healthy, convenient and delicious snack.”

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NOTES & QUOTES nMettler Toledo, the world’s largest manufacturer of scales and analytical instruments used in industrial, food retailing and laboratory applications, has officially inaugurated the new Americas region headquarters of the company’s Product Inspection Group business in Tampa, Fla. Occupying over 265,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space, the brand new building houses all of the group’s business units, including Safeline metal detection and X-Ray inspection; Hi-Speed checkweighing; CI-Vision machine vision; and PCE track-and-trace/serialization technologies. According to Mettler Toledo, new state-of-the-art facility significantly “elevates” the Product Inspection Group’s capabilities with a large production area, first-class training and test labs, and multiple FAT (factory acceptance testing) rooms, “along with collaborating R&D resources and extensive combined industry application expertise.” nGlobal technology and engineering conglomerate Emerson, headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., has completed an estimated $795-million acquisition of leading German industrial pneumatics manufacturer Aventics Corporation, which will now operate as

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part of the company’s Emerson Automation Solutions business unit. Employing about 2,100 people at five manufacturing plants to provide a broad range of pneumatic products and services for industrial automation applications in the food-and-beverage, packaging, medical, energy and other industries— generating revenues of nearly $555 million last year.

“Aventics brings technologies, capabilities and expertise that are critical to digitalization of manufacturing, including predictive maintenance through integrated diagnostics,” says Mike Train, executive president of Emerson Automation Solutions. “It also brings opportunities for Emerson to better serve customers in hybrid markets, like food-and-beverage, by providing intelligent devices and solutions from processing through packaging.” nThe Bosch Group, one of the world’s leading industrial technologies and automation companies headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, has officially decided to seek a buyer for the company’s packaging machinery (PA) business, having decided that is its not a core strategic Bosch business going forward.

Employing about 6,100 people at operations in 15 countries worldwide, the company’s Bosch Packaging Technology division makes a broad range of packaging equipment and systems for the global food and pharmaceutical industries under the Sigpack, Doboy, Osgood, Kliklok and other well-known machine

brand names. With the Bosh Group keen to focus on the global IT (information technology) marketplace, the company’s senior management decided that the packaging business did not provide sufficient synergies for its future strategic direction—prompting it to put the entre division up for sale. “This decision will allow Bosch to narrow its focus on issues of importance for its future, such as the transformation of the Bosch Group and its future digitalization strategy, including the Internet of Things, and to pool its resources accordingly,” says Dr. Stefan Hartung, the Bosch board of management member responsible for the company’s Energy and Building Technology and Industrial Technology business sectors. “Also, a reorganized packaging technology business will be able to adapt more f lexibly to the diverse requirements of this typically SME (small & medium enterprise) market.” n Australian packaging machinery manufacturer tna solutions Pty Ltd. has opened up a new office and training facility in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, to support local food manufacturers with an expanded

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NOTES & QUOTES range of new services and enhanced technical support, according to the company. “Our business and team in Latin America have grown immensely over the last few years,” says Thiago Roriz, general manager for tna Latin America. “We’ve experienced a 31-percent increase in sales in the last three years alone and have doubled the size of our local sales and technical support team.

Our new site is almost three times bigger than our previous office, which means we’re not only able to accommodate our growing team of experts, but can now also offer customers a dedicated training area, so they can be sure that their teams are equipped with the knowledge and tools to safely operate all equipment.” nBroomfield, Colo.-headquartered metal packaging products group Ball Corporation has reached an agreement to sell its tinplate steel manufacturing assets to private capital investment fund Platinum Equity for over US$600 million as part of a deal that provides for the formation a joint-venture company operating under the name Ball Metalpack. With Platinum Equity owning 51 per cent and Ball the remaining 49 per cent, Ball Metalpack will manufacture steel containers for aerosol products, food, household consumable, pet food, nutritional supplements and other products sold in the U.S. Comprising production facilities in Canton and Columbus, Ohio, Milwaukee and Deforest, Wis., Chestnut Hill, Tenn., Horsham, Pa., Springdale, Ark., and Oakdale, Ca., the tinplate assets covered by the transaction generate revenues of US$746 million last year, according to Ball. “We have a longstanding relationship with the Platinum Equity team, who have created tremendous value in the packaging sector,” says Ball’s president and chief executive officer John Hayes. “Our management knows them well and we are confident they are the ideal partner.” The agreement has no bearing on the aluminum aerosol packaging facilities operated by Ball in the U.S., Canada, Europe, India and Mexico, its steel aerosol facilities in Argentina, and the aluminum beverage container facility in Findlay, Ohio, which will all continue to be whollyowned and operated by Ball. nWayne, Pa.-headquartered TekniPlex, Inc. has completed the acquisition of the healthcare packaging, performance lidstock, induction seal and specialty lamination businesses of f lexible packaging products manufacturer Oracle Packaging from private capital investment group Centre Lane Partners, LLC. The deal includes the purchase of Oracle’s 450,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in WinstonSalem, N.C., which employs about 170 people to produce pouchstock and sterilizable barrier laminates, lidstock prod-

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ucts, induction heat-seals and specialty laminates that will be integrated into Tekni-Plex’s Tri-Seal liner division, which operates manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. “The addition of the Oracle product lines to our Tri-Seal business unit will enable us to combine our existing liner expertise with complementary specialty packaging offerings,” says Tekni-Plex president and chief executive officer Paul Young. “Growing our f lexible packaging capability with new lidding and pouchstock products will enable us to provide additional value to our existing customers and to penetrate new markets.” nProtective packaging products and systems manufacturer Pregis LLC has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Free-Flow Packaging International, Inc.,

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Fremont, Ca.-headquartered manufacturer of protective interior packaging solutions employing about 360 people at two factories in the U.S. and additional locations in Germany, France and The Netherlands. “The acquisition of FP International will benefit our combined customer base by providing a robust set of diverse solutions and accelerated product development—most notably to address growing e-commerce shipping requirements. This also significantly strengthens Pregis’ geographic position within new international markets, supporting our global growth strategy,” says Pregis president and chief executive officer Kevin Baudhuin, adding Pregis plans to continue operating all five manufacturing facilities acquired in the deal. “We look forward to welcoming FP’s exceptional professionals to the Pregis team.”

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ALUMINUM RECYCLING EXCELS LIKE SWISS CLOCKWORK Aluminum packaging has long been hailed as a eminently recyclable and reusable packaging option for all sorts of products, and a recently launched Limited Edition of the famed Original Swiss Army Knife makes emphatic example of why that is so.

Released by knife manufacturer Victorinox in late spring, the Pioneer Nespresso Darkhan is the first pocket knife to bear a robust aluminum casing made entirely from recycled aluminum capsules of the popular Grand Cru Arpeggio coffee variety produced by Swiss coffee giant Nespresso.

Both Victorinox and Nespresso are iconic Swiss brands and the embodiment of pioneering innovation—not only in the development of new products, but also their sustainable production and responsible use of resources.

For example, Victorinox uses 100per cent recycled steel in the manufacture of its

knives because there is less energy is consumed in the processing stage when using this material.

For its part, Nespresso is widely respected for the widespread collection and recycling system for its coffee capsules in Switzerland and other countries where it operates to demonstrate its environmental awareness.

To mark 25 years of aluminum capsule recycling in 2016, Victorinox and Nespresso collaborated in an extraordinary manner to launch the Pioneer Nespresso Arpeggio pocket knife, bearing bear a robust aluminum casing made entirely from recycled capsules of the popular Grand Cru Arpeggio coffee variety, with a shimmering dark-purple

finish.

This was followed a year later by the release of another coveted collector’s item in the form of the “Pioneer Nespresso Livanto”, which came in a warm brown design.

The intent for this year is to build on the success of the two previous knives.

Featuring eye-catching deep-blue finish, the new Pioneer Nespresso Dharkan—launched on the eve of the International Recycling day in mid-May— contains seven practical tools, high-strength weld and blades, well-tested mechanics and highly durable construction to make it the epitome of a stable and versatile pocket tool.

NOVA CHEMICALS STEPS IN TO HELP FIGHT MARINE PLASTIC LITTER BY AIMING RIGHT AT THE SOURCE Calgary-headquartered plastics processor NOVA Chemicals is donating nearly $2 million to the international Project STOP imitative aimed at designing and implementing solution to reduce marine plastic pollution—especially in countries with high leakage of plastics into our oceans.

“We understand the growing concern about marine plastic pollution and agree we must take meaningful action to address this challenge,” says John Thayer, vice-president of the NOVA Chemicals’ polyethylene business.

“Plastics are too valuable to be thrown away or left as litter,” he says, “which is why we are working with Project STOP to find high-impact solutions to prevent plastic pollution in critical locations around the world.”

With Southeast Asia identified as a major source of marine plastic debris—with the region’s plastic consumption and economic growth outpacing the expansion of waste management systems—Project STOP has chosen Indonesia as a primary focus country.

To that end, NOVA Chemicals’ investment will support the first city partnership in Muncar, a coastal fishing community located in Banyuwangi, Indonesia.

With minimal waste services in place, many citizens are forced to dump their waste directly into the environment. Muncar was chosen as the first STOP location due to the seriousness of the challenge, coupled with strong leadership and environmental commitment at national, regency and local levels.

Project STOP was co-created in 2017 by Borealis and SYSTEMIQ. As a sister company of NOVA Chemicals, Borealis is a leading provider of innovative solutions in the

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field of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers, while SYSTEMIQ specializes in co-creating and invests in innovative solutions for sustainable land use, material and energy systems.

“Project STOP represents an important step towards creating a plastics circular economy,” says Boralis chief executive officer Alfred Stern.

“We are more than pleased that after our joint venture with Borouge, our sister company NOVA Chemicals joins forces with us in this industryleading initiative,” Stern states.

“The collaboration of Borealis, Borouge and NOVA Chemicals highlights our commitment to proactively help solve the issue of ocean plastic.”

The Project STOP is focused on achieving three primary objectives: • Zero leakage of waste into the environment by ensuring waste collection services are available to all households and businesses through increasing pick-up points, sorting facilities and staff.

• Increased recycling of plastics by strengthening

the supply chain from waste collection to waste management companies.

• Benefits for the local community by creating new jobs in the waste management system and reducing the impacts of mismanaged waste on public health, tourism and fisheries.

“We are delighted to work with NOVA Chemicals to stop plastic pollution from reaching the world’s oceans,” says Martin Stuchtey, founder and managing partner of SYSTEMIQ. “There is a great need to accelerate circular waste management solutions in Asia, and we are very excited to design and deliver this new city partnership model by working collaboratively with our global corporate partners and our government partners in Indonesia.”

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

ECO-PACK NOW

TEAMWORK STRENGTHENS ALUMINUM VALUE CHAIN Teamwork goes a long way in the pursuit of packaging sustainability, which is why a new partnership between German aseptic packaging products supplier SIG Combibloc and global packaging group Amcor looks like a promising start to reaching the goal of responsible aluminum sourcing across the value chain.

With SIG committed to sourcing direct packaging materials from only certified sources, the producer of Combibloc paperboard beverage cartons has hooked up with Amcor, one of its main aluminum suppliers in Europe and Asia, to ensure that all the aluminum used in SIG’s cartons meets the international ASI (Aluminum Stewardship Initiative) standards.

These standards insist on adopting key principles that must be met along the supply chain of aluminum and address the main sustainability risks and potential impacts, including: • Significant energy use and the release of greenhouse gases in the process of converting bauxite ore into aluminum; • Impacts on local communities and natural habitats from mining.

• The potential for water pollution from production waste.

ASI has recently launched a new certification program for the aluminum value chain, which focuses on responsible production, sourcing, and stewardship of this important industrial metal.

While the lion’s share of SIG’s drink cartons is produced with recyclable paperboard, most of them use a razorthin aluminum layer to protect the contents from light, oxygen, and external odors. Both SIG and Amcor have expressed support strong support for ASI’s initiative as very effective move to in create long-term consensus.

Because such initiatives often take time to be adopted throughout the industry, the two partners engaged an authoritative third party verification body DNV GL to conduct pilot assessments. The pilot looks at the value chain of aluminum foil all the way to the bauxite mines and is intended to provide a snapshot of performance

against the ASI Performance Standard.

“Engaging suppliers on improving sustainability performance from mine to manufacturing is a challenging task,” says DNV GL’s principal consultant Colin Morgan.

“We are proud to work together with SIG and Amcor to bring visibility over their supply chains, build capacity, and help all stakeholders to get ready for ASI through our pilot audits.

“This is a pioneering approach to multi-tier engagement that delivers value and benefits for all involved,” Morgan states.

Adds Christian Bauer, SIG’s manager of environmental

affairs: “Our aim is clear. This is not a pass/fail exercise, but a collaborative approach to share industry best practices and ensure we are at the forefront of sourcing aluminum foil that will meet or surpass the ASI performance standards, ensuring continuous environmental improvement as well as best in class ethical practices.”

Says Amcor’s sustainability director Gerald Rebitzer: “What we found was that the performance of the assessed sites generally aligns very well with the requirements of the ASI performance standard, and we are already working with the suppliers to close any gaps. The results are very encouraging.”

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CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

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COVER STORY

RULING THE ROOST

Family-owned chicken processor keeps spreading its wings in a highly competitive market through proactive investment in advanced food safety systems and technology

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR PHOTOS BY NAOMI HILTZ

A

chicken in every pot may have been a luxury for some in days long gone, but with massive advances in farming, processing and packaging technologies since then, enjoying a healthy serving of this exceptionally versatile and nutritious protein has become as routine and commonplace among North American consumers as knocking back a cup of coffee in the morning.

That said, such product availability and ubiquity would never be possible without the enormous and tireless behind-the-scenes efforts by companies like Premium Foods and Direct Poultry to help keep the poultry products supply chain running like clockwork for the consumers’ benefit.

Founded 14 years ago by Augo Pinho, the Torontobased company specializes in secondary processing of fresh chicken and turkey for customers in the retail, foodservice and industrial markets—daily processing thousands of pounds of incoming raw poultry into the more ready-to-cook products ranging from deboned chicken breasts and ground chicken meat, to drumsticks and chicken wings.

“Pretty much whatever the customer specifies: be it fresh, frozen, organic, deboned, MAP (modified atmosphere packaging), IQF (individually quick-frozen) or fully cooked,” says company vice-president Chris Hobbs.

Operating two plants in the northwest Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, the family-owned company has enjoyed steady growth since coming entering the poultry processing industry under the ADP Direct Poultry Ltd. corporate banner—changing its name about a year ago to reflect its diversification into the retail frozen-food product segment and the launch of its flagship Chef’s Kitchen retail brand.

“We also do a lot of co-packing for other food manufacturers,” Hobbs told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the company’s second 50,000-square-foot facility started up about four years to accommodate its growing grocery retail business.

Currently employing 190 people at the two plants— also including the original 21,000-square-foot facility a few of city blocks away—Premium Foods runs a busy production schedule to turn out well over 250 different SKUs (stock-keeping units) for its growing client base, now stretching into Western Canada and some select U.S. markets.

“This newer plant normally operates a two-shift schedule, six-days-per-week,” says Hobbs, who joined the company about two years ago after a long stint in the financial services industry.

As Hobbs relates, the company’s success is rooted in its exceptionally quick turnaround in order fulfillment—

12 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Premium Foods & Direct Poultry founder and president Augo Pinho (left) and company vice-president Chris Hobbs display boxes of premium-quality chicken wings the company copacks for a major western Canadian food distributor at the larger of its two production facilities in Toronto’s west end.

especially for smaller businesses finding themselves short of product to put on their store-shelves or menus.

“The company started out on the idea of being a 911 chicken delivery service to help retailers and other customer to overcome temporary inventory shortfalls,” he explains, “and we have the capability to serve them within hours of them placing their order if they are close enough, and certainly within a business day.

“Also, being a federally inspected facility allows us to

serve customers right across the country,” Hobbs points out, “as well as export to the U.S. “It’s a key pre-requisite for serving the regional distribution centers for major grocers, as well customers in the industrial foodservice sector.”

To achieve this status, the company has worked tirelessly over the years to maintain the highest HACCP (Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Points) food safety standards possible, along with obtaining the internationally recognized food safety certifications from both BRC (British Retail Consortium) and SQF (Safe

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

COVER STORY Quality Food Institute).

Both plants are also fully USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture)-approved for selling to the U.S. markets, Hobbs points out, and are also fully certified for organic and halal production.

While chicken accounts for 80 per cent of the company production output and turkey for another 15 per cent, Premium Foods is also very competent at processing all the other primary red meat proteins such as lamb, pork and beef to customers’ specifications, according to Hobbs.

“Every meat except seafood,” he states.“Be it a couple of boxes or several truckloads, we are here to serve all our customers, whatever their size.”

To ensure premium quality products, Premium Foods invests considerable capital in new processing machinery and methods, explains Hobbs, citing recent installation of a made-in-Italy Stalam defrosting unit that employs radio frequency (RF) technology to achieve rapid defrosting of bulk meat, rather than microwaving or other conventional techniques.

“This is only the second such system to be installed anywhere in Canada,” sates Hobbs, praising the inline system’s exceptional throughout speed, gentle product handling, and operational flexibility that allows for bulk frozen chicken to be put through the system in the same distribution packaging in which the product had arrived.

“We load it up with meat frozen solid at -18°C and it comes out at the other end 20 minutes later at -2°C, without us even unsealing the boxes,” Hobbs relates. “It has drastically reduced our time requirements for dethawing frozen product.

“Not only is the thawing process more rapid,” Hobbs extols,“but doesn’t cook the meat whatsoever, like a microwave defroster would.”

Among other notable capital investments on the processing machinery side, Hobbs proudly points to a new POSS mechanical meat separator, used primarily for making ground and sausage meat; a Mepaco mixer/ grinder; a Vemag model HP 25E filler; a two-stage Stein oven; and a high-performance mixer/former

Installed by leading packaging systems integrator PLAN Automation, the Eagle 400 RMI X-Ray system has already resulted in a dramatic reduction of bone complaints among the plant’s customers, while providing a high-accuracy means of detecting other tiny contaminants.

from Bridge Machine Company.

A major portion of the meat processed on these machines is quickly shaped into meatballs, sausage, patties, etc., and swiftly conveyed into the adjoining Ready-toEat product room for further processing or IQF freezing, as required, and final packaging in bags or boxes.

As required by the company’s food safety requirement, the Ready-to-Cook line is a fully separated climate-controlled room with its own sanitary requirements and procedures.

Line workers at the Premium Foods facility conduct visuual inpection of skinless deboned chicken breast son a high-speed production line that also passes through a recently-installed Eagle 400 RMI X-Ray machine to detect any overlooked bone fragments left inside the meat.

The spanking clean room houses a couple of recently-installed Vemag pressure cookers purchased to handle the plant’s fast-growing chicken wing business, with Premium Foods recently winning a long-term contract to supply wings to a leading foodservice distributor in Western Canada.

For company founder Pinho, whose 33 years of experience in the poultry business stretch back to his highschool days, the company’s promising early growth in the grocery retail segment is immensely gratifying.

“We have been at it for about five years now,” Pinho relates, “and I think that we are now approaching the top of our game.

“There is definitely a learning curve involved in getting used to a new customer base, different people to contact, different ways of doing business, a lot more contracts to renew on year-to-year basis and so on,” Pinho relates.

“But we are now running this business segment at full capacity now,” Pinho points out, “and we are continuously looking for new ways to do thing better and faster.

“I like diversification because there is a lot of innovation that goes into it,” says Pinho, noting the company’s recent name change is a reflection of the more innovative culture that the company is trying to nurture in the workplace.

“We felt it was the right time to differentiate ourselves from being exclusively with raw products, we decided to reinvent ourselves with the name change to reflect that not only do we also do fully cooked product, but product of premium quality.”

With Canadian population growth driven in large part by newcomers arriving from overseas, Pinho says that the timing of the company’s entry into the new fully cooked segment could not be better.

“We can do halal, we can do organic, we can do just about anything to tap into these fast-growing ethnic segments where chicken happens to be a very common

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 13

COVER STORY

Supplied by Reiser (Canada) Ltd., the high-speed Vemag HP 25E vacuum filler is capable of processing up to 25,000 kilograms of ground meat per hour to create consistent portion sizes ranging from five grams up to 10 kilograms.

dish,” he explains.

“We are already thinking about further expansion in the near future by adding another line and even purchasing another facility.”

Pinho says he is immensely proud that his company has never had to deal with a product recall, stressing that food safety is always a paramount priority in all of the company’s operations.

“We always strive to make sure we’re on top of the list when it comes to food safety,” says Hobbs, citing widespread use of the ozonization treatment throughout the facility to kill off pathogens and other potential contaminants.

“In addition to improving food safety, it also improves the product’s shelf-life,” Hobbs points out, adding that

the ozonization process enables the product made at the Premium Foods plant to easily meet all the U.S. guidelines for salmonella count ratings.

Naturally, rigorous product inspection is a major part of the company’s uncompromising quality control procedures, as evidenced by strategic deployment of highquality metal detection systems along four of its production lines—including two high-sensitivity Stealth series metal detectors manufactured by the Toronto-based Fortress Technology Inc. While the metal detectors have been working as good as promised, Premium Foods recently decided to elevate its food safety credential and track record to the next level by investing in advanced X-Ray technology to enable in-line detection of bone fragments in chicken

Championing Industry 4.0 Industry 4.0, is poised to change the manufacturing world in ways that may be difficult to visualize and comprehend. We continually hear about the benefits of 4.0, but when can we start to see them? The best form of vetting is seeing it in action—first-hand. So yes, visualizing 4.0 is exactly what we are going to do.

We are excited to announce our 4 Million dollar investment into building a live, functioning industry 4.0 laboratory at Humber College’s North Campus. Aside

The processing area of Premium Foods plant employs a highcapacity POSS mechanical bone separator in the production of its ground chicken meat, which is then used to make meatballs, sausages, patties and other similar products that are quickly cooked on-site and frozen prior to packaging in the adjoining Ready-to-Eat product room.

meat, which conventional metal detection cannot perform.

While the incidence of loose bone bits finding their way inside deboned chicken breasts and other parts was never at a crisis point, the company decided to take a proactive approach to the issue by contacting its longtime business partner and technology supplier PLAN Automation to suggest an optimal solution.

Well familiar with PLAN Automation’s capabilities through earlier installation of the Stealth metal detectors from Fortress, Premium Foods felt that acquiring

from being a 4.0 visual aid, the lab will act as a research and development hub allowing students the opportunity to explore new technologies that go well beyond 4.0.

Corporations will be invited to the lab and have the opportunity to ask questions and take a first-hand look at relatable system solutions and workflows before making the transition to industry 4.0.

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CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

COVER STORY X-Ray for its busiest production line handling its fastest-moving products (chicken breasts) would quickly pay off in terms of customer goodwill and company reputation.

They were not disappointed, as PLAN Automation quickly suggested the installation of a heavyduty Eagle 400 RMI (raw meat inspection) X-Ray system manufactured by Eagle Product Inspection LLC of Tampa, Fla. Installed about four months ago, the system has already achieved a “dramatic reduction of bone complaints,” according to both Hobbs and Pinho.

“It has provided a very effective means of reducing bone counts,” says Hobbs, praising the system’s super sensitivity levels that allow it to pick up even the tiniest fragments of bone—even those of bones that haven’t yet fully calcified.

“A lot of other companies we compete with still rely primarily on visual inspection by line operators to take care of bone removal, but it’s simply not possible to do it all at high speed with just the human eye alone,” Hobbs states.

Built specifically for the meat and poultry industries to ensure superior bone and contaminant detection in harsh environment requiring daily sanitation and hygiene procedures, the robust Eagle RMI 400 X-ray inspection machine combines proprietary SimulTask PRO imaging software with a userfriendly touchscreen to enable instant detection of bone, stainless-steel, aluminum, glass and stone particles as little a one-millimeter or better.

Designed to NAMI (North American Meat Institute) standards with hygienic construction and an IP69K rating for optimal protection anginas high-pressure and high-temperature washdowns, the machine incorporates innovative inclined infeed and outfeed conveyors which eliminate the need for radiation shielding curtains—eliminating product contact and reducing time needed for sanitation cleaning.

Supplied with a blue homogeneous food-grade urethane non-wicking friction belt, the system’s proprietary Eagle Repository function allows for convenient review of production statistics, the numbers of rejects and saved images, with all that information transferable onto a PC or network for further data analysis, as well as for product traceability purposes.

As Hobbs explains, the Eagle RMI 400 X-ray system’s primary purpose at the plant is that of a “redundancy mechanism” to compensate for whatever bone fragments may have escaped the initial visual inspection by the line workers deboning the meat.

“The line operator is still the first line of defense,” he says, “but this is as good a secondary line of defence as it gets.

“With both looking for defects, we are sure to catch them most of the time,” says Hobbs, praising the system’s robust high-speed operation that enables it to inspect up to about a 1,000 kilograms of chicken part per hour.

“Nothing is bulletproof, but having this highspeed system in place has reduced our bone complaints dramatically,” Hobbs states.

“It essentially eliminates operator error,” adds Mat Bédard, vice-president and product inspection specialist with PLAN Automation in Orangeville, Ont. “Being able to detect chicken bones of young

Skinless deboned chicken breasts that have passed through the Eagle 400 RMI X-Ray product inspection system are placed inside plastic bags and into shipping crates for delivery to the plant’s retail and foodservice customers while still in their optimal fresh state.

Also installed by PLAN Automation, the Stealth series metal detection system manufactured by the Toronto-based Fortress Technology Inc. Is one of several key quality control systems used at the Premium Foods plant in Etobicoke to ensure optimal food safety.

underdeveloped chickens whose bones haven’t had a chance to fully calcify yet has to be one of the toughest applications in the known X-Raydom,” he chuckles.

“And being able to detect other contaminants in addition to bone is a major benefit to companies like Premium Foods, because in many cases the contaminants originate right at the farm level,” he states.

“For example, free-range chickens are notorious for having a lot of small stones and pebbles being embedded in their flesh, and this system will detect all that.

“Being an organic matter, bone detection is in many ways determined by bone density and shape, so we may be looking at fragment of three or four millimeters in size, which is still quite small,” Bédard explains.

“There is really no such thing as complete guaranteed elimination,” Bédard says, “but if dramatic risk reduction is your goal, this Eagle RMI 400 X-ray as good a technology as it gets out there in the marketplace.”

Bédard adds that PLAN Automation provides aroundthe-clock service for all its X-Ray system customers across Canada with a staff of over 40 people—including nine fulltime service technicians—as well as an on-hand X-Ray sys-

tems inventory worth approximately $350,000..

Adds Pinho: “We train our operators extensively to know here the bones are so that they know where to cut them out, and they are very good at it, but having this second line of defense is critical for us.

“We strive to be the best we can be in all aspects of the poultry business,” Pinho concludes, “and having this advanced X-Ray technology in place is all part of our ongoing drive to succeed in a very competitive marketplace.”

π

Please see the Eagle 400 RMI X-Ray machine in operation at the Premium Foods plant on Canadian Packaging TV at www.canadianpackaging.com

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PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE

Roma Food Products president Pascal Ramacieri holding up a retail twin package of the company’s flagship Roma Deli brand of diced dry-cured Pancetta created on the high-perfrormance Variovac Optimus thermoforming machine installed at the company’s Saint-Laurent production facility last year by leading packaging machinery distributor Reiser (Canada) Ltd.

THE ROMAN FEAST Venerable Montreal sausage processor brings in advanced thermoform packaging capabilities to give its authentic deli creations a modern competitive edge

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR (with files from Pierre Deschamps) PHOTOS BY PIERRE LONGTIN

E

veryone knows that Rome was not built in a day. But most people will agree that when it finally did get built, the enormous time and effort to get it done was ultimately well worth it.

As one of the world’s most stunningly gorgeous cities, the capital of modern-day Italy continues to endure as one of Western Civilization’s greatest cultural, spiritual and intellectual centers still extending profoundly deep influence on many areas of modern-day society—with its world-class cuisine one of the many hallmarks of its eternal glory and fame.

And thanks to the wonders of modern food processing and packaging technologies, it is no longer necessary to travel to Rome to taste the city’s many culinary gifts to the world, with countless ranks of Italian food producers all over the world proudly carrying the torch of the city’s proud gastronomic legacy.

Founded back in 1953, Montreal-based Les Aliments Roma Ltée (Roma Food Products Ltd.) is a proud champion of the famed Italian tradition of produc-

Opened up in 1965, Roma Food’s production facility in the Montreal suburb of Saint-Laurent employs about 130 people on a busy two-shift, six-days-a-week production schedule to turn out an expansive product portfolio comprising overs 130 different stock-keeping units (SKUs).

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 17

PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE

A Roma Food plant employee pre-loading the bottom thermoformed semi-rigid plastic trays with pre-measured portions of diced Pancetta before running them through the Variovac Optimus machine to perform all the required gas-flushing and to apply and seal the top film layer with a super secure seal all around the package.

All the finished retail packages coming off the Variovac Optimus thermoformer are passed though a high-sensitivity Sesotec metal detector to check for any possible contaminants that may have inadvertently made their way into the package before being transferred down the line for secondary packaging.

18 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

ing mouth-watering Italian deli meats such as pepperoni, salami, mortadella, capicolli and other premiumquality Italian charcuteries made with the care, love and patience that have made these products such highlyprized delicacies to begin with decades and centuries ago.

Starting out as a pepperoni salesman in Montreal, company founder Pasquale Ramacieri Sr. has a good fortune to meet a local Italian-born charcuterie expert who was willing to share his vast knowledge of the Italian sausage production methods and help Ramacieri bring to life his long-held vision of bringing traditional charcuteries to Canada.

Capitalizing on strong local demand for cooked pepperoni, the hard-working duo proceeded to diversify the fledgling company’s product portfolio to other famed deli meats such as mortadella and capicolli— soon offering the Quebec market a growing selection of locally manufactured Italian deli boasting the same tantalizing taste profiles and quality as the deli meats produced back home in Italy.

With business taking flight, in 1965 the company established a fully equipped production facility in the north Montreal suburb of Saint-Laurent, where today the family-owned business produces approximately 130 different SKUs (stock-keep units) of high-quality Italian cold cuts for a growing range of customers in the retail and foodservice markets.

Employing about 130 full-time staff over a two-shift, six-days-a-week schedule that ramps up to nearly full capacity during the busy summer barbecue season, the 50,000-square-foot facility processes an average of 100,000 kilograms of meat at the two-storey building, certified to meet all the pertinent HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) compliance requirements as mandated by the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and the plant’s internationally recognized GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) standards certification for food safety.

“Some of our retail and private-label customers require GSFI certification today as part of doing business with them,” explains current company owner and president Pascal Ramacieri, noting that about 60 per cent of the factory’s output is shipped to into the retail sector, with the remaining 40 per cent allocated for the foodservice business.

“It is an extremely competitive business, with many acquisitions taking place in the past few years,” Ramacieri says, so the small- to medium-sized processor like us definitely have to be able to ensure our customers of the highest safety and quality of our product, while also being more innovative in the types of products we offer.”

Ramacieri adds that it is also important for Roma to play up its Quebec roots, with much of its retail product carried throughout the province by established grocery chains such as Maxi, Provigo, Metro and IGA—pointing out that over 70 per cent of the in-

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE coming raw meet shipped into the plant for processing comes from Quebec.

“Our products are made from ingredients of Quebec origin and, in addition, all the processing and packaging activities are carried out in Quebec as well,” Ramacieri says.

“This authorizes us to affix the ‘Aliments du Québec’ logo onto our products, which is what many Quebec consumers look for on their product labels.”

Insofar as product innovation, Ramacieri says the company has he a lot of rennet success with the development of so-called ‘cleaner’ product like gluten-free pepperoni, along with MSG-free a nitrate-free cold cuts, experimenting with celery power to replace sodium nitrate.

Such innovation has enabled Roma to expand into some new retail market in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada through the Loblaws and Walmart chains, Ramacieri relates, which is a considerable point of pride for the company.

“Little by little we are making Montreal Style pizza known outside of Quebec, says Ramacieri, citing the company’s immensely diverse variety of pepperoni comprising over 40 different flavor variations.

“In Quebec, we put pepperoni before cheese, elsewhere in Canada we put pepperoni on cheese,” Ramacieri proclaims, citing the company’s flagship Roma Pepperoni brand as a runaways market leader for pizza pepperoni in Quebec.

As Ramacieri explains, “We market ourselves, and our brand, as a family-owned quality conscious company willing to adapting to fill consumer demands for news varieties of products, while employing skill labor optimal consistency in our processing and quality, while maintaining the integrity of our product recipes.”

This means strict adherence to the traditional timetested authentic methods of seasoning, fermenting, cooking, curing, air-drying and curing of the meat to produce superior-quality charcuteries and sausages.

With some charcuteries requiring cooking and/or refrigerating and others simply dry-cured in special at temperature-controlled rooms, patience is a big virtue in terms of achieving high product quality.

Some of the popular dry-cured products like salami, sopressata, pancetta and salmetti, might be literally hung up to dry for 21 to 140 days, depending on size and product attributes such as desired dryness, texture and taste.

Manufactured by Videojet Technologies, the DataFlex 6420 industrial thermal-transfer printer is used to apply all the pertinent variable product information onto the retail packaging.

The Roma Food production facility also employs a made-in-Germany Multivac thermoforming machine, now in its 15th year of service at the plant, to make retail packages of the company’s famed sliced pepperoni, which is available in some 40 different variations, including the recently-introduced gluten-free variety.

For pre-cooked charcuteries such as mortadella and capicolli, the products are put in walk-in ovens to be slowly cooked until they reach a minimum internal temperature of 160°F (71°C).

Although the processes are different, all the fresh and cooked sausages processed at the plant are subjected to a similar level of close scrutiny and attention to detail, including the use of natural pork casings that are soaked overnight ensure optimal flavour for the sausage meat inside.

On the processing side of the operation, the Roma plant currently houses four sausage production (stuffing) lines and one grinding/mixing line to fabricate its sausage meat and products, while the packaging side comprises two vacuum-packing pouch lines, two rollstock film lines, one vertical form-fill-seal (VFFS) line, two tray-sealing lines, and one bulk-product box line.

Whatever packaging method or line is used to pack a particular products, the key is to always package each products at its optimal freshness point to capture all the captivating aromas inside the package, according to Ramacieri.

“Due to extreme space restriction at our facility, our

lines are not as fully automated as they can be,” Ramacieri concedes, but that may change in the future as the company continues to grow.

That said, to boost its packaging capabilities, the plant recently installed a brand new Variovac Optimus rollstock machine supplied by Reiser (Canada) Ltd., Burlington, Ont.-based Canadian subsidiary of leading packaging machinery manufacturer Reiser of Canton, Ma. Used primarily for packaging of sliced products, along with a few select cured items, the high-performance machine can produce both vacuum-pack and MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) packages intended to provide with the highest possible shelf-life performance for the packaged product.

“We take product shelf-life very seriously here,” says Ramacieri, citing shelf-life of 18 days for packages of Italian sausage; 45 to 60 days for authentic cooked charcuteries and pepperoni; and up to 180 days for the traditional dry-cured charcuteries.

Installed last March, the Variovac Optimus machine runs at a rate of eight cycles per minute, primarily using high-barrier plastic film supplied by the Cryovac

A vast majority of the Roma Food plant’s packaging film requirement are taken care of by the Cryovac division of Sealed Air Corporation.

The Roma Food plant makes extensive use of corrugated boxes made by Cascades Canada to distribute its retail products outside of Quebec.

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 19

PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE

A sampling of some of Roma Deli brand’s retail flexible and thermoformed packages made using various controlled atmosphere techniques to ensure extended product shelf-life and freshness.

division of Sealed Air Corporation.

“We are very satisfied with our acquisition,” says Ramacieri, “and we are also satisfied with Raiser’s service capabilities, which came in handy in the early part of installation due to some compatibility issues with a Bellmark printer supplied with the machine.

“The Reiser technicians handled the situation as best as it can be handled,” says Ramacieri. “We re very happy to be able to rely on Raiser’s technical staff at all times, which is a significant advantage.”

Due to the aforementioned space constraints at the plant, “We were looking for a compact machine that would occupy a fairly small amount of space,” Ramacieri relates.

“So our choice of the Variovac Optimus model, which is

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only three meters long, was very much in line with this requirement.”

As for the quality of packaging produced by the machine, Ramacieri says he is very fond of the “high-level sealing” produced by the machine, along with the “high-quality product presentation, which is a very important factor for products competing in the supermarkets’ refrigerated products displays.”

Manufactured in Germany by Reiser’s long-time business partner VARIOVAC PS SystemPack GmbH, the Optimus machine was designed as a compact thermoformer engineer to deliver consistent precision forming in both semirigid and flexible film packaging application with innovative RapidAirSystem technology that eliminates the need for pre-heating the film—thereby achieving vastly reduced footprint requirements.

Controlled via an operator-friendly touchscreen interface, the highly flexible machine stainless-steel machine can handle up two five different film widths and two film roll core diameters to produce packages of up to 110-mm in depth t speed of up to 13 cycles per minute, while offering many different options to facilitate seamless integration with metal detectors, labelers, filling machines and other systems to provide a turnkey packaging solution.

With capacity to store up to 40 individualized machine recipes, the Optimus machine is designed to facilitate quick format changeovers, according to the company, and it uses just one set of package guide bars to enable production of every packaging format it produces, including skin, steam and shrink packaging.

Critically, the washdown-ready system was designed in accordance to the highest hygienic and sanitary standards in the food industry, according to the manufacturer, which makes Ramacieri feel good about this fairly significant capital investment by the Roma manufacturing plant.

“Packaging will always play a major role in our industry,” Ramacieri reflects.

“Reducing the amount of packaging is one of our company’s strategic goals, and it should also be the goal of both the consumers and the packing industry at large.

“By using packaging that extends product shelf-life and reduces food waste,” Ramacieri concludes, “I feel like we are doing our part.”

SUPPLIERS Reiser Form/Fill/Seal Packaging

Ross Tray Sealers

www.reiser.com

Fabbri Stretch Wrappers

Supervac Vacuum Packaging

Vemag Chub Packaging

JLS Robotic Packaging

Reiser (Canada) Ltd. Variovac PS SystemPack GmbH Sesotec Sealed Air Corporation

Reiser Canada • Burlington, ON • (905) 631-6611 Reiser • Canton, MA • (781) 821-1290 Reiser UK • Kingston, Milton Keynes • (01908) 585300

20 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

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Medifast worked with KHS Bartelt Packaging Group to install a three-axis delta picker with Rexroth electric drives and controls for better product transfer between its pouching and cartoning equipment.

The Rexroth IndraMotion MLC platform delivers all the motion and robot control capabilities needed for multi-axis path interpolation in space and features a full software library of readyto-use kinematics for robotics applications.

ROBOTICS MAKES THE RIGHT MOVE FOR MEDIFAST Delta robot adds flexible automation, improves transfer between poucher and cartoner

I

n automated packaging operations, transferring products from one machine to another can often bottleneck the entire line. Jams can occur, products may need to be manually inspected, and overall efficiency may be less than optimal as machine operators spend time addressing problems.

Medifast, Inc. (www.medifastnow.com Owings Mills, MD), provider of popular clinically proven weight-loss and healthy living products and programs, recently sought to improve the transfer system between its pouching and cartoning machines. They chose to work with the KHS USA, Inc. Bartelt Packaging Group (www.khs.com Sarasota, FL), a leading manufacturer of filling and packaging equipment for the beverage, food and non-food industries, to implement a flexible automation solution: a new delta robot picking system controlled by an advanced servo platform from Bosch Rexroth Corporation (www. boschrexroth-us.com Charlotte, NC).

POUCHING, CHECKWEIGHING AND CARTONING Medifast supplies powdered, portion-controlled meal replacement products — soups, shakes, soft bakes, pancakes and so forth — for weight loss and weight management purposes. Each product carton contains seven pouches to match up with certain meals for the days of the week.

The powdered mixes are filled into standard 5-inch and 5.5-inch tall pouches by an existing KHS Bartelt pouching machine. Once filled, the pouches are sent

by pairs through a high-speed checkweighing system and then transferred to the infeed of the cartoning machine. Seven pouches are stacked lying flat in a bucket conveyor on the cartoner, then automatically inserted into the cartons.

According to Medifast Engineering Manager, Ron Marburger, these three key steps – checkweighing, transferring from the poucher to the cartoner, and stacking the formation for the cartoner – caused intermittent disruptions and inefficiencies that became a persistent issue.

“Using the previous mechanical transfer system, we didn’t always get reliable uniform stacks in the bucket conveyor, which caused jams on the cartoner,” he said. “And with the previous checkweigh process,

if one of the paired pouches was outside of specification, both pouches were rejected and had to be inspected manually.We wanted a flexible solution that was better at transferring product from the poucher to the cartoner.”

DELTA ROBOT DELIVERS FLEXIBLE AUTOMATION After investigating several options, Medifast and KHS Bartelt determined that a three-axis delta picker robot would supply the speed, flexibility and improved placement Medifast sought for transferring product coming off the poucher. KHS Bartelt provided an infeed system with third-party robotic hardware from Codian (www.codian-robotics.com Jackson, MI), controlled by the five-axis cartoner using Bosch

CHALLENGE – IMPROVE PRODUCT TRANSFER BETWEEN MEDIFAST’S POUCHING AND CARTONING MACHINE KHS BARTELT AND REXROTH SOLUTION:

RESULTS:

• Three-axis delta picker robot controlled by Rexroth’s IndraMotion MLC motion logic control platform • IndraControl L65 controller with Sercos ring • IndraDrive Mi cabinet-free integrated servo motor/ drives • IndraDrive M digital intelligent servo drives • IndraDyn MSK servo motors • IndraWorks programming package

• Better integration for pouching/cartoning • Stable, uniform pouch stacks for improved cartoning • Easy robot positioning, changeover • Reduced cabling, smaller machine footprint, higher ROI on floor space • Measurable improvements in throughput, OEE

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 23

The Rexroth drive and control platform provides all the functionality and processing power for both the robot and the cartoning machine, while using an external Sercos ring to integrate with Rexroth’s upstream controller on the poucher.

Mounted directly on the machine, Rexroth’s IndraDrive Mi cabinet-free integrated servo motor/drive units reduce cabling requirements and help minimize the size of the control cabinet and the overall machine footprint for better ROI on floor space.

Taking input from the checkweighers, the robot picks up the good pouches and alternates the orientation, turning every other one to provide uniform, stable pouch stacks for better cartoning and fewer jams.

Rexroth’s IndraMotion MLC motion logic control platform – similar to the controller already in place on the upstream eight-axis poucher.

For the delta robot, the IndraMotion MLC platform delivers all the motion and robot control capabilities needed for multi-axis path interpolation in space. It features a full software library of ready-touse kinematics for robotics applications, and supports fast set-up configuration using onscreen dialog boxes.

In addition, machine builders and end-users have the option to use Rexroth’s Open Core Interface software to author robotics sequences in high-level languages such as C++ if they prefer.

The controller hardware is the Rexroth IndraControl L65, a powerful, scalable unit featuring an ultracompact design and integrated standard interfaces, including Ethernet TCP/IP and Sercos®.

“Bosch Rexroth’s controller provides all the functionality and processing power that was required for both the delta robot and the cartoning machine,” said Tom Tomac, KHS Bartelt electrical engineering manager. The IndraMotion MLC controllers for the poucher and cartoner are networked together using an external controller-to-controller Sercos interface, which fully integrates control of the packaging process from pouching through cartoning.

“The external Sercos ring lets us share positioning between the two controllers,” Tomac said. “With the logic of the controller, the delta robot can track each pouch’s position deterministically in real time coming off the poucher and checkweigher without using a vision system. The pouching throughput speed can change and the robot will respond to the change without interruption.”

Networking both controllers and having the robot and the cartoner share one control platform also made it relatively simple and more cost-effective to integrate the robot into Medifast’s existing systems.

Rexroth’s user-friendly IndraWorks programming package was used to program the IndraMotion MLC platforms with a single uniform programming environment for logic, motion and kinematics.

The robot is powered by Rexroth IndraDyn MSK motors coupled with intelligent IndraDrive M servo drives. Both pouching and cartoning machines use

Rexroth’s IndraDrive Mi cabinet-free integrated servo drive-motor solution, which merges the drive electronics and servo motors into single units that help reduce cabling requirements and the size of the control cabinet as well as the overall machine footprint. Using the IndraDrive Mi allowed KHS to eliminate a freestanding drive and control cabinet and use a smaller, machine-mounted cabinet. Removing the cabinet and adding a delta robot led them to configure the poucher and cartoner inline. “This helped streamline the physical footprint of both lines, eliminating offsets between machines and allowing both systems to be installed in a straight line, saving valuable floor space,” added Marburger.The result is a higher ROI per square foot of floor space.

He added that alternating the product orientation has enabled Medifast to evaluate different options for reducing carton sizes. This could decrease container costs and allow more product density in the pallet, in the truck and in warehouses – with potential savings throughout their supply chain.

24 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

CHECKWEIGHING, TEARDROP POUCHES AND SQUARE STACKS The robot has helped improve multiple areas on the pouching and cartoning line. For efficiency, the KHS Bartelt poucher completes two pouches simultaneously; they are then discharged, separated and sent through two high-speed checkweighers before going into a single line.

The robot takes inputs from the checkweighers and only picks up and stacks the good pouches, while any rejects are diverted – significantly improving throughput. “This reduces the time operators have to spend dealing with false rejects and has noticeably improved their efficiency, especially when clearing out any remaining product during lot changeovers,” Marburger said.

Creating stable pouch stacks in the bucket conveyor has also been significantly improved. As is typical with powder products, the Medifast ingredients settle into a “teardrop” shape in the pouch – wider at the bottom than the top. In the past, the pouch stacks might not be even and stable, since the mechanical system stacked all seven pouches in the same orientation, with the wider teardrop shape all on one side.

“With the delta robot, it picks up and alternates the orientation of the pouches, turning every other pouch 180 degrees,” Marburger said. “We get much more uniform, stable stacks for insertion into the cartons, and much fewer jams.”

SIMPLIFIED PRODUCT CHANGEOVERS A human-machine interface ties in with the Rexroth IndraMotion MLC platform to control changeovers when different products are processed; depending on the product, the pouch “teardrop” can be thinner or thicker, which changes how the robot stacks the pouches.

According to Marburger, the Rexroth controller makes adjusting the robot arm’s positioning a snap.

“It shows all the coordinates for the robot, and it makes it very easy to change them when you need to,” he said. “That feature is very helpful, and we can easily train our operators to do it.”

MEASURABLE IMPROVEMENTS IN OEE Medifast uses overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) to track the performance of its manufacturing systems. Under the previous pouching-cartoning configuration the maximum OEE they were able to achieve for a single shift was 83 percent. “Most recently, the delta robot has helped us reach almost 97 percent OEE for a single shift, which absolutely crushed our previous record,” Marburger said.

Although this was the first time Medifast installed delta robot technology in their plant, the past experience working with KHS Bartelt gave them confidence that the move to robotic transfer would be a success. “We trusted KHS and it was very easy working with them,” Marburger said. “Plus, we’re engineers, so we were excited about bringing a robot into the plant.”

“At KHS, we know that one size doesn’t fit all,” said Marty Bechtel, KHS Bartelt Packaging Group’s sales director. “We knew that Medifast had the environment that would make the best use of this particular solution, and we knew the Rexroth controls and drives would make it easy to integrate it into their operations. It was the right move for them.”

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

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A close-up of the plastic twist-off screw caps used for pharmaceutical products that are lined and wadded with special lining materials on MMC Packaging System’s’ high-performance cap lining machinery for ensuring optimal tamper evidence and product protection.

MANY SILVER LININGS Canadian cap lining equipment manufacturer using innovative automation technologies to give its specialty machinery an extra cutting edge in the global markets

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR PHOTOS BY PIERRE LONGTIN

W

ith the global market for caps and closures estimated to become a US$58-billion business by the end of next year, companies supplying into this vibrant, fast-growing segment of the global packaging industry owe it to themselves to raise their game in order to take full advantage of that brisk growth.

For companies like the Laval, Que.-based MMC Packaging Systems Ltd., manufacturer of state-of-the-art cap lining/wadding machines and other postmolding automation systems for the caps and closures industry, anticipating and meeting market needs ahead of the competition has been a key core competency helping the company achieve remarkable success in many of the world’s fastestgrowing markets for these essential packaging products and components.

Founded by John McNally in 1968 as a tool-and-dye maker under the original Montreal Milling Cutter Co. Inc. corporate banner, the company developed its first cap lining/wadding machine in 1978—four years before the infamous

The MMC Packaging Systems manufacturing facility in Laval employs about 70 full-time specialists to design and produce a diverse range of automatic cap lining, slitting, band folding and assembly machinery for the global caps and closures industry.

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 25

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The model LM-270 cap lining machine manufactured by MMC Packaging is the company’s best selling machine, which uses a variety of Beckhoff Automation components and a PC-based control system to enable complete automation of all the machine functions, including feeding, mounting and cutting of the liner, along with inspection and reject confirmation.

MMC Packaging Systems automation specialist Oliver Turcot refers to the vivid graphic display of the proprietary ICON human-machine interface software (inset) running on the custom 18.5-inch control panel terminals manufactured by Beckhoff Automation.

“Tylenol Scare” in Chicago shocked pharmaceutical companies worldwide into beginning to insert tamper-evident liners on their products to regain the public’s trust.

With this practice quickly being adopted into the food-and-beverage and other CPG (consumer packaged goods) industries, the company quickly built up the manufacturing capabilities to produce more advanced cap lining systems and related systems for an ever-growing array of packaging applications.

So much so, in fact, that in 1991 current president Phillipe McNally, son of the founder, renamed the company to its MMC Packaging moniker to bet-

26 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

ter reflect the company’s growth and a more defined strategic focus on the caps and closures business.

Since moving its new state-of-the-art engineering and manufacturing facility in Laval, the company has steadily diversified its product portfolio with new innovative systems for cap closing, slitting, banding other elated applications, while its 2008 acquisition of machine vision and imaging specialists EOSAI elevated MMC up to a whole new level of technological competence and sophistication.

In 2015, the company reached a major milestone with the installation of its 1,000th machine, accord-

ing to director of sales and marketing Anthi Balafoutis, who credits the firm’s genuine commitment to innovation and continuous improvement for its excellence in the export markets.

“Over 90 per cent of our equipment is exported into international markets,” says Balafoutis. “Our primary markets currently are is the U.S. and Mexico, but we would like to focus our future efforts more on Europe, as we see odd growth opportunities there.

“Until recently, we didn’t realize just how many different companies out there are involved in the creation of something as simple as a cap or closure.”

Employing over 70 full-time specialists, the lively Laval facility is in many ways a model corporate citizen, having been named to the prestigious Deloitte & Touche list of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for the last two years running.

As acknowledged by company president McNally, “This award recognizes our ability to adapt to a changing marketplace, comparable to the best companies in the country in terms of product development, business development, and organizational excellence.

“I consider that our success is due to the commitment and efforts of all employees and I am very proud of our team,” McNally says.

“Our constant drive towards recognition as the sector reference and benchmark for product and service quality worldwide is spearheaded by a sharp needsoriented focus, and the credibility we foster with our partners customers through the consistency and reliability of both our people and products,” he states.

“In a market that is constantly looking for innovative caps and specialty closures, the dynamic MMC team takes the time needed to understand each individual cap manufacturer’s special machinery requirements,” adds Balafoutis.

“That’s why MMC Packaging is not only a reference point for post-molding automation equipment, but also an authoritative source of expertise in providing services related to the manufacturability of new closure designs.”

With the company’s growing global customer base now extending across food-and-beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, home-care, and chemical and industrial sectors, MMC Packaging has naturally developed a lot of equipment customization capabilities that enables it to introduce new value-added features on its standard equipment on a regular basis, according to Balafoutis.

“We have acquired a lot of experience when it comes to customization because there really is a lot of difference in the size and the geometry of the caps and closures used in the different sectors,” she states.

“And as one can imagine, there are a lot of very intricate closure designs on the market that require some type of automation to optimize their feasibility.”

To answer those clients’ automation needs, MMC Packaging offers a comprehensive range or equipment comprising: • Cap lining machines, high-efficiency systems capable of stamping out and installing liner disks inside the caps at rates of up to 1,200 caps per minute.

• Cap slitting and band folding machines. As Balafoutis explains, “We design and manufacture cap slitting and band folding that score the sidewall of plastic closures either with an arched slitting blade, or a cut-to-post technology, for creat-

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

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A close-up of a Beckhoff servo drive (above left) incorported inside the control cabinet of an automatic cap processing system manufacturedby MMC Packaging Systems at its Laval plant.

ing tamper-evident closures.

• Cap assembly machines, designed to assemble multipiece closures at high throughput rates.

• Cap closing machines. “This type of equipment is designed to reliably perform and repeat highly efficient and intricate closing functions for closure styles with various hinge and latching features,” Balafoutis explains.

• Vision inspection. “We have a dedicated inhouse team of vision specialists and software engineers that design vision systems uses to capture all sorts of closure defects at high processing rates,” according to Balafoutis.

Because automated machinery is ultimately as good all the components, devices and systems that go into its design and construction, MMC Packaging makes it a point to partner up with the best industrial automation suppliers in the business—such as Germany-headquartered Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG. With a strong North American presence—underscored by the company’s Beckhoff Automation Canada Ltd. office in Mississauga, Ont. and its parent Beckhoff Automation LLC subsidiary just outside of Minneapolis in Savage, Minn.—the company is a renowned expert in open PC-based automation technologies, supplying a broad range of industrial PCs, controllers, control panels, input/ output products, servo drives and motors, and automation software to industrial OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) worldwide.

“Our collaboration with Beckhoff Automation started in 2013, when MMC decided to lead the way of post-molding automation equipment built on PCbased controls system,” Balafoutis relates.

“Ever since, the partnership between MMC and Beckhoff has been growing stronger and stronger.

“As far as we are concerned, PC-based technology offers not only enhanced performance compared to traditional PLC (programmable logic controller) technology,” Balafoutis states, “but also new capabilities such as remote access and control, integrated multifunctional control and data reporting, and structured text programming that is easier to tailor,

MMC Packaging Systems technical director and company co-owner Marcel Bélanger strikes a pose in front of a new highspeed slitting and band folding machine being assembled the company’s Laval facility, which will operated at breathtakingly fast speeds of 2,400 caps per hour for the 28-mm tamper-evident enclosure.

deploy and maintain.”

Naturally, such ringing endorsement is sweet music to the ears of Ted Sarazin, Beckhoff Automation’s regional sales manager for Eastern Canada.

“The relationship between MMC and Beckhoff has been extraordinary on every level for many years now,” Sarazin states.

“Their management team are always eager for innovation,” he says, “which is very much in line with the Beckhoff ’s philosophical foundation.

“Moreover, they have a very high skilled engineering team who are always curious for new technology,

which is why they have incorporated many of our technologies into their systems.”

Specifically, the Beckhoff automation products deployed on much of the MMC-made equipment include: • The customized 18.5-inch CP39xx multitouch control panel, with extension pushbuttons, to provide optimal display and functionality for MMC’ proprietary ICON human-machine interface (HMI) software.

Designed for both control cabinet and mounting-arm installation options, the panels offer all-

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 27

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An MMC Packaging Systems team member navigating a CAD (computer-aided design) rendering of part of a cap lining machine on his desktop computer as part of the company’s continuous focus on developing better and faster machines for its customers.

around IP 65 level protection, and they can be operated at up to 100 meters away from the industrial PC with Beckhoff ’s CP-Link 4 one-cable display links.

MMC Packaging has acquired a lot in-house expertise in imaging and machine vision technologies that have enabled it to offer its customers state-of-the-art inspection systems to help its clients maintain optimal quality control on their cap processing lines.

•

The compact and powerful CX2040 four-core CPU (central processing unit) with an i7 processor to connect up to four modules to the scalable PC, with option to add extra PCIe ports for any additional required applications.

• The CX5140 family modular CPUs combining PC technology and modular I/O (input/output) level on a DIN rail unit in the control cabinet to offer a space-saving solution for various logic and motion control applications. Says Balafoutis: “The Beckhoff I/O is modular and easily adapts to our needs to enable us to connect all the sensors, valves, E-stops and security connections “It also makes it easier for us to add new sensors without additional wiring just by adding the required communications cards.

• The AM8000 synchronous servomotors, deigned to provide high power density to achieve precise control of angular position, acceleration and velocity.

Featuring small end turns and a fully potted stator to ensure perfect thermal contact between the stator and the motor housing, the high-performance servomotors—available in five sizes and three length dimensions for each size— are engineered for superior durability and robustness, with guaranteed service life of 30,000 hours for the wearing parts such as ball bearings.

• The AM8100 series servomotors for OCT (one-cable technology) servo terminal, featuring an integrated absolute encoder for high-speed digital data transfer—eliminating the need for homing by combining power and feedback within a single cable.

According to Beckhoff, “The high dynamics of these servomotors open up a multitude of possible application in industrial robots for pick-and-place applications, for example, or for general mechanical engineering applications requiring compact design and high positioning accuracy.”

All in all, using Beckhoff automation solutions has enabled MMC to develop better, faster and more flexible caps and closures processing machines for its customers, Balafoutis agrees.

“It helps us execute our vision of being a ‘one-stop shop’ for all post moldingautomation solutions—including peripherals, vision and inspection systems—to offer our customers a most comprehensive product offering in the market,” Balafoutis sums up.

“Thanks to our recognized expertise, MMC Packaging is committed to ensuring the complete satisfaction of its customers by offering integrated, automated and innovative products for the post-molding process of the closure industry; by providing an efficient after-sales service; by constantly ensuring the quality and reliability of our solutions, and by distinguishing ourselves with fast and ‘on-time’ lead-times.”

SUPPLIERS MMC Packaging Systems Ltd. Beckhoff Automation Canada Ltd.

1 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM 28CPK_Tsubaki_Sept18_CSA.indd

2018-08-23 9:18 AM

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Proudly posing for a group shot during the Factory Acceptance Test at Shubert’s manufacturing facility in Crailsheim, Germany, the Riverside project installation team includes (from left) Eva Weller, project manager with Gerhard Schubert GmbH;Christian Heppenheimer, project manager with Schubert Packaging Automation; Riverside Natural Foods’ vice-president of operations Justin Fluit; Riverside’s maintenance supervisor Chee Ming Kong; Davide Marai, service technician for Schubert Packaging Automation; Gerhard Schubert’s electrician Robert Ken Becke; and Gerhard Schubert’s mechanic Jonas Müller.

GOOD THINGS MADE BETTER A scalable automated solution provides Canadian granola bar producer with a solid packaging platform for managing brisk future growth

F

ounded in 2013, Riverside Natural Foods is a true snack-foods industry innovator guided by a principled passion for creating greattasting snacks made from entirely organic ingredients and free from the most common allergens.

Operating just north of Toronto in Vaughan, Ont., the company produces a variety of granola bars and bitesized granola balls (minis) the flagship MadeGood brand.

Offered in five different flavors—chocolate chips, mixed berries, apple cinnamon, chocolate banana and strawberry—the healthy and nutritious snacks are now sold in over 8,000 stores in Canada and the U.S. With sales of the MadeGood brand growing at a breathtaking pace in the last couple of years, the company recently found itself in urgent need of a fully-automated alternative to its original semi-automatic methods used to handle the secondary packaging operations for its MadeGood minis products.

After closely evaluating several options, Riverside eventually decided to go with the high-performance TLM (top-loading machine) packaging line technology developed by a well-respected German packaging machinery builder Gerhard Schubert GmbH. Founded over 50 years ago, the family-owned company has become a major player in the global packaging automation business in large part by the successful commercialization of its scalable, modular TLM systems widely lauded for their robust high-speed performance,

30 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

user-friendly operation and exceptional flexibility.

With the company’s Schubert Packaging Automation Inc. subsidiary located just a half-hour drive from the Riverside plant in Mississauga, Ont., Riverside staff were quick to learn and appreciate some of the key benefits offered by TLM technology—including compact machine size and quick format change, among others.

“Local support and service were definitely an important decision factor,” says Nima Fotovat, president of Riverside Natural Foods.

While Shubert’s TLM technology has been growing in North American installation base significantly over the last decade, in 2015 it made a full-fledged commitment to this “important growth market” by opening up a North American subsidiary in Charlotte, N.C., and Dallas,Tex., along with the Canadian operation in Mississauga.

With each location staffed by highly competent professionals, “The company can ensure the best possible service to customers throughout North America,” according to Schubert.

Following a thorough discussion of Riverside’s application requirements, Riverside proceeded to order a TLM picking line comprise of five machines to perform the for the final packaging of flow-wrapped granola minis with packages of different flavors into a variety of carton sizes and in special bag formats.

A robot places the Granola Minis snack-packs in boxes of four and five items per box, as well as in much larger packages holding 28 products.

As per customer specifications, Schubert developed various packaging sizes, which were created in close collaboration with Riverside in terms of packaging design and ideal machine operation.

Programmed to pack the five different flavors in four, five and 28-bag boxes—each in one chosen flavour— the TLM line employs five identical pick-and-place robots to box 400 bags of MadeGood snack pouches per

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

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Above: Comprising five submachines, the highly automated TLM packaging line from Gerhard Schubert has been operating at the Riverside Natural Foods production facility in Vaughan since March.

Right: The new system is equipped with a Transmodul track, which links the processes within the machine without interfaces, with the F2 robots handling the conveying and closing of the boxes.

minute.

According to Schubert, the five different flavors can be intelligently pre-grouped—with the help of Schubert’s Transmodul transport robot and an inline image recognition system—so that the granola minis can either be automatically packed on the TLM machine or, as an option, manually packed in large bags of 20 products each.

The products themselves, for their part, are fed by three identical vertical TNA flowwrapping machines with a capacity of up to 150 bags per minute.

For packaging in cartons, the products of one flavor are fed along up to three of the system’s continuously running conveyor belts.

At the same time, the different carton blanks are automatically taken out of the magazine, quickly erected by an F2 robot and glued together.

The Transmoduls then swiftly transport the boxes to the next station, where five F4 pick-and-place robots fill them with the products.

Two TLM line is equipped with high-accuracy scanners that detect the orientation and position of the flowpacks over a width of 600 millimetres.

This information is transmitted to the F4 pick-andplace robots for the correct pick-up and placement of the flowpacks in the boxes. The filled boxes are then transferred by a first F2 robot to a vacuum conveyor,

and there closed by a second F2 robot in one step and placed on the outlet conveyor.

For the special format packaging of the flowpacks into larger pouches, the scanner also recognizes the flavor based on product color.

This enables the intelligent pre-grouping of granola minis with different flavors, which are supplied unsorted on the product belt. The flowpacks are then pre-grouped into groups of four—each with two flavors—on the Transmoduls and transferred to the output conveyor by means of an F2 robot for further processing

by Riverside.

While the color recognition function for the pregrouping of different flavors was not originally part of the machine order, Schubert was subsequently able to integrate this capability on-site in time to put the system into operation.

Because the Schubert machines’ modular TLM technology offers high-level scalability and flexibility, Riverside’s continued volume growth can now continue unimpeded well into the future.

As Schubert Packaging Automation’s sales representative Giorgio Calorio explains, “Expansion of either the product range or performance can be implemented quickly through additional modules or robot tools.

“Our space-saving systems, which can be expanded

flexibly as production increases or as formats and product combinations vary, ensure maximum flexibility and efficiency,” Calorio states.

“This allows our customers to respond quickly to changing requirements without their having to invest in a new line.”

For his part, Riverside Fotovat says he’s very pleased with the company’s decision to invest in Shubert’s TLM technology.

“We look to Schubert to deliver superior engineering, efficiency and flexibility, while maximizing floor space optimization,” he says,“and that’s exactly what we got.

“We are very optimistic that this solution will help us with our continued growth well into the future.”

SUPPLIERS Schubert North America

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2018-02-02 • 31 SEPTEMBER 2018 CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

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THE RIGHT ROUTE TO SUCCESS

Made-in-Canada CNC router technology foam packaging products supplier real cutting edge

T

empe, Az.-based Foam Packaging Specialties, LLC (FPS) has been providing protective foam packaging products to customers in a wide variety of industries for more than 40 years—specializing the design and custom manufacturing of tight-fitting packaging solutions to keep sensitive and/or fragile products like electronic and medical devices safe and sound throughout their distribution cycle.

Employing 20 full-time people at a 52,000-square-foot plant a short drive outside of Phoenix, the company produces a wide variety of foam, boxes and materials suitable for diverse applications.

While most of its products arte made with polyethylene foam, the company is also very proficient working with low-density foams, high density-foams, antistatic foams, recycled foam, polyurethane foams, and high-density EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) foams for reusable applications in the automotive and military industries, available in many colors and grades.

Over time, company president Christopher Perry came to acknowledge that the company’s current technical capabilities just weren’t up to the level demanded by its customers, with frequent time delays in creating prototypes and models threatening to result in lost business down the line.

“Until recently we were doing this ‘old school,’ so that a typical sample could take hours to make,” says Perry.

“That time frame became unacceptable for us,” Perry states, “as some of our competitors were capable of producing a prototype and model in considerably less time. “Our customers expect models that fit their needs and are delivered quickly,” he says, “and we needed to find a way to do that.”

To prevent the problem from worsening, Perry began to examine several router vendors to see if any had a CNC router that would better meet his needs and create an advantage for a competitive and demanding marketplace.

Perry recognized that choosing the right machine to streamline the process was a crucial decision that would impact his company’s future production, growth and bottom line. To that end, he researched the routers of six different companies with the goal of finding the right product that would “at least put me on a par with competitors and get me up to speed.”

Perry contacted most of the six vendors, but ultimately he was really impressed by what he learned about AXYZ International, a leading global manufacturer of CNC routing systems and CNC knife systems based in Burlington, Ont. With more than 25 years of experience in machine building and technical support, AXYZ has manufactured, installed and supported more than 10,500 machines worldwide.

Maintaining state-of-the-art application development centers in Canada, U.S., U.K, Poland and India, the company’s vast repertoire of skills and competencies made a big impression on Perry.

During his extensive research, Perry discovered that AXYZ was holding an open house not too far away at the Southern California office, and Perry sent a representative to investigate. After the representative came back and elaborated on the AXYZ’s knowledge about the protective packaging industry and the quality of the equipment, Perry’s decision had been made.

“It was top-notch, all the way around,” says Perry, lavishing praise on the purchased AXYZ 4008 Series CNC table router, capable of producing models for customers in minutes, instead of hours.

“Up to then, they (FPS) were doing everything manually and outsourcing,” recalls Larry Daignault, AXYZ International’s regional sales manager for southwestern U.S. “Due to the growth of their business, they realized they needed to automate the process in house,” says Daignault, crediting FPS for their due diligence in identifying the right solution for their needs.”

Ultimately, FPS settled the AXYZ 4008 Series CNC Table Router machine featuring a dual digital processing system, along with multiple cutting tool options

for cutting diverse types of foam such as closed-cell polyethylene, open-cell polyurethane and reticulated foam.

The router comes in a range of five base sizes and different process lengths, and after examining the numerous options and the best use of those applications, the company’s router was equipped with a 5 HP spindle and an oscillating knife capable of working in tandem. In operation, the spindle can produce a smoothedged inlay cut, while the knife can easily cut foam material with a thickness up to four inches. For its part, the router consistently delivers precise foam pocketing, while the knife accurately performs finite profile cuts and creates outlines for cuts and inserts.

“I can add cutting heads when and if I need them,” says Perry, adding the router has helped his firm cut operating costs, while producing diverse and creative models that have been praised by customers.

All the FPS employees were trained by a certified technician on-site—within the scope of real-world production—to learn how to accurately estimate the amount of time required to create files, select the right toolpath job to be sent to the machine, and to estimated the time for the process of off-loading and installing new material.

“They have really been able to improve product quality and increase prodution through the application of this technology,” says Daignault.

Adds Perry: “The router has substantially reduced the time it takes to develop the model for the customer,” Perry states. “It takes my sample time down to two hours,” which is an incredible improvement from what had been anywhere from 10 to 20 hours.

Since coming online, Perry says that the router has proven its reliability and capability on an everyday basis. He is also enthusiastic about the other options the table router gives him with current customers and future prospects.

“Everything we produce looks professional and projects our full professionalism,” says Perry, adding he is very happy about having established a good working relationship with AXYZ. “This machine has really delivered outstanding results for us,” sums up Perry.

“In hindsight, I should have done this 15 years ago.”

SUPPLIERS Foam Packaging Specialties, LLC AXYZ International

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 33

PACKAGING FOR DISTRIBUTION

Anne Savard, Warehouse Director, Chassis Division Dorman Products, Inc.

THE SUMS OF ALL PARTS

A heavy-duty automatic tray-forming solution helping busy automotive parts distributor speed up its critical packing table operations

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR PHOTOS BY PIERRE LONGTIN

F

ounded exactly 40 years ago, Colmar, Pa.-headquartered Dorman Products Inc. has done many things right to virtually become a household name in the global automotive industry’s key aftermarkets.

Generating annual revenues of over US$900 million, the company supplies thousands of different automotive replacement parts, automotive hardware, and brake products to the automotive aftermarkets and mass merchandise markets across North America, Europe, Australia and the Middle East.

Boasting a diverse product portfolio ranging from intake and exhaust manifolds to complex electronics, wheel bolts and door handles, the company’s strong market presence and prominence have been built both through strong organic growth and an aggressive acquisition strategy that last year saw Dorman purchase the assets of Boisbriand, Que.-based auto parts supplier MAS Industries.

While Doorman’s integration of the new assets into its existing corporate structure is still in its early stages, there is little doubt that this acquisition has tremendous upside potential for Dorman’s future growth prospects.

Founded in 1997 by Mark Stermer, MAS Industries decided from the outset to focus almost exclusively on car chassis (frame) parts and control arms linking chassis to suspension hubs that carry the vehicle’s wheels.

With unwavering focus on its core strengths, high product quality and superior customer service, MAS Industries quickly rose through industry ranks, as evidenced by its successful entries into the U.S. markets in 2003 and into Mexico in 2006.

As a technology-savvy company that acquired its own proprietary cataloguing software to create one of the industry’s most accurate and complete product

34 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

According to Dorman’s warehouse director Anne Savard, the corrugated boxes manufactured by Packaging Technologies, Inc. have earned the MAS brand industry-wide reputation as the best-looking cartons in the business, which she says is essential to maintaining the brand’s leading position in the suspension parts segment of the industry.

databases, the company’s status as a bona fide Tier One automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer) was solidified in 2011 with the implementation of the ERP (Enterprises Resource Planning), WMS (Warehouse Management System) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems as required by the world’s leading car companies.

This rise to the industry’s big leagues was emphatically with the opening of a brand new LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified distribu-

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

PACKAGING FOR DISTRIBUTION

Located in close proximity to Montreal and major highways, Dorman’s LEED-certified distribution center in Boisbriand stocks thousands of high-quality chassis and suspension parts at all times, operating a two-shift schedule to pick orders for its many customers across North America.

tion facility stocking thousands of high-quality chassis parts and control arms.

With JIT (Just-in-Time) delivery nowadays being a standard practice across the whole automotive value chain, “This is a strategically advantageous location due to its proximity to various major highways and the whole greater Montreal area,” says Anne Savard, warehouse director for the Chassis Division of Dorman Products, Inc. “This building, which has earned LEED Silver accreditation as a validation of our commitment to sustainability, was significantly expanded in 2015 to add capacity in order to meet market demand for premium aftermarket chassis parts.”

As Savard explains, “There has been a notable shift lately in chassis technology, and we are at the forefront of the design and engineering innovations.

“It has been a major challenge has been to educate consumers that as cars become more modern, so should their steering and suspension replacement parts,” Savard states, citing the company’s founding philosophy of ‘Perfection in Fit, Form and Function.’

“Modern passenger vehicles are going much longer between oil changes than they used to,” she explains, which has created the need for a premium aftermarket chassis parts that do not need extensive maintenance and are proven to last.”

To fill this market need, the Dorman warehouse stocks an extensive selection of Dorman Premium XL, Dorman Premium RD and MAS brand aftermarket chassis parts, which are distributed from our facility to either retail stores or automotive warehouse distributors.

The fully-automatic PopLok tray-forming solution is a turnkey workcell currently used to make 12 packaging-ready corrugated retail boxes per minute for the facility’s picking tables handling control arm products.

Manufactured by the Eagle Packaging Machine division of the Paxiom Group, the automatic TopLok machine installed at the Boisbriand plant has significantly reduced the time spent on assembling corrugated boxes manually.

“Our new Premium XL product line has proven to be a real game-changer and disrupter in our industry,” says Savard, siting the facility proud track record of discovering “new markets, new technologies and new ways to meet industry needs.

“We have given the aftermarket steering and suspension industry a true alternative to the OE (original equipment) parts with the same modern chassis technology and premium quality,” she states, “and the market response has been great!”

QUALITY FIRST According to Dorman Products, “Few things in the automotive aftermarket business can hurt the bottom line as much as vehicles coming back due to low-quality parts.

“In addition to the negative effect on reputation when you have to repeat a repair, there is the loss of any profitability from the initial service.

“For us product development begins with completely understanding the professional technician’s needs, which is why we start with the latest OE parts designs, apply the latest OE technology, and build from there.

“This ensures that we always deliver the superior performance and unsurpassed quality our customers have come to expect.”

As Savard point out, “The quality of a part can’t always be judged by its appearance.

“There are plenty of generic parts out there that may look the same, but how

Built with a heavy-duty welded steel frame, the rugged PopLok tray-forming machine is controlled via an Omron PLC (programmable logic controller) and features an operator-friendly HMI (human-machine interface) for easy navigation.

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 35

PACKAGING FOR DISTRIBUTION

A finished mixed load of product is being secured to the shipping pallet by an automatic turntable stretchwrapping machine to ensure optimal product protection and load stability during transport.

they’re built and what they’re built from is what matters most.

“The internal components, the quality of the materials, how well it’s designed, who stands behind it … these are the things you can’t always see, but our customers know that they will always benefit from our experience and expertise.”

With most of these parts supplied on continuous basis from manufacturing location across Asia and the U.S., the Boisbriand plant operates a busy two-shift schedule to process its orders, with fall and spring months being the busiest times of the year for the plant’s staff.

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“We are still pretty much a very manual operation,” Savard explains.

“So rather than funning traditional packaging lines, we have 30 packing tables, where the staff are manually packing the parts in the boxes and preparing mixed orders for our clients.”

According to Savard, “High-quality packaging has been a key differentiator for us.

“We have long been recognized as having the best boxes in the industry,” she says, “and that has been a key selling point for us, especially for our Premium The Boisbriand plant makes extensive use products. of the TUFflex brand of packing tape from “We fully believe that the quality of Veritiv Corporation throughout its packaging our packaging must reflect the superior operations. quality of the products we offer,” says Savard, citing “flexibility and adaptability” as two of the key strengths that have enabled the Boisbriand to achieve the level of success that it has, despite the significant manual labor component in its warehousing operations.

“As a small facility, we are constantly adapting our WOW (work on weekends) scheduling and the working environment to meet customer demands,” says Savard, citing a recent installation of a new, fully-automatic tray-forming machine to help the warehouse workers improve their throughput—namely by not having to assemble the packing boxes and trays themselves.

Manufactured by the Miami, Fla.-based Eagle Packaging Machinery LLC part of the Paxiom Group, the fully-automatic PopLok tray-forming system has been a tremendous time and labor saver for the facility, according to Savard.

“Before the installation of this boxmaking equipment, all the boxes were assembled manually by the packers themselves, or by a designated person,” Savard recalls.

“That process involved repetitive movements, and it also slowed down the operating speed at the packing tables.

“Adding this equipment enabled us to significantly reduce the time required to prepare orders and the repetitive movements by the packers.”

BRINGING BRANDS TO LIFE.

Designed specifically to suit rugged packing application involving heavier items like auto parts, hardware merchandise, electronics and other durable consumer goods, the PopLok system is a highly flexible customizable automatic tray forming solution for reliable, high-speed erecting of self-locking die-cut corrugated and paperboard trays—with or without a lid.

Capable of forming multi-tuck trays, the ruggedly built machine—assembled on a heavy-duty welded steel frame—operates by gently pulling tray blanks, one at a time, from the hopper to a forming section, where high-precision plows then erect the side and end panels of the tray.

At the same time, the minor flaps are folded and the tray passes through a set of sidebars that fold and lock the rollover flaps into place.

Using no glue or tape, the PopLok handles a large variety of tray blank sizes and configurations to produce impressive finished product for shipping and/or display.

Says Savard: “Our new PopLok equipment is making up to 12 boxes a minute, and the average changeover time is approximately only 15 minutes.

“We estimate that we have saved the times spent on making boxes by about 60 per cent for our control arm products,” Savard relates. “When you consider that we sell about 280,000 of those particular parts per year, those time-savings have a significant positive impact on our productivity and efficiency.”

Adds Savard: “We are very satisfied with the machine’s performance and the whole installation and startup experience with the Eagle Machinery representatives.

“They were a real pleasure to work with,” she concludes, “and they were very professional in providing all the on-site training and other technical support that we needed to make this machine a real value-added part of our business.

“For a company that puts a big premium on quality, service, coverage and reliability like we do, this project was a great match.”

SUPPLIERS www.webermarking.ca

1.800.265.9974

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Eagle Packaging Machinery LLC

1 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM 36CPK_Weber_Sept18_CSA.indd

2018-08-29 11:09 AM

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

SHOW PREVIEW

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE Next month’s PACKE EXPO INTERNATIONAL 2018 puts Chicago front-and-center of the packaging universe

S

ince its inception way back in 1956, the biennial PACK EXPO International has created a reputation within the global packaging industry as being the biggest and most informative packaging event of the year.

And no doubt this reputation will continue its benchmarking way next month as PACK EXPO International 2018, along with the co-located Healthcare Packaging EXPO 2018, open their doors to both exhibitors and visitors from over 125 different countries, with its massive show floor full of machinery in action and packaging solutions as far as they eye can see.

Running Oct. 14-17, 2018, at Chicago’s grandiose McCormick Place fairgrounds, show producer PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, is expecting more than 50,000 attendees from virtually every market in the packaging industry to network, discover new innovative ideas and benefit from fresh perspectives on current and emerging technologies.

With over 1.2 million net square feet, attendees will have no shortage of vendors to visit, with well over confirmed 2,500 exhibiting companies at press time eager to provide attendees with a clear vision and practical answers on how to make their packaging goals a reality.

As part of the event’s Partner Program, Healthcare Packaging EXPO will continue its run as the most comprehensive pharmaceutical show packaging and processing show in North America—showcasing a diverse range of equipment and technology solutions for pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

“The Association Partner Pavilions at PACK EXPO International, and co-located Healthcare Packaging EXPO, bring together leading industry associations with decision makers from the world’s top CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies, retailers and pharmaceutical, medical device and nutraceutical manufacturers,” says PMMI president and chief executive office Jim Pittas.

“The expertise and industry knowledge provided by partner associations on-site offer an invaluable resource to attendees.”

With PACK EXPO often acting as a giant gathering platform for industry networking, there will be many market-specific partner associations hosting highly informative on-it pavilions, networking lounges and educational sessions to give the show visitors an unrivalled learning experience.

“One of the added benefits of attending the show is the opportunity to network and meet like-minded industry professionals,” says PMMI’s senior director of expositions Laura Thompson.

“Through these lounges, we are able to add value by connecting OEMs (original equipment manufacturer) and CPGs with those specifically in their markets.

“We look forward to maintaining our established alliances with these premier industry associations in order to continue bringing the industry together and, ultimately, effecting growth in the packaging sector as a whole.”

As always, the show will offer the latest information on the fast-growing range of important trends and issue s impacting the international packaging community with the participation of leading international packaging industry groups such as Canada’s own PAC Packaging Consortium; ANSI (American National Standards Institute); CCTI (Composite Can and Tube Institute); FPA (Flexible Packaging Association); GCCA (Global Cold Chain Alliance); HCPC (Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council); IoPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals); PPA (Paperboard Packaging Alliance); OMAC (The Organization for Machine Automation and Control); UPA (United Packaging Associates); and WPO (World Packaging Organization).

“The IoPP is very excited once again to support PMMI’s PACK EXPO International, and Healthcare Packaging EXPO through the Partner Program,” says Jane Chase, executive director at IoPP. “We look forward to our continued association with PMMI and PACK EXPO as we explore other ways we might help each other to better serve the packaging community.”

Every PACK EXPO International always has something new to offers to the attendees, and this year’s inaugural PACKage Printing Pavilion will be showcasing the latest advances digital printing technologies.

To be located in the South Hall, the specially-designated 50,000-square-foot area will feature all the prominent digital printing OEMs and their suppliers to deliver practical solution for addressing key end-user challenges such as SKU proliferation, micromarketing efforts, sustainability and traceability.

Specifically, the new Pavilion will place a heightened emphasis in its presentations regarding the advantages of digital printing, including short-run production, on-demand labeling, variable data collection and analysis, and personalized packaging.

Recent trends in the packaging industry have shown that consumers more than ever are seeking out more ‘smart’ packaging options, and the advancements made in digital printing have become a top-of-mind area of focus within the packaging industry at large.

“With the expected growth in digital package printing, we are thrilled to offer a space where end users seeking solutions can connect with the suppliers providing these new innovations,” says PMMI’s Thompson.

“Attendees will find cutting-edge digital printing advancements all in one designated area allowing them to maximize their time at the show.”

The nearly sold out PACKage Printing Pavilion will comprise of several marketleading digital printing companies who will be showcasing their technologies and key observations moving forward in the industry, including: Afinia Label, Engineered Printing Solutions, Epson, Hanglory, HP Indigo, KAO Collins, Sappi, Schober, Swiftcolor, Xante, Quick Label Systems and KBA. In addition to interacting with suppliers and exploring state-of-the-art technologies, attendees will also have the opportunity to take part in free 30-minute seminars taking place at one of the show’s several Innovation Stage locations, where some of the industry’s leading lights will be offering their well-informed insight on state of packaging today and well into the future.

For more details on PACK EXPO International 2018, go to www.packexpo.com or www.pmmi.org

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 37

SHOW PREVIEW

RECALL OF DUTY

Eliminating contaminants and avoiding product recalls and urgent priority for North American food manufacturers

BY MARIA FERRANTE

W

hile still being released at a staggered pace, some compliance and enforcement deadlines for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) are finally seeing the light of day.

With U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight, FSMA aims to ensure a safe food supply by enforcing legislation to prevent contamination. Its introduction caused food producers across North America to Maria Ferrante, evaluate food processes and machinery, much of which Senior Director, Marketing & required investment to meet the new legislation.

Communications, As a result of this legislation, food processors are plaPMMI cing an increased emphasis on hygienic design and machines made from stainless steel, which is easier to clean and resistant to harsh chemical cleaning products.

In fact, nearly three out of four end users surveyed in the Trends in Food Pro-

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2018-09-04 3:06 PM

cessing Operations report—produced by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies—cited cleanability as the Number One machine improvement desired on new equipment.

These manufacturers are also embracing technology such as clean-in-place and high-pressure processing to improve sanitation and food quality.

Most companies involved in the food sector have a team of individuals closely evaluating machinery and production line operations, design and performance to assess all food safety risks and establish all critical control points.

There are regulatory requirements for food processing equipment to be bacteria-free at the start of each process cycle, with CIP (clean-in-place) systems widely used to satisfy this requirement efficiently.

These systems have effectively become an integral part of the manufacturing process and run after each cycle to clean and sanitize equipment.

The developments with CIP have reinforced the increased integration of food processing and process control, as well as increased investment in software and automation in processing machinery.

Currently, FSMA does not have a mandatory validation requirement for CIP sanitation, but many CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies are taking this proactive approach to address food safety measures.

The OpX Leadership Network of the PMMI has recently released the CIP for CPGs (Clean-in-Place Guidelines for Consumer Products Manufacturers) manual that outlines generic definitions, equipment considerations and best practices for CIP that can be leveraged across multiple process lines.

The newly released companion checklist provides assistance to operators and their teams in organizing, developing and validating a documented CIP plan for processing equipment.

First, the design of processing systems must include cleaning methods. It is important to remember that only correctly designed, installed and maintained systems can efficiently and consistently clean in place.

It is imperative for the safety of personnel, products and longevity of equipment to assure that all the team members —operators, sanitation, maintenance, etc.—are all properly trained and aligned with the operational protocols and objectives of CIP. According to CIP for CPGs, for a system to truly be cleanable in place it must abide by five rules: 1. The unit operations and equipment components used in the system have been designed for CIP and have been verified.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

SHOW PREVIEW 2. Installation of the system must maintain its CIP integrity. This includes not only the materials and craftsmanship, but also the proper f luid dynamics for the CIP solution supply and return to the process equipment.

3. The process piping and equipment must be able to receive the prescribed f low, temperature, time, chemical concentration and pressure of cleaning solution required by the manufacturer or process design engineer.

Quite often, the process lines are not capable of delivering the CIP f low required by the equipment and additional design considerations are necessary. Active monitoring and adjustment of these critical process parameters throughout the cleaning cycle are critically important.

4. Once a CIP process has been validated, proper change control procedures should be in place to maintain an accurate record of the critical process parameters, including time, temperature f low, pressure, and conductivity/concentration).

Routine visual inspection, chemical residual verification on final rinses, and microbial verification are all common safeguards to ensure system performance is consistently achieving proper cleaning.

The validation plan is developed and maintained by the facility along with the chemical and equipment manufacturers.

5. A preventative maintenance and instrument calibration program must be in place to ensure the equipment and process are maintained as designed.

Periodic inspection of inline filters and magnetic traps is required to mitigate potential threats from foreign materials. (Worn elastomers, leaking seals, corrosion of stainless steel, and mechanical damage to equipment can all create serious concerns for cleaning.

All the CIP data can be electronically stored to provide producers fully updated with critical information to optimize processes.

Many companies have benefitted from implementing automated systems and tightening CIP control parameters—minimizing cycle-time and reducing chemical, water and energy usage.

Additionally, companies can electronically verify cycles and retrieve information in the event of a sanitation issue. CIP supports the demand throughout the industry for improved information on where products have been and how they have been treated—from source material to consumer.

Another way to alleviate the risk of contamination and the potential for food recalls is through the employment of newer more advanced processing technologies.

As PMMI’s recently published Trends in Food Processing report reveals, half of all food manufacturers are actively exploring or testing process technologies to not only eliminate contamination, but also improve food quality and prolong product shelf-life.

Although thermal pasteurization technology remains a core technology, concerns that

it may affect the appearance, f lavor and nutritional value of foods has caused new options to emerge.

Thermal pasteurization also does not necessarily meet the demand of modern society for natural, fresh and aesthetically appealing foods.

Newer methods like HPP (high-pressure processing) and UHP ultra-high-pressure processing are also viable alternatives to high-temperature processing gaining traction as of late, despite transitioning from the lab to the production f loor almost two decades ago.

Recognized by the FDA, HPP is an advanced food safety and preservation technique that uses ultra-high pressure purified water to keep packaged food pathogen-free and to stay fresh longer.

High pressure is applied to products at a level that reaches 100 thousand pounds per square inch (psi)— over 6.8 thousand times greater than ambient atmospheric pressure at sea level.

Unlike applying heat, this has little impact on en-

zymes and biochemical activity inside the packaging, which helps to preserve original product quality.

Before investing in the equipment and automation that ensures the elimination of contamination risk, food-and-beverage companies will have to do their due diligence to be certain they are acquiring the most costeffective solutions for their supply chain.

There is no better place to gain critical insight in preventing and managing recalls this year than at the PACK EXPO International 2018 packaging and processing technology trade show in Chicago next month, Oct. 14-17, 2018, at the McCormick Place complex.

Featuring over 2,500 exhibitors and 50,000 industry professionals, the three-day event will also provide many useful insights on the benefits of HPP technologies from the Cold Pressure Council.

For more information on PACK EXPO International 2018, go to: packexpointernational.com

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CPK_Fortress_Sept18_CSA.indd 1 2018-08-28 7:25 AM • 39 SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

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COLD AS ICE

Reviewing key equipment considerations for frozen food manufacturers

BY SEAN RILEY

A

ccording to the 2018 Global Trends Impacting the Market for Packaging Machinery report— produced by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing technologies—there a currently four Sean Riley, major macro factors driving Senior Director, packaging trends for manufacMedia & Industry Communications, turers of frozen foods.

PMMI Specifically, these Big Four comprise e-commerce; shifting global demographics; growth in disposable income; and educated consumer.

The growth in population across much of Europe and North America has stalled and, in some cases, showing slight declines. Conversely, populations have continued to grow in the developing regions of globe.

As increases in the population naturally lead to a growth in demand for consumer goods, there is ultimately an increase in market demand for packaging and packaging machinery.

As the PMMI report points out, the global middle class is set to grow at an average of 160 million people per year through 2030, with rapid growth in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. All told, the the next billion entrants into the global middle class will in fact primarily be residents of Asia.

The growing middle class means that a declining

proportion of the population is willing to work for low wages. Rising salary expectations in individual countries may affect where investment is made in both new and existing facilities, as well as the use of automation and robotics for companies to reduce labor costs.

In this light, food is no longer purchased for immediate consumption, as higher incomes allow for more expensive grocery shopping trips. As salaries increase and urbanization continues, buying habits of end-users are also changing, as a growing middle class now finds itself with an increased disposable income. This has given a more substantial proportion of the population access to foods that were once unaffordable, including processed food products.

Notably, many frozen foods are now finding new outlets in areas that did not previously offer access to refrigeration, or where refrigeration was too costly.

Additionally, Millennials recently surpassed Baby Boomers as the most substantial generation. As noted numerously, preferences between these two generations vary significantly, with the younger generations clearly preferring premium, sustainable goods and convenience products much more than their predecessors. This will create not only a change in the products produced, but also the packaging methodology and packaging machinery used to manufacture them.

As Millennials become the dominant global consumers, reducing the depletion of natural resources such as water, non-renewable energy sources, and rain-

forests are all top-of-mind items.

As a result, manufacturers are expected to drive environmentally friendly solutions throughout their operations.

In addition to heightened corporate social responsibility, tighter regulations and heavy taxes related to the protection of the environment are driving investment in solutions that optimize the use of resources, minimize damage to the environment, and reduce waste.

Finally, eince e-commerce became a valid market driver in the past five years, CPGs in the frozen-food space have anxiously awaited some indication of how it can get into this space.

While Amazon shook up the retail food sector in June 2017 when it purchased Whole Foods for US$13.7 billion—now approaching a 20-percent share of the online grocery market in the U.S.—Walmart is not taking this defeat lying down, launching or testing several new technologies, such as Scan & Go, to enable consumers to receive packages when they’re not home, while also expanding its online delivery service to include more products.

With a litany of consumer changes impacting the frozen-food industry, next month’s PACK EXPO International 2018 packaging and processing technologies trade show will offer a prime opportunity to gain critical insight into the evolving consumer mindset and the equipment these manufacturers will need to have to keep pace.

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2017-07-31 2:32 PM

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BETTER LINKS IN THE CHAIN

Ensuring food safety, quality and transparency through blockchain technology

BY JORGE IZQUIERDO

W

ith today’s increasingly complex supply chain, brands face an ever-growing challenge to ensure only the best and safest version of their products reach consumers.

Food products see many handlers between creation and distribution before even reaching the consumer, which naturally incites more opportunity for quality and safety issues to occur—potentially leading to recalls and other major Jorge Izquierdo, health concerns.

Vice-President, In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Market Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety PMMI and Inspection Service, recorded a total of 456 food recalls in the U.S. in 2017.

Other challenges lie in assuring proper documentation of each step of the supply chain. Without these measures, information can get lost and severely compromise a brand’s image.

The current supply chain system does not always allow consumers and other stakeholders to distinguish the true value or origin of food products adequately.

Without assigning dedicated, traceable values to these products, it can be difficult for third parties to verify at what point in the supply chain the issue may have arisen.

However, the recent emergence of so-called blockchain technology is showing a lot of promise in addressing this issue. In fact, nearly six out of 10 large corporations are currently considering using blockchain.

As consumers and participants in the supply chain demand greater transparency, blockchain has the potential to transform how information about a food product flows from farm to fork—to ensure quality and safety by adding greater visibility and efficiency to the process.

Originally developed as an accounting method for the virtual currency Bitcoin, blockchains are cropping up in various commercial applications today as a way to verify the authenticity of products or goods. Blockchain is a digitized, continuously growing list of records or blocks, which are securely linked using cryptography.

After completing a block, the technology produces a new block while permanently securing the old in linear, sequential order—similar to links in a chain. Each block contains cryptographic information from the preceding block, a time-stamp and transaction data.

By design, the technology is immutable or inherently resistant to data modification or deletion, as every block links to the one before and after it.

Blockchain technology has the potential to change the way we purchase, sell and make transactions for goods and services. By combining ease-of-use and the security of cryptography, blockchain can be used for any exchange, agreements or contracts, as well as making and tracking payments.

In short, it allows the supply chain community to verify and monitor the entire process.

Blockchain has the potential to serve as a highly beneficial tool for the food industry.

Food products change hands numerous times across a supply chain: from ingredients manufacturers to processing facilities, to packaging operations—sometimes co-packers—packagers—to shipping and distribution, and, finally, retail.

Even then, a growing e-commerce market adds an additional layer of complexity when products are shipped from the retailer to the consumer.

With blockchain, each transaction can be recorded and later viewed in a permanent decentralized repository—reducing potential delays, added costs, and the risk of human error.

For example, should an issue arise with a food product, users with system access can pinpoint where the problem originated and react accordingly, saving precious time that could otherwise see major harm to consumers’ health and a brand’s image. Once the manufacturer identifies the source of the problem, the food company can adjust their recall, selecting only the items that were afflicted and posed a risk.

This step ultimately saves costs of scrapping an entire run or order of a product that was not compromised by the error.

Additionally, faster reaction times are possible because supply chain information is readily available in the decentralized system. Rather than spending weeks attempting to identify where an issue arose, stakeholders can receive the necessary information within one to several days and respond accordingly, minimizing damage.

Although a key benefit of blockchain is its immediate depiction of data and information, another critical benefit is its added security. The technology enables companies doing business with each other to record transactions indelibly.

Blockchain’s key strength lies in its trustworthiness, as it is impossible to reverse or change what has been recorded.

With blockchain, brands can not only rest assured that their data is safe, but can also build trust with their customers. The technology is designed to provide even greater visibility into the complex steps of the supply chain, which enhances brands’ ability to meet consumer demand for more information about their products or to meet government regulations. Authenticating a product’s journey across the supply chain reveals its exact origin and history, which can help to substantiate product claims and, ultimately, build trust.

To learn more about how food brands can boost safety, quality and transparency through the use of blockchain technology, progressive food manufacturers should will do themselves a big favor by attending next month’s PACK EXPO International 2018 packaging and processing technologies trade show, Oct.14-17, 2018, at the McCormick Place in Chicago, to get their blockchain journey started.

For more information on the big event, go to: www.packexpointernational.com

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SHOW AND TELL!

Cutting-edge technologies to see at PACK EXPO International 2018 horizontally between production f loors or different elevations. Wedge elevators are ideal for environments requiring compact footprints, transitions between travel orientations and creating passageways on the production f loor. Rapid transfer rates make them ideal for continuous high capacity packaging line operations.

For those applications where production orientation is critical, be sure to see the 3200 Series conveyor with Intralox Activated Roller Belt (ARB) Technology, which is engineered for moving boxes and packages in merging, diverting and aligning applications.

Booth N-4936

METTLER TOLEDO Product Inspection will display all of its renowned inspection systems in one large 8,000-square-foot booth, where the company’s comprehensive equipment range will be grouped by types of product inspection, rather than by types of equipment—let ting attendees to explore multiple inspection solutions in one conveniently location to the challenges they are most interested in. The equipment groupings—including metal detectors, checkweighers, machine vision and X-ray inspection systems, serialization and track-and-race systems, will be demonstrated in areas for free-f lowing and bulk products, packaged products, pharmaceutical products, rigid containers, pumped food products and unwrapped and unpackaged products. METTLER TOLEDO specialists with expertise in these areas will be available to explain and answer questions about the features and benefits of each system in relation to the particular inspection challenge, as well as the company’s full range of service tools designed to maximize equipment uptime. In addition, two special demonstrations will inspect chicken pieces using the METTLER TOLEDO Profile Advantage Metal Detector, displaying the ability of this system’s multisimultaneous frequency technology to significantly reduce and virtually eliminate false rejects. Among the equipment being exhibited in these groupings will be several new ground-breaking inspection systems in X-ray and checkweighing applications, along with a live demonstration of using vision systems to avoid mislabelling—the cause of about 40 per cent of all food product recalls.

Booth S-1735

Dorner Mfg. Corp will highlight its next-generation Generation AquaGard 7350 (V2) Series

42 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

stainless-steel conveyor for dry, wipedown and wet environment applications. According to the company, the new AquaGard and AquaPruf sanitary platforms are engineered with strong hygienic designs that minimize product debris from entering the food zones, and allow for fast and effective sanitation. The improved frame design on the AquaGard 7350V2 provides more strength around the tail sections of the conveyor, and better drive support for superior performance.

Other conveyors on display will include Dorner’s SmartFlex Helix Conveyor, designed for tight product handling applications where product needs to travel up or down in a confined space. The conveyor’s compact design allows for five feet of elevation change in 10 feet (incline angle of up to 12 degrees), giving users more freedom and f lexibility in designing a material handling system with multiple layouts using a single conveyor. The SmartFlex Helix comes in three belt widths and doesn’t require any lubrication for a cleaner environment and reduced risk of contamination. The SmartFlex Helix will be operating in a loop with a 3200 Series modular belt conveyor and a SmartFlex Wedge Elevator—a system where products are wedged securely between opposing conveyors to move them vertically or

Ryson International will showcase the company’s New Ryson Narrow Trak Spirals, which are designed as space-saving, compact vertical conveyors designed to handle small loads at high throughput rates.

Well-suited for transfer small cartons and packages or side-transfer small bottles or containers in a single file or in a continuous mass f low, the spiral conveyors are equipped with new sixinch or none-inch nesting slats which provide an efficient f lat conveying surface without gaps. Achieving speeds of over 200 feet per minute, the Narrow Trak spirals offer a significantly larger elevation change capacity than what is currently available in the small package marketplace. These spirals are also a good alternative to side gripper conveyors because they can run at high speeds and do not need to be adjusted for varying product sizes. This compact unit is equipped with the Ryson proprietary low friction chain slat arrangement, which assures high capacity, high speed, low energy consumption, low maintenance and long life. This new model is especially beneficial for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and personal-care companies.

Booth N-4915

Delkor Systems, Inc. will display the company’s wide range of high-performance equipment–in-

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

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cluding the new Delkor Performance Loader case-packer—to demonstrate the company’s expertise in providing superior retail-ready solutions for some of the world’s largest retailers. Whether you’re packing f lexible or rigid products, Delkor smoothens your transition from package concept to production by leveraging decades of experience, and the newly-built Package Lab, to turn around package samples within 48 hours. The company’s case-packers offer versatility to address a wide range of package shapes and sizes, with rate capacity to match the latest generation of filling and bagging equipment. With innovation like Delkor’s Product Stabilizer (patented), Intelligent Positioning (patented) that measures and perfectly aligns carton f laps, or simple options such as push-button changeover, Delkor offers perfectly integrated packaging systems to enhance your plant’s efficiency and capacity.

checkweigher and CEIA metal detector. According to the company, the Only CEIA MS21 multi-spectrum metal detectors use multiple frequencies both simultaneously and continuously, while THS21 metal detectors continuously self-calibrate to maintain peak detection stability and sensitivity to all metal contaminants. For their part, the Ishida X-Ray systems can detect small non-metallic contaminants such as bone, glass, shell and plastic, while also verifying weight and identifying any missing or defective product. In operation, the product on the conveyor is irradiated with X-rays that is then received by the line sensor, where Ishida’s unique multi-level image processing software detects for-

Booth S-3740

ErgoModul The beginning of a new labeling era Banding Systems Bandall Inc. will showcase the company’s innovative s a 360-degree labeling solution designed to provide marketing teams more package real estate to add valuable consumer information to the consumer. According to the company, banding is much more cost-effective labeling solution as costper-label is reduced significantly, while also eliminating the material waste of backing paper. Poised to showcase a complete line of equipment that is based on individual labeling needs—from manual to fully-integrated automated solutions—the company’s experienced graphics team will be present to help attendees place their graphics on a band, complete with a complimentary band mock-up to take away from the booth.

Booth E-10425

Heat and Control Inc. will showcase comprehensive inspection systems comprising Ishida IX-GN X-ray system and a combination Ishida DACS

WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 43

n

Modular, Flexible Labeling Technology

n

New Open Design

n

Automatic Docking

n

Available in six table diameters and seven labeling station types

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Speeds up to 81,000 containers per hour

Tino Knoll Krones Machinery 416-627-3595 tino.knoll@krones.ca

See one for yourself at booth #2138 in the South Hall

SHOW PREVIEW eign objects or missing products by processing the received X-ray image. Manufacturers can further enhance detection sensitivity by utilizing Ishida’s patented Genetic Algorithm (GA) image processing technology, which will also be displayed at the show. Also, the Ishida DACS checkweighers provide quality assurance and customer satisfaction with accurate verification of package weight, product count, or detection of missing components. They are available in stainless steel for non-washdown and washdown (IP69) applications, and their quick-release infeed and weigh conveyors in the open frame design makes cleaning fast and simple.

Booth #N-5910

ABB will demonstrate some of the company’s fully equipped palletizing cells are available in an array of f lexible and versatile configurations, allowing customers to select a system that meets their specific requirements, along with the a high-speed model IRB 460 palletizing robot designed to meet the high throughput requirements of end-of-line applications. All the ABB cells are delivered ready-to-interface with existing product and pallet conveyors, with all major components mounted on a common base —eliminating the need for on-site engineering. According to ABB, the company’s Revolutionary new software from ABB makes programming robotic palletizing systems easier than ever before. Rather than writing code,

We’re more than just packaging We’re more than just packaging Increase your output and minimize downtime with one single source.

Increase your output and minimize downtime with one single source.

operators use the robot FlexPendant HMI to select simple parameters such as package sizes, pallet size, placement patterns and number of layers, with the system then creating a complete palletizing program. Important parameters such as pick-place time, and robot acceleration and speed can be then be easily fine-tuned during production to optimize the process.

Booth #C-5242

Compact Thermoformer Compact Thermoformer

Mid-Size Thermoformer Mid-Size Thermoformer

Manual Manual Traysealer Traysealer

1

2018-07-27

10:47 AM

Handling Handling Module Module

AutomaticTraysealer Traysealer Automatic

Singulating Singulating Conveyor Conveyor

High-Speed Bacon Thermoformer High-Speed Bacon Thermoformer

Shrinking & Drying Tunnel

Conveyor Belt Machine Conveyor Belt Machine

Vacuum Pouch Vacuum Pouch Sealing Sealing

Compact Automatic Traysealer Compact Automatic Traysealer

packexpologo.pdf

High Speed Thermoformer High Speed Thermoformer

Shrinking & Drying Tunnel

Transport TransportConveyor Conveyor

Dual-lane Automatic Traysealer Dual-lane Automatic Traysealer

Labeller

Labeller

MULTIVAC Redefining Packaging at PACK EXPO International Booth S-2514, West Building

Inspection System

Inspection System

Domino Printing Sciences will conduct the North American launch of their newest addition to the F720i fibre laser coding systems portfolio for application in the beverage sector—developed as a more reliable and consistent alternative to conventional inkjet printers. Having developed the proprietary Blue Tube technology to safely print onto PET bottles with Co2 laser, the new Domino F720i brings this advancement and benefits to aluminum can coding, says Domino. As the company explains, f luids consumption, downtime for cleaning procedures, and long changeovers due to packaging variations are creating efficiency challenges and pain for beverage manufacturers in many areas, including the date and lot coding for traceability purposes. With the new system, beverage plants can now experience significant improvement in the coding process, including perfect codes on every can with virtually zero maintenance and zero hazardous

ca.multivac.com | (877) 264-1170

44 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

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f luids. As the company’s laser product marketing manager Jon Hall explains, “The Beverage Can Coding system offers clean and clear indelible marking, ideal for compliance purposes and brand protection on aluminum cans. Further, Dominos system can achieve codes on concave surfaces with high quality and a high speed– one system can mark up to 100,000 cans per hour, with over 20 characters per can, achieving consistently excellent code quality is consistently excellent even with condensation present on the can.”

Booth S-2520

Yaskawa Motoman plans to introduce the company’s new MotoMini robot, said to be the smallest and most lightweight six-axis robot in the Industry. Weighing only seven kilograms, the MotoMini facilitates easy transportation and installation, making it ideal for tabletop-, f loor-, ceiling-, tilt- or wallmount installations, conserving valuable f loor space. Equipped with the highest acceleration in a small-sized robot, according to the company, the MotoMini is said to be 20 per cent faster than comparable small robots to reduce cycle-time and increase production output. The robot’s 0.5 kg payload supports a unique variety of tooling and sensors to fulfill diverse project needs—making it ideal applications such as assembly, dispensing, inspection, kitting, machine tending, material handling, packaging, parts feeding and sorting. The ultra-compact design enables installation in factories with high-density layouts, and the compact footprint (191 x 124 mm) allows the robot to be mounted close to workpieces and other machinery in existing lines or cells. All the cables and air lines are routed through the robot base to upper arm to increase cable life, enhance safety and reduce teaching time, while a single power and control cable reduces wiring time and improves cable reliability. Controlled by Yaskawa’s new ultra-compact YRC1000micro robot controller, the MotoMini provides remarkably quiet operation with less than 65 decibels at maximum load and speed.

Booth S-2373

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Eagle Product Inspection Inc. is planning to unveil the new next-generation EPX100 a next-generation X-Ray system for packaged foods, beverages and other consumer goods. “The EPX100 is safe, simple to use and smart, and is the perfect entry point for small to mid-sized manufacturers, as well as contract packagers, seasonal operators and large companies looking to standardize their equipment,” says the company’s strategic business unit manager Kyle Thomas, calling it an ideal

solution for bakery, snack, confectionery, ready meal, general food and personal-care product applications. Also on display is the Eagle Tall PRO XS system, to conduct live inspection of high-speed can, jar, bottle and composite lines, as well as other upright packaging formats, featuring side-view detection to provides 100-percent inspection for the hard-to-find contaminants such as metal, stone, glass, dense plastics and calcified bone. Attendees

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in the meat and poultry industry will also see the multiapplication benefits of the Eagle FA3/M X-ray system, which conducts in-line fat measurement as well as contaminant detection in fresh, chilled and frozen products, using Eagle’s latest-generation refinement of Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) measurement technology to discriminate between fat and lean portions. “We are looking forward to showcasing our latest technologies, and sharing our expertise with attendees to help them deliver superior contaminant detection for the widest range of applications,” says Thomas. “While these solutions help to ensure safety, quality and compliance, the advanced

inspection systems are also easy to use and provide important detailed information for packaged goods manufacturers.”

Booth S-1721

Propack Processing & Packaging Systems Inc. will introduce the Propack Synchronized Staging Transfer Model PSST/120, designed as an economical, safe product delivery system uses stepper servo technology to receive randomly presented products from baggers, pouchers and f lowwrappers to synchronize product delivery to high speed cartoning machines.

Your trusted partner in packaging

With a maximum packing rate of 120 single packs or 80 twin-packs per minute PSST/120 is the intelligent product delivery system that delivers proven results and performance by intelligently monitors and phasing products on multiple motion controlled staging sections to either a single or dual product transfer module. It handles products between four to 16 inches in length and up to eight inches in width, and it can also be configured to synchronize, stage and transfer single or twin pack product formats with precise product speed and position control. When necessary, operators can switch to the optional pass through delivery system for bulk packing or WIP (work in process) preparation. Propack’s new PSST/120 features a sanitary stainless-steel frame and has an internally illuminated, fully guarded transfer and synchronizing staging section for good visibility and operator safety.

Booth N-4732

Visit us at Pack Expo, booth 4740

At Omron, we deliver a comprehensive range of products and services designed to increase the speed, versatility and safety of your machines, as well as guarantee the full traceability of your products as they move along the production line.

Empower your production with highly advanced solutions that have the proven reliability to maximize your customers’ loyalty.

When you are developing a new machine or upgrading an existing model, look to Omron as your complete automation partner.

Together we can create a more productive tomorrow with innovative automation solutions that are integrated, intelligent and interactive.

Visit us at Pack Expo 2018 in booth #4740 to see our solutions in action!

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Sensing | Control | Safety | Vision | Motion | Robotics

Gerhard Schubert GmbH will demonstrate the company’s latest Flowmodul f lowwrapping machine featuring new patented heat-sealing technology that allows for gentle packing of heat-sensitive products can now be packaged even more gently in f lowwrap bags. The machine exhibited at Pack Expo will package mix-packs with two different products –one biscuit each with white chocolate and one with brown chocolate—at throughput rate of 250 products or 125 f lowwrap bags per minute. Alternatively, the f lowwrapping machine can be provided with a non-rotating ultrasonic longitudinal sealing unit, which is especially suitable for films with high-barrier effect.

Both systems are characterized by low heat development, which makes them ideally suited for heat-sensitive products such as chocolate. With the Flowmodul, Schubert offers a f lowwrapping component with which the packaging of products in f lowwrap bags can be fully integrated into the packaging machine manufacturer’s modular machine concept. Thanks to the uniform machine control of the

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TLM system and the f lowwrapping component, the machine operation is extremely user-friendly, whereby the f lowwrapping component can be operated together with the entire line via a single HMI interface. The Flowmodul is supplemented by standard Schubert components such as the image recognition system, which ensures that only perfect products enter the feed chain. If the product needs to be placed in a carton or plastic tray, this function can be easily implemented with an additional submachine.

ance requirements. Offering a fast and cost-efficient alternative to manual taping by hand, the Easy Packer is supplied with extended side rails, f lap closing bars, and an optional 48-inch anvil packing station to assist with the packing and sealing process. The operation is performed by opening the case and manually folding he bottom front and back minor f laps and placing the case on the anvil to be filled.

Once filled, the operator pushes down and holds the top trailing minor f lap while the box enters the machine to be sealed. The Easy Packer machine offers fast and easy case changes with adjustable side rails and f lexibility for boxes of five inches in length and greater, with all the required adjustments made onthe-f ly with easy hand-tighten knobs and cranks.

Clean, safe conveying

S-3582

Booth N-8730

Squid Ink’s will exhibit its new Streamline 5 printing system, designed to print superior quality small characters on a variety of porous, non-porous, smooth, textured, curved, concave, porous, nonporous, smooth, textured, curved, concave and other substrates, Capable of printing up to five lines of text, the new Streamline offers a reliable, yet costeffective solution for virtually any small-character, primary package coding application. Unlike any other CIJ printer on the market, Streamline 5 does not require a built-in display screen, as it operates with a wireless or wired touchscreen tablet running Squid Ink’s powerful Orion software. This f lexibility allows users the option of controlling their printers on the production f loor, or networking multiple systems from one central location. According to Squid Ink, one tablet may be used to communicate with multiple Streamline printers or any other Squid Ink case-coding printer using the Orion software platform.

The NJM Packaging division of ProMach will show the Model 403 Final Touch print-and-apply labeler for demanding high-speed pharmaceutical packaging applications. Featureing a modular design, f lexible PLC controls and a variety of optional label applicator tools to maximize production versatility and ease-of-use when labeling cases and shrinkwrapped bundles, the Model 403 Final Touch labeler is ideal for product manufacturers and contract packers handling foods, beverages, cosmetics, personal care products, household chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and much more. The new Model 403 can apply side labels, top labels, corner wrap labels and two-panel labels with a variety of optional tamp or wipe-on applicators. Requiring only 40 inches (100 cm) of line space, the Model 403 can be installed over an existing conveyor or supplied with a new conveyor, as needed. An optional top hold-down roller provides additional package stability for superior labeling accuracy.

Booth #W-703 (Healthcare Packaging Expo)

Booth S-3582

Eastey will demonstrate the company’s new side-belt driven Easy Packer machine, designed for compact packing and sealing applications, with minimal mainten-

Multivac, Inc. will be displaying its X-Line thermoform packaging machine, along with a variety of other packaging equipment aimed at the food packaging industries. The new X-Line offers maximum packaging reliability, even more consistent pack quality and a higher level of processing speeds, according to the company, as well as operation that is easier and more reliable than ever before. The XLine comes with many features, including the ability to change package configurations in less than

SEPTEMBER 2018 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 47

Visit us at Pack Expo Chicago Booth # S-2501

Designed for maximum available production time and operating convenience, the new modular belt conveyor in stainless steel is robust, safe and easy to clean.

The standardized design and modularity make changes of the production line easy.

It’s the smart, long-term investment in your bottom line and your operators!

For more information, please contact us at +1 905-639-6878 or by email at info.ca@flexlink.com.

flexlink.com

FlexLink is part of Coesia, a group of innovation-based industrial solutions companies operating globally headquartered in Bologna, Italy. www.coesia.com

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10 minutes. Additionally, the X-Line’s connection to the MULTIVAC Cloud gives users access to Pack Pilot and Smart Services, which provide a constant connection and up-todate information on software, film availability, machine settings and other pertinent data that enable the machine to be used even without special operator knowledge. The XLine comes with X-MAP gas-f lushing process that can be precisely controlled for packing with modified atmosphere.

Moreover, users can operate the X-Line through its intuitive HMI 3 multitouch interface that corresponds to the operating logic of today’s mobile devices.

Booth S-2514

Dekka, a product brand of ProMach, will demonstrate reengineered DEKKA SE tape head for case formers, case erectors, and case sealers. This enhanced tape head, which features stainless-steel construction for long years of service, makes significant contributions to improving endof-line speed, uptime and quality sealing, according to the company. In terms of cutting, the improved DEKKA SE, the brand’s f lagship model, offers a stronger spring and improved design of the cutting lever for making faster, stronger and deeper cuts. This enhancement not only results in overall better cutting, but also enables DEKKA SE to deliver better results in applications where less tension

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is required, or in situations where the machine must account for corrugated variance. Additionally, the mounting of the blade has also been changed to provide a more effective cut, enabling the blade to pierce and cut the tape significantly easier, resulting in more consistent and reliable cuts. All in all, the cutting performance on the DEKKA SE has been improved by over 50 per cent, according to the company.

In addition to the changes in cutting, Dekka has improved both the tape applying and wipe down systems for a complete upgrade. The roller arm used for trailing end wipe-down has also been made incrementally longer to ensure an improved finish over the last generation design.

Booth S-3546

Eclipse Cross

Outlander PHEV

Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle

** Whichever comes first. Regular maintenance not included. See dealer or mitsubishi-motors.ca for warranty terms, restrictions and details. Some conditions apply.

ESS Technologies, Inc. and Antares Vision have collaborated to develop a compact and cost-effective serialized case packing solution that integrates today’s state-of-the art robotic case packing and serialization system technologies. The CEL5 can be configured as a top-load, side load, or bottom-load case -acker, allowing greater f lexibility in designing the packaging line that integrates easily with the Antares Vision track-andtrace equipment. The model CEL5 top-loading case -acker that ESS and Antares Vision will demonstrate at the Pack Expo uses a FANUC M20iA robot with custom ESS-designed end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) to erect and load the RSC cases,

48 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

SHOW PREVIEW

while an Antares Vision 360-degree camera scans unique product codes on each bottle before they enter the casepacker’s infeed. The product codes are stored in a serialization system PC. At the case packer infeed, the CEL5’s servo collation system creates the desired case pack pattern.The multi-axis robot picks an RSC case from the case magazine, squares the sides, folds the bottom f laps, and places the case on the vacuum loading plate. The same robot then picks the collated pack pattern of scanned bottles, holds the load over a serialization camera to record the case contents, and loads the bottles into the case. The case is then sealed on the top and bottom with standard two-inch tape. An Antares Vision serialization labeler then prints and applies a case label with a barcode that contains the serialization data about the case contents. At the show, the CEL5 robotic case-packer will erect, load and close five to six cases per minute.

for facilitating fast product changeovers.

According to the company, the new M2000 case-packer retains the proven mechanical features of the Brenton Mach 2 unit it replaces, while modernizing the electrics and aesthetics to create a solution that offers faster and more assured startup, simpler and easier operation, and higher uptime through quicker changeover.

The M2000 is rated at between 12 and 30 wraparound regular slotted cases (RSCs) or trays per minute. The stand-alone control enclosure for the Mach 2 has been abandoned in fa-

vor of several compact enclosures on the M2000, which contributes to a 25-percent reduction in footprint over the already compact Mach 2.

Enclosures on the machine and distributed I/O greatly simplify wiring requirements, resulting in startup within days, not weeks, and overall simpler troubleshooting. Changeover verification technology guides operators, even inexperienced staff, through the changeover process quickly and accurately. If any setting is off for the specified recipe, the M2000 will not run. This fea-

Booth S-3760

Marchesini Group will be exhibiting the new MA 400 continuous motion horizontal cartoner—a completely updated machine with improved ergonomics, reliability and user-friendliness, with fast changeovers and low maintenance requirements. It is compact in size—without compromising the machine’s high-speed output and ease of use—thanks to a wide range of control functions that guarantee maximum efficiency. A new operator interface called ‘Easy Door’ has several improvements from both a functional and aesthetic point of view, while the new software makes the operating system more powerful and faster. The wider screen is more ergonomic and much more sensitive—making it a perfect solution for high-speed cartoning of all product types (blisters, bottles and vials, rigid and squeezable tubes, sachets and trays) for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic markets.

Food is about to get safer than ever Introducing the Thermo Scientific™ Sentinel™ Multiscan Metal Detector Unmatched sensitivity. Highest probability of detection.

Discover the difference of Multiscan.

Booth W-686 (Healthcare Packaging Expo)

Brenton, a ProMach product brand, is introducing the new M2000 case-packer, featuring a series of design improvements such as a very compact footprint and a handy changeover verification function

WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 49

See Sentinel at Pack Expo International, booth N-5706 or visit thermofisher.com/Sentinel-CP © 2018 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of Thermo Fisher Scientific and its subsidiaries unless otherwise specified.

SHOW PREVIEW

ture reduces the likelihood of damage to the machine from an incorrect adjustment. For speedy issue resolution, various sections of the M2000 are assigned specific colored task lighting that illuminates a fault and pinpoints for personnel the area of the machine to examine length of the M2000 give personnel an unobstructed view of critical operations. A B&R computer interface features pull-down menus, video, and document storage and display capabilities, while the machine’s Allen-Bradley CompactLogix controller and K5700 servos will be familiar to most engineering and maintenance personnel.

Booth S-3644

tna Solutions Pty Ltd. will present the latest cutting-edge solutions for the confectionery and snack industries, including the tna intelli-flav OMS 5.1 seasoning system designed to IP65 standards to facilitate maintenance and meet the highest hygiene and sanitation requirements. In addition, tna now offers a range of new features such as a high-capacity stainless-steel drum, a heated oil circulation system and integrated bulk powder fill technology. As a result, the tna intelli-flav OMS 5.1 can now be used to accurately season an even wider

ONLY ONE COMPANY HAS IT ALL TOGETHER.

See us in Booth S-3730 at PACK EXPO International October 14-17, 2018

END-TO-END AUTOMATED PACKAGING. Forget trying to integrate incompatible automation platforms from different suppliers — with unpredictable results. Get everything you need from Harpak-ULMA instead. With our fully automated, end-to-end packaging solutions, every piece is designed, installed, configured, and serviced by us. That includes advanced machines like our ATLANTA HI-TECH flow wrapper, that produces superior three-seal packages and offers unsurpassed flexibility for product changeovers. Or our VTI 640 vertical packaging machine, designed by customer request for high speed, easy use, and overall equipment efficiency (OEE) with over 98% availability. It all works together to fit the way you work. Package after package, time after time. Call Harpak-ULMA Packaging today!

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range of products, including fried, baked and puffed snacks such as chips, crackers and popcorn, but also confectionery like gummies and even frozen food applications that require more rigorous sanitation procedures, like meats and seafoods. With equipment ranging from roasters and fryers, conveyors, seasoning and coating systems, cooling and freezing technology, baggers and scales, metal detectors, inserters and labelers, controls systems and case-packers, tna Solutions is the only supplier in the snack industry that offers complete turnkey solutions for every step of the production line, according to the company.

Booth S-3875

Slideways plans to full range of standard and custom engineered plastic components for conveyors and packaging equipment including wear components, guide rails, SlideTrax roller chain guides and sprockets, UHMW profiles, rollers, pulleys, bushings and bearings for harsh environments, plus a full line of levelers. Living up to its ‘We Reduce Friction’ motto, users of the newly activated www.slidways.com website can easily select either standard products which displays all data with images, or custom solutions that deplos a custom parts builder, utilizeing prebuilt templates making it fast and easy to submit key specifications needed to suit customer application requirements.

Booth N-5053

WE'LL WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS

From Patty to Pallet

Texwrap, a product brand of ProMach, will introduce the new cost-efficient ST-1607SS shrinkwrapper—optimized Patty

Flow Pack

Multi Pack

© 2018 Harpak-ULMA Packaging, LLC , 175 John Quincy Adams Rd., Taunton, MA 02780 USA

Robotic Loading

Cartoning

Palletizing

50 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

complexity was made simple?

Regal’s efficiency-focused engineers can design a complete integrated conveying solution. A solution that re-uses existing framework retrofitted with Regal quality components, bearings, gearing and motors. On-site installation and start-up is available.

For more information, visit www.RegalPTS.com/MatlHandling www.regalbeloit.com Creating a better tomorrow™...

Regal, Creating a better tomorrow, Grove Gear, Hub City, Marathon, McGill, Sealmaster and System Plast are trademarks of Regal Beloit Corporation or one of its affiliated companies. ©2016, 2018 Regal Beloit Corporation, All Rights Reserved. MCAD18045E • 10018E

VISIT REGAL AT PACK EXPO BOOTH# E-8303

SHOW PREVIEW for packaging operations requiring up to 65 packages per minute output. In addition, the 1607 model’s center-line design and advanced sealing technology, normally found on higher-end units, can efficiently run many different types of packages, according to the company, giving the operation greater f lexibility and a competitive advantage.

Center-line machines like the 1607 are fast to change over because they do not require time-consuming conveyor adjustments for new SKUs, while the Texwrap Versa Seal side-seal technology consumes less film than competitive sealers to provide substantial cost-savings.

Moreover, the Versa Seal also automatically compensates for various film speeds and delivers a quality seal on both thin and thick films. The 1607 shrinkwrapper features a color touchscreen operator interface for easy access to package recipes and maintenance information, and it can be ordered in either a right- or left-hand version to accommodate a plant’s layout.

bander, heat tunnel, cotton inserter and pill counter.

The state-of-the-art HMI features a touchscreen control panel with a clear, simple, colorful menu structure for intuitively easy set-up and operation, enabling entry-level workers to successfully perform the filling and packaging functions with minimal training.

From a single screen, the new HMI presents all required data, allows adjustments to the machinery to be made, and saves machine settings for fast startup and repeatable, consistent operation with less potential for human error. Designed for food, beverage, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and other growing companies interested in modernizing and/or automating their packaging process without committing to a major investment, the HMI is to be unveiled on the Pharmafill line of tablet/capsule counters, cotton inserters, desiccant inserters, heat tunnels, and tamper-evident neck banders.

Booth # S-3550

Booth S-1410

ing three stand-alone metal detectors. Other leading-edge systems to be demonstrated by Fortress include the Stealth Pipeline metal detector for reliable inspection of products in liquid form—including sausages and pate, pumped dairy, condiments, sauces and pet food—and the incline feed Stealth Gravity metal detector, designed for inline inspection of dry, powder or granular products gravity fed from processing machines at high volumes. “Our return to Pack Expo International represents how much metal detection technology has evolved in the past two years,” say Fortress president Steve Gidman.

“The market for metal detection continues to grow and Fortress has responded to manufacturers’ calls for more cost-efficient, never obsolete metal detectors that deliver optimal food safety and quality control on their packaging lines; all without compromising on sensitivity.”

Booth S-2169

Packaging machinery manufacturer Dietz Co. plans to unveil its new human machine interface (that is now included as a standard feature on the company’s entire line of f Pharmafill brand packaging machines.

The new HMI is to be demonstrated in live action at the booth in a fully operating tamper-evident neck

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Fortress Technology Inc. will conduct the North American premiere unveiling of the company’s breakthrough, space-saving triple-lane, multi-aperture metal detector range, featuring contact data software and a mobile App for remote examination. Comprising a single Stealth metal detector mounted across three conveyor lines, each dedicated aperture can detect all metal types down to 0.7-mm ferrous, 0.7-mm non-ferrous and 1.4-mm stainless-steel. This multilane system also optimizes factory f loorspace, while cost of ownership by 65 per cent, compared to operat-

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1 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM 52CPK_StockCanada_Reepack_June18_CWM.indd

Trays standard or custom Flexible packaging films Project management Technical consulting Original spare parts Service technicians More than 50 machine models

Complete M.A.P. products and services

1-844-426-1266 / stockcanada.ca

Wexxar Bel, a product brand of ProMach, will unveil its new introduced today the latest refinements of its leading tray-former IPAK TF-330GH for the agricultural industry, which is rated at up to 40 trays per minute.

Engineering advancements shorten the leadtime for machine delivery, give customers greater operational f lexibility, improve uptime, and equip agricultural customers with a ruggedly constructed machine that requires minimal maintenance. A new adjustable tooling system creates a more universal trayforming platform that allows agricultural packaging operations to overcome the issues associated with forming trays from different suppliers. Adjustable tooling also gives packaging operations the f lexibility of setting up new tray sizes without the need of sending samples to the factory, with average changeover times about 10 minutes. According to the company, the machine’s maintenancefree lubrication reduces upkeep and improves uptime for greater throughput, while its advanced gluing system option can help reduce adhesive consumption by up to 40 per cent from earlier machine versions.

Booth #3546

Exhibiting as part of the Sidel Group along with Gebo Cermex, Sidel will showcasing its complete packaging line expertise in the beverage, food, home and personal care sec-

2018-05-29 2:55 PM

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

SHOW PREVIEW

tors with a special focus on its f lexible EvoDECO labeling portfolio and the – the company’s longstanding experience with aseptic applications and the Super Combi aseptic packaging solution.

Available either as a modular multitechnology or as dedicated-technology equipment, the new Sidel EvoDECO labelers are designed to give producers the ability to choose solutions based on their specific labelling needs and output levels, while the company’s Aseptic Combi Predis solution merges dry preform sterilisation with aseptic blowing, filling and sealing functions within a single production enclosure. With more than more than 130 Aseptic Combi Predis installations worldwide, Sidel recently received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its Aseptic Combi Predis blow/fill/seal filler—making the solution the world’s first and only aseptic PET filling equipment with dry preform sterilisation validated for low-acid manufacturing and commercial distribution in the U.S. market.

pany’s expansive product portfolio features decentralized, hybrid and centralized control solutions designed to give packaging machine-builders better choices with smarter, simpler servomotors, servo modules and controllers that they can use to overcome system design roadblocks and build better machines in less time. The company’s booth will showcase new additions to the AMK portfolio, including the AMKASMART ihXT servo module and the proven decentralized systems like the AMKASMART iSA decentralized controller, while also conducting live interactive machine demo that use hybrid motion control framework for seamless integra-

tion of decentralized and centralized systems to support multiple axes.

Booth N-6129

Booth S-2901

Matrix, a product brand of ProMach, will unveil the new compact MVA3 vertical form-fill-seal machine seal (VFFS) sachet packaging machine for packing mono doses of cosmetics, food, and various other for granulated, liquid, paste, powdered, and solid products and other products at up to four sachets per cycle with exceptionally high seal integrity. Rated at up to 70 cycles per minute, the high-performance machine can can pack more than one product in each sachet–such as cereal with powdered milk or instant soup with dehydrated vegetables—with the system’s industrial PC touch screen facilitating user-friendly control of all key operating parameters such as pressure, temperature, sealing time, and length of the sachet, with all the recipes stored in the machine’s memory for quick recall.

Comprehensive innovation package for PacDrive 3

Faster on the market with your machines.

Very easily.

Schneider Electric‘s PacDrive 3 system delivers 50% more power and now syncs up to 130 servo axes including robot axes with new controllers. From now on, automate a large number of your machines with just one technology and thus get to the market faster.

Made possible by the motion control solution PacDrive 3 from Schneider Electric.

Booth S-3632.

AMK Automation Corp. will exhibit smart, versatile, efficient motion control technology designed to to help solve many of the packaging industry’s most persistent challenges. The com-

WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 53

schneider-electric.ca ©2018 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. 998-19788531_CH-EN

EVENTS Sept. 25-27

Montreal: PAC to the Future II: Retail Reinvented, conference and tabletop exhibition by PAC Packaging Consortium. At Hotel Omni Mont Royal.To register, contact Lisa Abraham at (416) 646-4640; via email labraham@pac.ca; or go to: www.pac.ca

Sept. 25-27

Chicago: Labelexpo Americas 2018, international label and package printing exhibition by Tarsus Group Limited. At Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. To register, go to: www.labelexpo-americas.com

OCT. 11

Mississauga, Ont.: Smart Packaging for Managers, training course by the inelliPACK Business Network.At Centre for Health & Safety Innovation.

To register, go to: www.portal.pac.ca

Oct. 14-17

Chicago: PACK EXPO International 2018, packaging technologies exhibition by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Concurrently with Healthcare Packaging EXPO. Both at the McCormick Place.To register, go to: www.packexpointernational.com

Oct. 16-18

Westminster, Co.: Forests are the Answer, annual fall conference of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). At The Westin Wesminster. To register, go to: www.sfiprogram.org

Oct. 21-25

Paris, France: SIAL Paris, global food and beverage industries exhibition by the Comexposium Group.

At Paris Nord Villepinte. To register, go to: www.sialparis.com

Product Purity

Oct. 24-25

Toronto: Food Regulatory & Quality Assurance, annual summit by NSF International. At Old Mill Toronto. To register, go to: www.foodregulation.com

Oct. 23-26

Gothenburg, Sweden: Scanpack, international packaging technologies exhibition and conference

by Svenska Mässan. At The Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre. To register, go to www.scanpack.se

Oct. 24-26

Mumbai, India: pacprocess India, food pex India and indiapack trade fairs by Messe Düsseldorf.

Concurrently with drink technology India trade fair by Messe Munchen. All at the Bombay Exhibition Centre. Contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524; or go to: www.mdna.com

Oct. 30 – Nov. 1

RAYCON D+

Enhanced ease of use Longer life-cycle on core components

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Visit us a

N-4912

Booth ber 2018 14-17 Octo

Checkweighing Sesotec Canada Ltd. 7 Grand Ave South, Unit #114 Suite 100, Cambridge Ontario, N2S 2L3 • Tel. 519-621-6536 • Email info@sesotec.us • Website www.sesotec.ca Sesotec Inc. 1234 Hardt Circle, Bartle , IL 60103 • Tel. 224-208-1330 • Fax 224-208-1909 • Email info@sesotec.us • Website www.sesotec.us

54 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

CPK_Sesotec Canada_resized_Septenber18_MLD.indd 1

Nov. 14-15

Montreal: Advanced Design & Manufacturing (ADM) Expo, multishow exhibition by UBM comprising PACKEX Montreal, Expoplast, Automation Technology Expo (ATX), Design & Manufacturing, and Powder & Bulk Solids. All at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. To register, go to: www.montreal.am.ubm.com

Nov. 19-20

Amsterdam, Holland: World Congress and Exhibition on Active & Intelligent Packaging,

by Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA). At Westin Hotel. Register online at www.aipia.info

2019 Jan. 27-30

Cologne, Germany: ProSweets Cologne 2019, international supplier trade show for the sweets and snacks industry by Koelnmesse. At Koelnmesse fairgrounds. To register, go to: www.prosweets-cologne.com

Feb. 4-6

Las Vegas, Nev.: The Packaging Conference. By The Packaging Conference LLC. At Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas. To register, go to: www.thepackagingconference.com

Feb. 28 – March 2

Bangalore, India: drink technology India, beverage, dairy and liquid food industries trade show by Messe Munchen. To register, go to: www.messe-muenchen.de

March 27-28

Lyon, France: World Elastomer Summit 2019, by Active Communications Europe Ltd. To register, go to: www.wplgroup.com

Oct. 16-23

Düsseldorf, Germany: K 2019, world fair for plastics and rubber by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. At Messe Düsseldorf fairgrounds. In Canada, contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524; or go to: www.mdna.com

Chicago: Global Plastics Summit (GPS) 2018, international conference by HIS Markit and the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS). At Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel Chicago. To register, go to: www.globalplasticssummit.com

Dec. 5-7

Nov. 7

2020

Toronto: Cutting through the Greenwash, annual fall seminar of The Paper & Paperboard Packaging Environmental Council (PPEC). At the Islington Golf Club. To register, contact PPEC at (905) 4580087, or via email ppec@ppec-paper.com

Nov. 7-8

Toronto: Ontario Craft Brewers Conference (OCBC) & Suppliers Marketplace 2018, by Ontario Craft Brewers (OCB).At Beanfield Centre (formerly Allstream Centre). To register, go to: www.ontariocraftbrewers.com

Nov. 13-16

Frankfurt, Germany: Formnext 2018, international exhibition and conference on next-generation manufacturing technologies by Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH. To register, go to: www.formnext.com

2018-09-05 2:14 PM

New Delhi, India: drink technology India, beverage, dairy and liquid food industries trade show by Messe Munchen. At Pragati Maidan grounds. To register, go to: www.messe-muenchen.de

May 7-13

Düsseldorf, Germany: interpack 2020, global trade fair for packaging technologies by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. At Messe Düsseldorf fairgrounds. Contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524 for information on participating as part of the Canadian Pavilion or as individual exhibitor. For more general information and registration, go to: www.interpack.com

June 16-26

Düsseldorf, Germany: drupa 2020, global printing industries trade fair by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH.At Messe Düsseldorf fairgrounds. In Canada, contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524; or go to: www.mdna.com

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

America. With over 4,000 employees and 25 production facilities worldwide, we specialize in ing a variety of markets, TC Transcontinental Packaging understands that the packaging experience can transform the way consumers engage, shop, and buy.

The team at TC Transcontinental Packaging works together to deliver inspiration. Inspiration we gain from blending Art, Science, and Technology to create the perfect Flexible Packaging. Packaging that accentuates your brand, protects your product, and inspires consumers.

Our mission to deliver innovative packaging solutions has been the driving force behind our growth. As we continue to evolve, so will your packaging.

OUR PACKAGING COMES WITH A WIDE RANGE OF FEATURES INCLUDING: • Paper and Plastic Solutions • A full spectrum of bag and pouch styles • Outstanding 10-color Graphics with Registered Matte & Specialty Coatings for shelf appeal • Sustainable Packaging Design and Innovation • Convenience features: laser scoring, variety of closure options for easy open and re-sealing, punch out handles, and much more...

• Industry leading quick-turn lead times •

SERVING A VARIETY OF MARKETS INCLUDING: • • • • • • • • • • •

Pet Food Cheese and Dairy Meat and Poultry Confectionery Supermarket Fresh Perimeter Agricultural Industrial Consumer Household and Personal Care Beverage Bakery and more...

FOR PACKAGING INSPIRATION, CONTACT US AT 866.439.6050 OR VISIT WWW.TC.TC/PACKAGING

PACKAGING THAT SAVES TIME AND SPACE A summer ago, I decided to leave my f ledgling Bay Street career in finance and return to university to get a bachelor’s degree in education, with the intention of becoming a certified teacher. Having chosen to take my courses at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ont., and needing a place to stay, I decided to give residence a chance. Needless to say, there were some lifestyle changes to get used to.

Downsized from having my own apartment with unlimited cupboard space to sharing a kitchen with three other roommates, maximizing all available kitchen space and cooking time became a collective endeavor in self-discipline. One of the ways we managed to do this in a first year was by cooking a lot of pre-cooked portioned packaged products that could be prepared in the microwave within a few minutes. While some nutritionists may recoil in horror at the thought, consuming these quick-portioned meals enabled us to get to class and to our intramural basketball tournaments on time and sufficiently nourished for the tasks ahead. In the process, we saved valuable fridge space, as well as potential food waste, by not having leftovers sitting around in the fridge for weeks at a time.

One of my favorite go-to portioned microwavable products is the Minute Rice two-packs of 125-gram cups, which takes up virtually no space and can be stored anywhere. With the iconic brand owned in Canada by the venerable Montreal-based pasta stalwart Catelli Foods Corporation, the feelgood factor of ‘Buying Canadian’ is proverbial icing on the cake when enjoying the brand’s Basmati Rice and the newly-released White & Red Quinoa, which comes ready to eat hot or cold. To prepare the serving, pull the film to remove the contents from the from the cup and microwave on high for a minute, or 90 seconds for two cups. Simplicity itself, the packages typically come with additional coupons or interesting recipe ideas revealed inside the paperboard sleeve nesting the two tasty single-servings.

Another product helping to make my student life more convenient is the and reasonably healthy is the 310-gram stand-up pouch of Nature Valley Protein Granola bar oats— most notably the Cranberry Almond f lavor.

Produced by General Mills Canada Corp., this versatile product can be consumed as a snack between classes, or a quick breakfast along with some yogurt or cottage cheese. The sturdy plastic film packaging is wrapped very tightly around the granola bits, making it very space-efficient and stable to stand upright long after opening, and the graduating greens are a perfect color pick to project the product’s all-natural credentials—accentuated with the generous see-through clear cutout window on the front to let the wholesome oats and added ingredients inside speak for themselves.

Pasta can be a real lifesaver for any student short of time and extra disposable cash. Aside from being easy to prepare, it is also exceptionally nourishing, filling and, when packaged right, easy to store in confined storage spaces. In this light, the 300-gram boxes of Catelli Protein Spaghettini have quickly become of one my favorite pasta dishes that I intend to stay loyal to after my student days are over. Made by Catelli Foods Corporation with all-natural vegan ingredients and clearly labeled with the vaunted Non-GMO Project certification as a verified declaration of absence of any genetically-modified ingredients, the

56 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

products is generously packed with extra protein and iron you will never find in the traditional white pasta, being derived from 100-precent Canadian wheat and fava beans. While the box itself looks like standard packaging fare at first glance, it actually contains a lot of useful nutritional information displayed in logical and coherent graphic layout, further enhanced with an enticing photograph of a finished cooked product on the front panel and a short-and-sweet product story on the back, f lourished with soothing images of the natural ingredients used to make the product. Just add a little tomato sauce and some vegetables, and I’m happier than Popeye with a can of spinach.

One of the amazing benefits of being a student is that you get a nice chunk of time off in the summer. While taking advantage of this break with a summer detour to Niagara-On-The-Lake, I could not resist a visit to the f lagship store of Greaves Jams & Marmalades, a venerable producer of all-natural pure jams, jellies, marmalades and other spreads made in the heart of Niagara’s fruit belt with locally-sourced ingredients. Established in 1927, the shop is one of the quaint town’s many popular tourist attractions, and after spending a little time there I could see why. By the time I was done, I had gladly splurged on two 250-ml glass jars of the company’s f laghip Greaves brand family’s Pure Peach Marmalade and Peach Chutney products, along with a 250-ml jar of their own unique brand of Greaves Relish. The company’s products also come in a 500-ml glass jars, topped with black or illustrated screw lug tin lids, with both sizes sharing the classic artisan look and feel one might find at a British market in Yorkshire or Suffolk. The high-impact label wraparound paper label features a beautiful graphic reproduction of a vine-leafed reef surrounding a bundle of fresh fruit to project a wholesome, heartwarming vibe to reassure consumers that they are in for a real treat with this premium product, which also makes a terrific and thoughtful gift for family and friends alike, as well as a worthy luxury addition to my limited cupboard space in the residence kitchen.

Brent Rudland is currently completing his Bachelor’s Degree in Education at the Nippissing University in North Bay, Ont.

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX ADVERTISER..................................................................PAGE ABB Robotics Inc...............................................40 Anritsu Company.................................................2 Bosch Rexroth Canada.......................................22 Delkor Systems Inc............................................29 Domino Printing Solutions Inc............................21 Emerson Automation Solutions (ASCO)...............38 Engage Technologies Corporation.......................32 Festo Inc..............................................................6 FlexLink Systems Canada Inc.............................47 Fortress Technology Inc.....................................39 Harlund Industries Ltd.........................................7 Harpak-ULMA Packaging , LLC..........................50 HARTING Canada Inc, c/o PR Toolbox...............41 Heat and Control..................................................5 Krones AG.........................................................43 Mettler Toledo.................................................. IBC Mitsubishi..........................................................48 Multivac Canada Inc..........................................44 Omron Automation and Safety............................46 Pilz Automation Safety Canada, L.P....................31

ADVERTISER..................................................................PAGE Plan Automation..................................................5 Regal Beloit America, Inc...................................51 Reiser / Robert Reiser & Co................................20 Ryson International............................................11 Schneider Electric Canada Inc............................53 Sesotec Canada Ltd...........................................54 SEW Eurodrive Ltd.............................................14 Stock Packaging Canada....................................52 TC Transcontinental Printing..............................55 Thermo Fisher Scientific.....................................49 Tsubaki Of Canada.............................................28 Uline Canada Corporation..................................15 VC999 Packaging.................................................6 Veritiv Canada, Inc..........................................OBC Videojet Canada...................................................1 Weber, Inc...........................................................9 Weber Marking Systems Ltd...............................36 Weighpack Systems Inc....................................IFC WestRock..........................................................16 Yaskawa America, Inc. Motoman Robotics Division..45

CANADIAN PACKAGING • SEPTEMBER 2018

PHOTOS BY BRENT RUDLAND

CHECKOUT BRENT RUDLAND

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