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HELPING HANDS Canadian co-packers thriving through the lean times with unfailing service and packaging innovation

and, Duncan Coopl uct od Pr & s le Sa , VP t, en m Develop elopment Knowlton Dev on Corporati

Carol Levy, President, Repack Can ada Inc.

WINGING IT! Page 15

PM40070230. Return Canadian undeliverable addresses to: Canadian Packaging Circulation Dept., 7th floor, 1 Mount Pleasant Rd., Toronto ON M4Y 2Y5

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Preview to WALMART SUSTAINABILITY PACKAGING CONFERENCE IV on page 24

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Can’t see the forest for all the trees?

As the leaders in recycling for over 60 years, Atlantic Packaging is in the business of saving forests.

Annually we save over 14,000,000 trees from being cut down to produce paper products.

Sustainable Packaging for a Sustainable Future

Happy Day, Earth!

By utilizing the latest technology and world class processes in our 100% recycled paper mills, we save enough energy to power 100,000 homes for a full year, divert 3 million cubic yards of waste going to landfill, use 4.2 billion less gallons of water and help to remove 1.2 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

By purchasing your products from us, you not only demonstrate your personal commitment to our environment and to sustainable packaging practices, but also show that you care.

At Atlantic Packaging every day is Earth Day! Service Driven!TM “Responsive to your needs” Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. Corrugated Division Scarborough-Progress Ave., Scarborough-Midwest Ave., Brampton, Mississauga and Ingersoll 416-298-8101 • 1-800-268-5620 • www.atlantic.ca Add Ink (Atlantic Decorated & Display) Toronto 416-421-3636 • www.addink.ca Mitchel-Lincoln Packaging Ltd. Montreal and Drummondville 514-332-3480 • 1-800-361-5727 • www.mlgroup.com FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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UPFRONT

MONEY TALKS APRIL 2010 VOL U ME 6 3 , NO. 4

EDITOR

George Guidoni • (416) 764-1505 george.guidoni@packaging.rogers.com F E AT U R E S E D I T O R

Andrew Joseph • (416) 764-1529 andrew.joseph@packaging.rogers.com ART DIRECTOR

Nicole Carter • (416) 764-4160 n.cartersiblock@packaging.rogers.com SENIOR PUBLISHER

Stephen Dean • (416) 764-1497 stephen.dean@packaging.rogers.com ADVERTISING SALES

Stephen Dean • (416) 764-1497 stephen.dean@packaging.rogers.com PRODUCTION MANAGER

Natalie Chyrsky • (416) 764-1686 natalie.chyrsky@rci.rogers.com C I R C U L AT I O N M A N A G E R

Celia Ramnarine • (416) 764-1451 deokie.ramnarine@rci.rogers.com

It has sure taken some time, arguably far longer than it should have, but perhaps all of us in the Canadian packaging circles, and across many other key manufacturing sectors, can learn to stop losing our collective common sense and slipping into apocalyptic talk of the end of Canadian manufacturing every time the Canadian loonie rallies a couple of cents or so against the U.S. dollar.

Old habits die hard, of course, and it took many years since we negotiated our original free-trade (FTA) deal with the U.S. to entrench a deep-rooted mindset that our exporting competitiveness was naturally linked to our ability to undercut the U.S.-made products south of the border with lower prices that were kept low precisely because of our dollar being worth about US$0.80 or thereabouts.

And with the mighty Canadian buck trading from US$0.63 to US$0.80 between 1993 and 2002, the effortless ease with which Canadian manufacturing exports were finding their way into the U.S. markets seemed only to validate the newly-found orthodoxy of a low dollar being the very holy foundation of Canada’s manufacturing competitiveness. Ah, the good old days, eh!

So when the loonie surged by some 60 per cent over the next five years, reaching an all-time peak of US$1.09 in the spring of 2007, the widespread panic that engulfed the Canadian manufacturing base in general, and its packaging products sector in particular, was as heartwrenching as it was overdramatized—with all the talk of the Canadian industry’s hollowing-out largely accepted as a fait accompli.

While it’s true, with the full benefit of 20/20 hindsight, that Canadian manufacturers because far too reliant on the low Canadian dollar to

sleepwalk their way through the U.S. markets, blaming them for not using the good times to address all the other essential components of global manufacturing competitiveness—labor productivity, production costs, market diversification et al—is neither here nor there in terms of practical assistance.

What’s far more important now is for Canadian manufacturers to accept the fact that if they want to compete in the new global economy, they should not even think about the current exchange rates as an important variable, but rather concentrate on making their manufacturing operations leaner, more automated, more flexible, and more in tune with the all the ongoing market trends.

“Canadians in general now believe they can’t hide behind a weak dollar,” says Rick Jamieson, co-founder of brake-pads manufacturer ABS Friction in Guelph, Ont.“It’s hard to adjust, but we’re going to do it.” (The Report on Business, March 17, 2010).

And some companies are already doing just that very well, thank you very much, by using the high Canadian dollar to invest into productive, next-generation technologies imported from overseas that they would not even dream about if the Canadian dollar was still stuck in the US$0.80-something range. In fact, Kitchener, Ont.-based paperbox producer Boehmer Box has just spent $10 million in the last year (see our story on page 20) doing just that—in an industry with arguably one of the highest levels of vulnerability to upwardly currency moments.

Don’t get us wrong: excessive dollar volatility and turbulence is not a good thing in and of itself. But using that volatility as a cover for not having done the real hard work that constitutes the very core of true manufacturing competitiveness is a hopelessly outdated cop-out with no place in the 21st Century.

C O V E R S T O RY Canadian Packaging, established 1947, is published monthly by Rogers Publishing Limited, a division of Rogers Media Inc. One Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, ON M4Y 2Y5,Tel: (416) 764-2000 Rogers Media Inc., President and CEO: Anthony P. Viner Rogers Publishing Limited, President and CEO: Brian Segal Senior Vice-President, Business & Professional Publishing: John Milne Senior Vice-President: Michael Fox Vice Presidents: Immee Chee Wah, Patrick Renard Executive Publisher:Tim Dimopoulos EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: One Mount Pleasant Road,Toronto, ON M4Y 2Y5, Tel: (416) 764-2000; Fax (416) 764-1755.

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15 The Butterfly Effects By Andrew Joseph Leading Canadian third-party manufacturer and co-packer reinvigorates its commitment to product and packaging innovation with a new research facility and novel uni-dose packaging technology.

18 Doing It Right By Andrew Joseph No job is too big, too small or too odd for a hardworking Ontario co-packer marketing itself as a last-stop recourse for products facing premature obsolescence due to faulty packaging.

FEATURES C A N A D I A N C O N V E RT I N G

20 Big Bang for the Buck By George Guidoni Venerable Ontario folding-carton converter embarks on a massive capital investment spree to solidify its prominent marketplace position and leading-edge technological pedigree.

M E TA L D E T E C T I O N

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE PELLERIN AND SANDRA STRANGEMORE.

22 Recipe for Success By Andrew Joseph Canadian spice producer and distributor leaves nothing to chance in its quality assurance process with state-of-the-art, made-in-Canada metal detection technology.

COVER STORY

CASE STUDY

COVER STORY

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

24 Still Keen on Green Walmart Canada reaffirms its unwavering commitment to packaging sustainability.

A U T O M AT E N O W

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AUTOMATE NOW

26 Spare Change By Andrew Joseph Ontario manufacturer of end-of-line packaging machinery puts an end to time-consuming product changeovers with application of innovative servomotor technology.

P R E - S H OW R E P O RT

28 Steak & Sizzle Global meat industry’s biggest showcase set to sizzle with packaging innovations.

ISSN 0008-4654

D E P A R T M E N T S 5 6 7

U P F R O N T By George Guidoni

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26 C O L U M N S

FIRST GLANCE

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N E W S PA C K

McCain gets real with new packaging; Dempster’s cooks up new breadwinner.

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N OT E S & Q U OT E S

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Noteworthy news briefs and updates.

ECO-PACK NOW

All the latest on packaging sustainability. i m PA C t

EVENTS

Upcoming industry shows and functions.

New technologies for packaging applications.

30

CHECKOUT By Julie Saunders

Joe Public speaks out on packaging hits and misses.

A monthly insight from the PAC.

NEXT ISSUE: Packaging for Shelf-Life, Films & Flexibles, Conveying.

CA NA DI A N PAC K AG IN G • AP R I L 2 0 1 0

5

Pack McCain Foods gets real with new packaging to make a healthier consumer connection

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With Canadian consumers increasingly demanding greater use of real food ingredients in their packagedfood products,Toronto-headquartered frozen-foods giant McCain Foods has embarked on a comprehensive rebranding and repackaging of the company’s It’s all good range of frozen pizzas, pizza pockets, and potato products across Canada—securing the services of branding specialists Anthem Worldwide to bring its vision to life on the supermarkets freezer shelves.

“Our research shows that 85 per cent of Canadians are looking for prepared foods that are made with real ingredients they can recognize, and 86 per cent of them want food companies to be more transparent about the ingredients in their food products,” says McCain Foods vice-president of marketing Heather Crees.

“We are responding to their need for simplicity and transparency, and we believe this will help strengthen Canadian consumers’ connection with the McCain brand.”

Crees reveals that McCain has already reformulated more than 70 of the company’s frozen pizza, pizza pocket and potato-based products by adding more specially-selected potatoes, real cheese, green peppers and vine-ripened tomatoes into the product mix—while taking out many of the less familiar ingredients or doing

a better job of expaining their use.

“Anthem has really helped McCain visually communicate our promise of great taste, and real, clean ingredients in a simple and compelling way on our packaging.

“The design system they created to support this rebranding will carry strong visual cues across all our product categories,” says Crees, complementing Anthem package design experts for capitalizing on the simplicity of the newly-added ingredients to make a better connection with Canadian consumers, who are clearly concerned by the health and wellness attributes of their foods.

Gary Oakley, creative director of Anthem Worldwide’s Canadian office in Mississauga, Ont., says Anthem designers had specifically focused on the packaging back-panels to deliver greater product transparency to the consumers, with more detailed messaging and fuller product descriptions.

“The communication architecture we created for McCain packaging also extends to the back-panel,” Oakley points out. “It reinforces the simple ingredients message and helps re-connect the consumer to the McCain ‘It’s all good’ message.”

Improving economy boosts prospects for protective packaging

Simple and Reliable • Save on Labor Costs • Increase Productivity • Stainless Steel Construction • Better Package Performance • Customer Focused Service Team •

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An unfolding economic recovery across North America, along with the enduring popularity of Internet shopping, is expected to drive 6.2-percent annual growth in U.S. market demand for protective packaging through 2014, according to a new report from Cleveland, Ohio-based market research consultants The Freedonia Group, creating “a significantly improved outlook in the manufacturing sector, especially durable goods,” for the upbeat forecast.

Comprising products such as air-pillows, foamed plastics and molded pulp, protective packaging is expected to grow into a US$5.2billion market by the end of The use of bubblewrap 2014, according to the Protective and air-pillows will Packaging report authors, with continue to grow in demand for air-pillows registering coming years thanks to the proliferation of the strongest average growth rate Internet shopping. of 8.7 per cent. (See Table)

“Demand for air-pillows will climb 8.7 percent per year to US$395 million in 2014, the result of strong growth in Internet shopping, advantages over other materials in terms of cost and material use, and consumer preference for the product over other materials such as loose-fill.”

Likewise, demand for foamed plastic protective packaging—including molded foam, foam-in-place and polyolefin roll protective packaging—is poised to make a notable comeback after last year’s declines, says the report, although its long-term prospects will be moderated by the continued outsourcing of manufacturing production to countries with lower production costs.

“Demand for bubble packaging will be aided by favorable outlooks for manufacturing activity and electronic shopping,”The Freedonia Group adds,“[while] more moderate gains are anticipated for paperboard protectors, paper fill, dunnage bags and loose-fill as the result of mature applications and/or competition from faster-growing product types.”

US PROTECTIVE PACKAGING DEMAND (US$Millions)

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Annual Growth % Item 2004 2009 2014 2004-2009 2009-2014 Protective Packaging Demand Foamed Plastic: Molded Foam Foam-in-Place Polyurethane Polyolefin Rolls Other Protective Packaging

3,390 846 551 170 125 2,544

3,815 825 500 185 140 2,990

5,150 1190 725 260 205 3,960

2.4 -0.5 -1.9 1.7 2.3 3.3

6.2 7.6 7.7 7.0 7.9 5.8

Source:The Freedonia Group

Nothing half-baked about Dempster’s exciting new bread line Leading Canadian breadmaker Dempster’s is making a tasteful effort to increase the company’s market share with the new OvenFresh line of partially-baked, preservative-free baguettes and dinner rolls that consumers can finish up at home simply by heating them in the oven or on a barbecue in merely eight minutes.

Made and packaged at the company’s commercial bakery in Quebec City, the OvenFresh breeds—offered in white and multigrain varieties—are packaged in special high-barrier, fully-sealed vacuum-packs that provide the products with shelf-life of up to 45 days even without freezing, according to John Placko, director of culinary excellence at the Dempster’s parent company Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Placko says the new OvenFresh product line—retailing in two-piece vacuum-packs designed by Canadian package design experts Pigeon Branding + Design of Oakville, Ont.—marks the first time that completely preservative-free bread products are retailing in Canada.

“The new Dempster’s OvenFresh baguettes and dinner rolls are delicious products that are ready in just eight minutes—making them perfect for easy summer entertaining,” states Placko.

“And after all, who can resist warm, fresh bread that’s ready to enjoy at any time?” april 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

notes & quotes N OT E S & Q U OT E S

● Amcor Rigid Plastics has been selected as the new corporate name to replace the former Amcor PET Packaging monicker of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based manufacturer of plastic containers for pharmaceutical packaging applications. Headed by former Amcor PET Packaging president Bill Long, it is one of the seven operating units that were organized following the recent US$1.9-billion acquisition of parts of Alcan Packaging by Amcor Ltd., today also comprising Bericap North America, a plastic closures joint-venture between Amcor and the global Bericap Group. ● Toronto-headquartered labeling and specialty packaging products group CCL Industries Inc. has acquired the assets of Purbrick Ltd—Melbourne, Australia-based supplier of patient information leaflets and pressure-sensitive labels to local pharmaceutical companies—for about $2 million, announcing immediate integration of the newly-acquired business into the CCL Label global business unit.“Purbrick will become part of our global network of GMP-designated label supply facilities for the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, and I am very pleased that the company’s management team has agreed to remain with us on a long-term basis,” says CCL Industries president and chief executive Geoffrey Martin. “This acquisition demonstrates our continuing ability to find situations in the label sector that meet both our strategic and financial criteria to enhance shareholder value,” he adds, noting that Purbrick made a profit of $1.9-million on revenues of approximately $8.7 million in 2009. ● Deerfield, Ill.-based Pregis Corp., manufacturer of protective, flexible and foodservice packaging products, has acquired the assets of Tulsa, Okla.-based IntelliPack, Inc., a producer of foam-in-place (FIP) protective packaging products and technologies. “By integrating IntelliPack’s talented people, cutting-edge technology and service platform into the Pregis portfolio, the company will be in a unique position to increase value to its customers through a more extensive offering,” says Pregis president Kevin Baudhuin. “IntelliPack’s proven track record of customer focus and growth is a perfect complement to our business philosophy,” adds Baudhuin, noting the two companies’ combined 2009 revenues of approximately US$900 million. ● Elgin, Ill.-based adhesives manufacturer Wisdom Adhesives has announced the opening of its new Wisdom Adhesives Canada office in Toronto, appointing Loui Panakos as general manager of the company’s newlyformed Canadian subsidiary.Tel. (416) 492-3409. ● Amherst, N.S.-headquartered flexible packaging converter PolyCello has been selected as this year’s winner of the Family Enterprise of theYear Award of the Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Association for Family Enterprise (CAFE)—making the family-owned company, which employs about 350 people at production plants in Amherst and Belleville, Ont., eligible for CAFE’s National Award selection, which will be made at the association’s national meeting next month in Regina. “I’m proud to accept this award on behalf of my family, who has worked together to create a solid foundation for our company,” says PolyCello president and chief executive Stephen Emmerson. “Most importantly, I want to thank our extended PolyCello family—namely our employees, who continue to make it a success every day.” Founded in 1983 and sponsored by the RBC Royal Bank and KPMG Enterprise, the Family Enterprise of theYear Award competition was established to recognize outstanding business achievements by family-owned Canadian businesses, with past Nova Scotia chapter award winners O’Regan’s Automotive Group and the Bragg Group of Companies both going on to win the national competition over the last two years. ● Plastic films producer Danafilms, Inc. of Westborough, Mass., has announced plans for a 50,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturing facility in Franklin, Ky., to CA NA DI A N PAC K AG IN G • AP R I L 2 010

X45 ™

aaccommodate installation of a new seven-layer co-extrusion film line—supplied by s Windmoeller & Hoelscher W (see picture)—by the end of this year. According to Danafilms, the US$7-million expansion will double the size of the Franklin facility, while boosting its annual output capacity by nearly eight million pounds. “Adding this equipment is not just about redundancy or doubling our capacity; this really allows us to cut the lead-times for co-extruded products,” says Danafilms co-extrusion technical manager Aaron LaPointe. “With a second line, we can get the finished work to the customer much faster. This new W&H line is a fantastic piece of equipment, with all the latest bells and whistles.”

● Spanish-based citrus growers consortium Valencianos del Mediterraneo S.A. (Zuvamesa) has commenced the operations of a massive, 140,000-square-meter production facility in Puerto de Sagunto—said to be the biggest European-based plant for the production of NFC (not-from-concentrate) juice, with annual output capacity of 100 million liters. Equipped with turnkey processing solutions systems from the aseptic technologies group Tetra Pak—including custom-made equipment for the pasteurization, aseptic filling, and emptying of 80 stainless-steel tanks—the new plant (see picture) plans to process up to 400,000 tonnes of locally-grown produce annually, with 57 local fresh-citrus producers supplying most of the oranges and mandarins for the production of premium-quality juice.“In selecting the processing solutions for our new plant, we had a few essential requirements: unsurpassed food safety, the finest product quality, and the highest levels of efficiency at the lowest operational cost and environmental impact,” says Zuvamesa’s managing director José Maria Andueza. “The Tetra Pak solutions provide maximum production availability and optimization of operational costs, thanks to a highly automated process control which calculates production data in real time.This is exactly what we needed to boost our competitiveness in the market.” ● Skilcor Northbud, thirdparty manufacturer of pre-packaged meat products for national and private-label brands based in Brampton, Ont., has obtained the international IS0 22000 series standard certification for food safety management practices—meeting extensive auditing requirements for interactive communication, system management, control of food safety hazards through pre-requisite programs under the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) protocol, and continuous improvement of the food safety management system. “We are absolutely thrilled that our food safety management system has been recognized as meeting the stringent standards set out in ISO 22000,” says chief executive officer Deborah Kinzinger. (See Picture) “This is no small achievement and one that, together with our employees, we take tremendous pride in. It is our understanding that Skilcor Northbud is the first meat-processing company in Canada to receive this sought-after designation.”

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7

GLANCE torque control process throughout the operation.

PUMPING IT OUT

The new model NERPS/ NERPC rotary pump sorter/capper from New England Machinery, Inc. features an innovative new design that eliminates the need for a follow-up cap tightener by having the pump capper itself applying the correct torque right upon placement of the pump onto the container—eliminating the need for a second machine, while also ensuring the positive guidance of the dip tube while inserting it into the container, according to the company. The new machine is also capable of straightening the dip tube curvature up to one-third of its overall length, while handling an extended range of containers and/or pump combinations— finger, lotion and trigger, as well as non-pump caps—and ensuring positive 1pump placement andPM positive SupervacSeals_Small_CP_J:Layout 5/14/09 7:05 Page

IF YOUR FIRST SEAL DOESN’T DO THE JOB,

then try a machine

WITH TWO.

New England Machinery, Inc. 401

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WO RT H C H E C K I N G O U T

The new XC3 CombiChecker system from Mettler-Toledo HiSpeed—designed as a cost-effective integrated product inspection solution—is a compact, economical, combination Hi-Speed checkweigher and Safeline metal detector integrated onto one free-standing unit for inspecting a wide range of products and packages in dry, dusty and wipe-down environments 1with superior reliability and precision. Engineered for re-

Heat and pressure from above and below create two superior seals.

liable detection and rejection of all types of metals, the XC3 can also weigh, classify and segregate uniformlyspaced packages weighing up to 3,500 grams at rates up to 125 packs per minute, according to the company, with its 300-mm-wide conveyor configuration making it wellsuited ideal for operators requiring the production flexibility to run both narrow and wide packages. Available with single- or dual-frequency versions for maximum inspection flexibility for a wide range of products with superior sensitivity, the XC3 is operated via a color touchscreen, dashboard-style display providing intuitive, menu-driven access to basic checkweigher functions, while the system’s four adjustable, stainless-steel feet facilitate quick-and-easy machine installation with minimal downtime.

Mettler-Toledo Hi-Speed F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

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I N TO P F O R M

The new METSFT PE formable lidding film from Brentwood Plastics Inc. is engineered to offer a cost-saving alternative to formable nylon and multilayer co-extruded films in non-barrier packaging applications— including tray liners, drug mailers, medical devices, frozen meat packs, electronic components, etc.—as well as for packaging that requires deep-draw thermoforming, dimpled surfaces, and a higher melt strength than offered by the PET, PLA and EVOH film structures. Engineered to run

What do bad seals really cost? Rework. Returns. Food safety problems. Lost customers. Supervac automatic belt vacuum chamber packaging machines feature a Double Biactive high-pressure sealing system that provides two superior seals to every bag, virtually eliminating leakers and the problems they cause.

Superior seals are just the start. Supervac machines reduce labor costs while increasing productivity. Their ergonomic design allows a single operator to load, style and run the packages. Supervac’s exclusive Expansion Cushion reduces evacuation times by up to 30%, pushing the operator to keep up with the machine and resulting in more packages at the end of the day. Their small footprint allows the Supervac to fit into tight areas where other machines cannot.

Its low cost of ownership and stainless steel construction make Supervac the smart choice.

on high-speed horizontal form/fill/seal (H/F/F/S) machines, the corona-treated FDA- and Kosher-approved film—said to have passed numerous toxicity tests for prolonged and direct human skin contact—is available in thicknesses from four- to 13-mil, and it can be printed using both water- and solvent-based inks, along with application of various tamperevident features for extra product protection and integrity.

Brentwood Plastics Inc. F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

403

THE FINEST PRINT

Supervac GK501B

Supervac GK169B FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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1549 Yorkton Court, Unit #4, Burlington, Ontario L7P 5B7 Telephone (905) 631-6611 • www.reiser.com

Leading the food industry in processing and packaging solutions.

The new model Wolke m600 thermal inkjet printer (TIP) from Videojet Technologies Inc. is an advanced printing system designed to address complex product-coding requirements in the pharmaceutical, health-and-beauty, tobacco, and other industrial markets by enabling quick and reliable generation of high-speed, high-resolution coding of serialized data and many types of barcodes, including GS1 DataMatrix, for full compliance with track-and-trace applications.

Boasting multiprocessor architecture and flexible communications options, the Wolke m600 printer can be integrated into a broad range of process control systems, according to Videojet, with its advanced

GLANCE communication capabilities enabling full integration in compliance with 21 CFR Part 11 guidelines for maintaining electronic data records for FDA-regulated industries.

Videojet Technologies Inc. 404

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S O RT I N G I T O U T

software upgrade making them able to read 2D (twodimensional) Data Matrix barcodes.

Easy to deploy in virtually any environment by using the readers’ Setup Tool program, which includes an imagearchiving feature for storing images of read failures and downloading them to a PC in order to diagnose the root cause of a problem.

applications range, according to the company. Featuring a ceiling-mounted, flexible SCARA robot combined with a long-stroke Cartesian robot, the XR-Series robots are claimed to require up to 40 per cent less floorspace than the conventional SCARA robots, with their highly-efficient, integrated design also enabling their use in many applications without a conveyor. With a reach ranging from 200-mm to 300-mm, an X axis stroke of 850-mm to 1,660-mm, and a cycle-time of 0.53 seconds, the upgraded XR-Series robots can be employed across a broad range of automated dispensing, material handling, assembly and parts feeding applications.

The new Crisplant range of tilt-tray and cross-belt sortation systems from Intelligrated—available as stand-alone subCognex Corporation systems or as parts F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 407 of larger automated material handling H I G H E R PAY L O A D systems—are designed to combine high-capacity unit Denso Corporation has increased the payload capacsortation with smooth operation and scalable footprints ity of its XR-Series four-axis, compact gantry robots from Denso Corporation Canadian Pack., April, Format 200 x 273 mm, LCS, CC-en37-AZ042 03/10 to meet a wide range of high-speed, high-capacity, high- three to five kilograms to handle a significantly wider F O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N C I R C L E accuracy product flow applications in the retail, apparel, footwear, pharmaceutical, publishing, jewelry, postal and parcel-delivery applications, according to the company. Featuring energy-efficient linear synchronous motors, variable-speed drives and ‘smart’ machine controls, the Crisplant loop-sorters are claimed to provided a perfect complement to Intelligrated’s existing portfolio of high-speed sliding-shoe, stripbelt and pop-up wheel sorters—along with the related software, controls, induction and chute solutions—for designing optimal, custom-tailored, application-specific sortation systems.

Intelligrated F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

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F I T TO P R I N T

The FoxJet SoloSeries 45 industrial printer from Harlund Industries—designed for high-resolution, one- or two-line printing of variable product infor mation on porous or nonporous surf aces—is offered with fully-featured software that includes built-in auto-codes for date, time, count and expiration data, with its innovative ink level detection technology on cartridges helping ensure optimal print quality. Featuring a convenient purge button for easy cleaning of the cartridge, the FoxJet SoloSeries 45 system boasts a compact, rugged enclosure with a hinged cover to protect the pen and to allow for easy replacement, with its in/out port allowing for daisy-chaining of up to four printheads.

Harlund Industries F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

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EASY READING

Said to be priced nearly the same as standard laser scanners, the new DataMan 100 QL and DataMan 200 QL fixedmount, 1D (one-dimensional) barcode readers from Cognex Corporation offer far more powerful scanning capabilities by incorporating the company’s new Cognex 1DMax code-reading algorithm, which enables them to read even the lowcontrast, blurred, damaged, distorted, partly obscured, etc. barcodes, with a simple

»Almost perfect« isn’t good enough A Krones line is like fine sterling silver. Superb and sophisticated design, engineering and craftsmanship. Meticulous attention to detail. A line you can sit back and enjoy, confident that it will serve you flawlessly into the future.

Just like fine silver, your line will eventually require maintenance and elbow grease to eliminate the “tarnish” and wear of everyday use. Not to worry. Krones Lifecycle support team will return it to its original brilliance. Perfection is our heritage. www.krones.com FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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ECO-PACK

NOW

USING SCIENCE TO BOOST PLASTIC RECYCLING An ongoing joint research effort by scientists at IBM’s research facility in San Jose, Ca., and the nearby Stanford University is reportedly showing a lot of promise in the development of new types of biodegradable and biocompatible plastics that may significantly increase the recyclability and reuse of common PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and IBM researcher Jim Hedrick assessing and evaluating new plant-based packaging plastics formulations at the company’s across a broad range of indusresearch center in San Jose. tries—from plastics processing and manufacturing to healthcare and microelectronics.

“We are exploring new methods of applying technology and our expertise in materials science to create a sustainable, environmentally-sound future,” says IBM’s vice-president of

research Josephine Cheng, describing the research as a pioneering project aimed at commercializing the application of organocatalysis to create a whole new class of well-defined, biodegradable molecules that could be made from renewable resources in an environmentally-sustainable manner.

“The development of new families of organic catalysts brings more versatility to green chemistry and opens the door for novel applications, such as making biodegradable plastics, as well as improving the recycling process and drug delivery,” says Cheng, adding the ultimate aim of the project is to pave the way for a major reduction in the estimated 63 pounds of plastic packaging per person that ends up in U.S. landfills each year, rather than being recycled.

With approximately 13 billion plastic bottles being discarded annually, and their recycling limited only to secondgeneration reuse, the disposal of plastic containers has long been one of packaging industry’s most vexing challenges, according to Cheng, “but the IBM-Stanford breakthrough in green chemistry could lead to a new recycling process that

reverses the polymerization process to regenerate monomers in their original state, thereby significantly reducing waste and pollution.”

According to the researchers’ recently-published report, Organocatalysis: Opportunities and Challenges for Polymer Synthesis, the introduction of organic catalysis to synthetic polymer chemistry has enabled scientists to develop a broadly applicable technology, with a diverse range of polymerization techniques and monomer types.

A major focus of their efforts has been devoted to the socalled “ring-opening polymerization” strategy, demonstrating that organic catalysts can exhibit activities that rival those of most metal-oxide and metal-hydroxide catalysts, while providing access to polymer architectures more effectively than conventional approaches.

The paper also describes recycling and degradation strategies that would enable a “closed-loop” life-cycle for materials that meet the needs of the marketplace, while minimizing the environmental footprint left for future generations.

PLASTIC PACKAGING ‘GREENER’ THAN THOUGHT The tendency to blame plastic product packaging for the global food industry’s significant carbon footprint is fundamentally flawed in both logic and fact, according to ongoing research conducted by Europe’s largest manufacturer of injected-molded plastic packaging products Superfos AS. In fact, an average drive by car from home to the supermarket to purchase groceries is likely to generate more greenhouse-gas emissions than the actual manufacture of plastic packaging for those same food products—as measured by the Danish-based company’s recently-developed LCA (life-cycle analysis) modeling tool called CO2 Calculator, recently certified by the U.K.-based Carbon Trust as a valid measurement tool for calculating the environmental impact of various forms and types of food packages.

“The CO2 Calculator helps us to meet the increasing demands for sustainable behavior in the entire manufacturing supply chain, with the goal of reaching lower CO2 emissions through ‘green’ innovations,” says Superfos communications manager Annette Gottsche.“Though our packaging accounts for only a minor percentage of an average product’s total CO2 emissions, there is still room for improvement and we are constantly working on them.”

To use an example of a 280-gram plastic container plastic container of fresh prawns (see picture), the actual package ac-

counts for just a fraction of the total carbon footprint left behind by the related activities of fishing, filling, distribution, merchandising, driving to the store, cooking at home, etc., according to Gottsche.

“The plastic packaging is indeed a one in a crowd,” she says, adding that Superfos is nevertheless committed to doing its part in the overall carbon-footprint reduction.

“The use of virgin plastic is environmentally expensive, according to our calculations, so we are focusing on various ways to reduce the need for virgin material,” Gottsche explains.

“One calculation showed that if other materials, such as ‘natural’ fillers, were to replace 10 per cent of the virgin polypropylene in a certain package, about seven grams of CO2 would be saved on each container.

“This may not sound impressive on its own, but in the context of a million containers it equals to seven tonnes of CO2 saved—an equivalent of CO2 emissions from an average car driving all the way around the world more than two times.”

Gottsche also points out that the disposal of wasted and/or discarded food in the western world actually produces three times more carbon than the packaging, which in fact helps reduce food waste by providing longer shelf-life for food

products both at the store and at home.

Gottsche says the Carbon Trust certification for the company’s CO2 Calculator—adjusted last year to fit the PAS 2050 standard of the British Standards Institution—makes it a universally useful methodology for all types of packaging suppliers and manufacturers.

“Our CO2 Calculator covers all the processes influenced by us, from raw material extraction to our factory gate,” she states. “All of the processes are mapped, and the users can enter details on choice of raw material, location of production and logistics.

“It also has crossborder functionality, because the calculation methods take into account that different countries have different regulations and systems for energy and waste management,” Gottsche sums up. “We encourage all our valued competitors in the packaging industry, as well as our customers, to follow the calculation methods set up by Carbon Trust ... to make the calculation results more comparable.”

COMING CLEAN WITH COMPOSTABLE BIO-WRAP Getting clothes clean has just gotten a whole lot cleaner last month— thanks to the launch of the world’s first eco-friendly detergent to be packaged in fully-compostable and biodegradeable plastic wrap.

Produced in Italy by Umbria Olii International, the EcoLive brand of laundry detergent—made from 100-percent natural olive oil—is a result of several years of intensive research by a company that previously caught international notice by using olive oil to develop the popular Olivella brand of cosmetic and skin-care products widely praised by

professional beauticians for their skin rejuvenating and smoothing properties.

To find proper packaging to complement the EcoLive laundry soap’s 100-precent natural composition, Umbria Olii searched high and low for a biodegradable wrapping film made from natural renewable resources, according to company president Sergio Montano, while also exhibiting good resistance to chemicals.

Ultimately, the soapmaker found what it was looking for in the Bio-Flex F 2110 and Bio-Flex A 4100 CL bioplastic polymers developed by FKuR Kunststoff GmbH of Willich, Germany, and certified to the international EN

13432 standard for plastic biodegradability.

“The high content of renewable resources and the appealing glossy surface, along with the certified biodegradability of the multilayer bio-film, had really convinced us,” says Montano, while lauding Italian-based film producer Poligrafica Veneta for extruding the multilayer film structure, and nearby package converter Cartotecnica Veneta for taking care of the flexographic printing of the film wrap.

“The unique properties of this multilayer film, as well as its straightforward conversion process and good printability, were the decisive factors in choosing the materials from FKuR.”

U.K. GROCER EMBARKS ON A GREEN SPENDING SPREE Leading U.K. supermarket chain Tesco has announced plans to spend £100 million ($152 million) over the next year with the country’s “green technology” companies as part of its intensified efforts to minimize the environmental footprint of the company’s retail operations.

“The challenge of climate change can only be faced by collective action,”Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy stated at the recent official opening of what the company claims to be the world’s first zero-carbon supermarket in Ramsey, Cembridgeshire, which was constructed with sustainable wood products, low-energy LED lighting, and a combined heatand-power plant powered by renewable fuel—with any extra 10

generated electricity transferred to the national grid.

“I’m proud to be opening the world’s first zero-carbon supermarket and I believe it’s no coincidence that it has opened here in the U.K., where many of the innovations which make its construction and operation possible were designed and manufactured,” he added.

“We want to cut our own carbon footprint and help suppliers and customers do the same.We want to be a zero-carbon business by 2050, but we can do that only by working with our suppliers and others across the industry.”

According to Leahy,Tesco has been developing lower carbon-footprint stores since 2005 by incorporating various lo-

cally-sourced environmental technologies, including electric car charging points, CO2 refrigeration, and combined heatand-power plants to generate ‘green’ electricity.

Some of Tesco’s suppliers of these innovative technologies— including electricity optimization systems manufacturer PowerPerfector—have been able to begin exporting their products and services in large part thanks to Tesco’s financial support.

“Tesco’s investment has meant we’ve grown very quickly— doubling the number of people we employ in the last year,” says PowerPerfector president Angus Robertson.“Their support and investment in our brand new technology also gives other customers the confidence that we can deliver.”

APRIL 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

FPO

C RY O VA C INS IG HT : O N S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

Good packaging can help save more than food.

|

|

www.cryovacsustainability.com cryovac.mkt@sealedair.com 800.845.3456

©Sealed Air Corporation 2010. All Rights Reserved. The “9 Dot Logo” and “Sealed Air” are registered trademarks of Sealed Air Corporation (US).

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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Access the GlobAl PAckAGinG network

the PAckAGinG AssociAtion

Taking Food Safety Seriously

Packaging Leaders, Atlantic and Layfield get PACsecured!

Richmond, B.C. based Layfield Packaging is the first British Columbia packaging company to be PACsecure certified, the food safety standard for packaging materials tom rose, President and ceo, comments that their customers look to them to provide higher performance packaging and want their risks reduced – as a leading vertically-integrated provider of specialized flexible packaging, Layfield offers sophisticated films that are printed laminated and converted into a wide range of industrial and consumer applications. Layfield felt it was their moral responsibility to ensure their packaging is safe from bugs, glass, rodents, and other contaminations by implementing a rigorous program like PAcsecure.

Mr. rose says the PAcsecure certification, undertaken by the auditing firm QMI-SAI Global, was implemented to ensure safety of packaging products manufactured and delivered for food packaging.

For further information contact: James Davidson, Layfield Vision Packaging t: 604-448-2749 / 1-800-558-8275

Niagara-on-the-Lake Niagara-on-the-Lake

Packaging Summit September September 17, 17, 18 18 && 19, 19, 2010 2010

Certified PACsecure: Atlantic Packaging, Farnell Packaging, Jones Packaging and Layfield Packaging

Atlantic’s Mississauga, on plant, which produces corrugated boxes, diecuts, pre printed boxes and kraft boxes for the food industry becomes its first plant to receive the certification. Similar certification is expected to take place at a number of its other plants later this year.

Featured Speakers

Marc Guay, President of Pepsico Foods Canada will provide a keynote address to set the stage for the three day summit.

Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle, the revolutionary leading company on how to Out Smart Waste will share his fascinating story.

PAC welcomes New Members for 2010!

Join PAC today!

12

t ne a l g for People, P

In a unifed effort PAC and CCGD will bring the Canadian packaging community together to advance sustainability.

For further press information contact: roger keeley, Atlantic Packaging Products ltd. t: 416-298-5422

stewardedge stewardship ontario tech-con Automation terracycle canada inc. tri-con concrete Finishing co Univar canada Yee hong centre for Geriatric care

For more info on PAC membership and events contact Lisa Abraham: 416-490-7860 x213, labraham@pac.ca OR visit www.pac.ca

A Collaborative Partnership to Advance Sustainability

*

ar k as thi t s ev he in y en m ou t f ust r or a ca 20 tte len 10 nd da r

services MPG consultants Muller Martini canada National Rubber technologies nestle canada Oxford Consulting Group Patterned concrete ontario inc Pont Emballage PowerForward inc. sc Johnson & son

Other top industry executives will be flling out the agenda in the weeks to come.

M

Genuine health hughes-Decorr husky injection Molding institut det technologie des Emballages et du genie Alimentaire (iteGA) left coast naturals Les Emballages colorama inc Manitoba Food Processors Millard refrigerated

kag in

Collaboration has gone global on packaging for sustainability and food safety

The certification audit for Atlantic Packaging, which has 21 plants and warehouses along with three paper mills, was carried out by QMI-SAI Global.

Agfa inc.

Alberta Food Processors Amcor limited bemis buskro ltd Butterfly Business Prod. bwAY corporation color Ad Packaging community natural Foods inc.

Duplium corporation Dyne-A-Pak

Pa c

an d

g

Pro ft

tin ova Inn

Atlantic Packaging, one of canada’s largest producers of paper and plastic packaging, the first corrugated company in the world to attain PAcsecure certification

Volunteers Needed for Recall and Traceability Study

As part of its PAcsecure/hAccP initiative, PAc - the Packaging Association will be undertaking mock recall and traceability field trials of the entire packaging supply chain this year.

To this end, PAC will be working with both on-farm and off-farm industry organizations to ensure they incorporate the packaging sector in their recall and traceability plans.

PAC also plans to hold six recall and traceability workshops across Canada for its members and other appropriate sectors to increase awareness of the program.

For more information on participating in this program, please contact larry Dworkin at 416 – 496 – 5075 or email dworkin.comm.@sympatico.ca

APRIL 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

innovation. performance. Touch Dry®

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the ultimate choice for case coding IIntroducing the 5800. Our most advanced, large character, high-resolution inkjet printer featuring our innovative Touch Dry® Hot Melt technology which creates GS1 compliant barcodes.

We’ve raised the bar on quality case coding with the 5800. It is more advanced in its usability, size, connectivity and performance delivering the ultimate coding solution for your production line. 866.263.4644 www.markem-imaje.com/5800 FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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BOBST AUTOPLATEN® PRESSES

The next generation BOBST Autoplaten® presses are the result of more than a century of innovation and service passion. By choosing world leader BOBST, you get the benefit of know-how that has shaped its history.

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contract packaging

Duncan Coopland, vice-president of sales and business development for Knowlton Development Corporation, at the company’s newly-opened KDC Innovation Group office in Toronto.

BY andrew joseph, features editor • PHOTOS BY STEVE PELLERIN

The LEK facility in Knowlton, Que., utilizes a Markem-Imaje 9030 coder to apply lot and best-before information to the web stock of Butterfly sachets being processed on the EasyPack Solutions’ Easysnap filling and sealing machine.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECTS I

Leading Canadian contract packager leverages keen innovation and leading-edge technologies to clean up in the personal-care products biz

t’s always much easier to talk of thinking outside the proverbial box than actually pushing the envelope of existing products and technologies on a daily basis like the folks at KDC (Knowlton Development Corporation), one of North America’s leading contract manufacturers of personal-care products with an insatiable appetite for packaging product and process innovation— backed up with a world-class manufacturing skillset to see many of its pioneering ideas go on to become major marketplace successes.

Headquartered in Knowlton, Que., the KDC group runs a three-pillared network of highly-efficient thirdparty manufacturing and co-packing facilities—including the Knowlton-based site co-shared by LEK, Inc. and ItalHair North America Ltd., Body Blue 2006 Inc. of Mississauga, Ont., and Tri Tech Labs in Lynchburg, Va.—to serve a rapidly growing client base of personal-care, hygiene and health-and-beauty brand-owners, including industry superpowers such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Johnson & Johnson (J&J).

Totaling over a million square feet of production space, the three plants have continued to post impressive growth numbers even during the past recession, according to KDC vice-president of sales and business development Duncan Coopland, in large part thanks to the company’s

A Storcan conveying system moves personal-care products past a Videojet inkjet coder at the LEK production plant in Knowlton.

CA NA DI A N PAC K AG IN G • A P R I L 2 0 1 0

The Butterfly uni-dose sachet is an innovative packaging and product sampling format recently brought to Canada by KDC and its machinery supplier EasyPack Solutions.

unwavering commitment to product innovation and quality.

“We’re all about innovation: It’s not only part of our name, it’s what we do,” Coopland told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the company’s recently-opened KDC Innovation Group facility in west-end Toronto—a focused product research and development unit operating as a sort of a “innovation think-tank” for turning nextgeneration product and packaging developments into commercialized reality.

“This is what we call our think-tank—where we really examine the current market trends, while drawing from our group’s knowledge, insights and participation in the industry to develop novel concepts and technologies that enable our customers to arrive at the forefront of those trends,” explains Coopland.

“We wanted to create a site with a really diverse environment that encourages dialogue, innovation, idea generation and, ultimately, success,” he adds.

“I really believe that we’ve done exactly what we set out to do, as this place has already helped encourage our employees to think outside the box when conceiving of new personal-care products and the new ways to package them.

“This building is essentially a customer innovation center, which connects the R&D groups of each of our manufacturing sites to nurture new business development opportunities and innovation—partnered up with the actual product development.”

According to KDC vice-president of innovation and marketing Natasha Lebel, the Innovation Group unit is mandated with developing accurate three- to five-year projections for various product segments and categories within the personal-care markets, while also developing an “innovation network” that specifically focuses on sustainable technologies.

This often involves engaging various authoritative outside experts in the fields of chemistry and packaging to partake in KDC’s R&D efforts—aimed at bringing to market new proprietary technologies and products ranging from deodorants and antiperspirants to various liquid surfactant systems (soaps).

Continues on page 16

An NJM/CLI 125 Bronco labeler in action on a deodorant line at LEK.

15

contract packaging THE BUTTERFLY EFFECTS Continued from page 15

A Bonfiiglioli motor helps power a deodorant-stick conveying line.

Says Lebel:“The center is a designed as a gathering space for customers and KDC partners alike—a place where we are not distracted by the routine day-to-day activities, so that we are able to fully explore the ‘what-ifs’ of the marketplace.

“It’s also a place for discussion on the future: the future of the market, the future of a customer’s brand, or the future of the industry,” Lebel adds, citing the company’s self-styled mantra of continuous engineering of greater quality and value into its products; connecting with emerging technologies; partnering with the best-in-class

LEK uses a Nenotech SWT30 sleevewrapper and heat-tunnel to pack cartons of aerosol spray-cans.

technology suppliers; and bringing the future of personalcare products to its clients faster.

Although it’s only been in operation for about a halfyear, the KDC Innovation Group unit is already living up to its promise and expectations, according to Coopland and Levy, with several exciting developments in the works and edging closer to commercial launches.

One of its more noteworthy new endeavors is geared towards the introduction of the so-called Butterfly unidose packaging technology into the North American markets, with the company’s LEK facility in Knowlton recently becoming the first contract packaging plant in North America to have installed the patented Easysnap machine that is designed specifically for packaging viscous fluids and formulations into flat, easy-to-open, single-dose sachets.

Engineered and manufactured in Italy, this highperformance automatic vertical form-fill-seal (V/F/F/S) machine incorporates patented variable-depth scoring

Finished product is cartoned and taped by an EZ-Taper machine, with lot and best-before dates instantly applied by a Videojet model 37e continuous inkjet printer.

16

technology that ensures precise and smooth dispensing of a wide range of liquid and viscous products into three different-sized standard Butterfly packs—40x50-mm, 40x80-mm and 60x100-mm—which are formed on the machine by repeatedly joining two concurrently-running webs to construct fully-sealed, high-barrier, rectangular plastic packages with ultra-slim profiles.

Flexible enough to dispense precise product quantities from one to 30 ml, the Easysnap machine and the Butterfly sachets—so named on the account of wing-like movement of the package when it is opened up along the centered perforation by bending the opposite panels inwards with fingers—are the most revolutionary developments in unidose packaging in recent memory, according to Benny Chiavetti, president of EasyPack Solutions Inc. in Brantford, Ont. Chiavetti says the Butterfly offers travelers a far more convenient and space-efficient packaging option than tubes or bottles, while also giving marketers a choice of using the sachets in various product multipacks or as an easy-to-insert product sample.

Moreover, the sachet’s durable, high-barrier construction that combines a rigid-plastic backing with a flexible-film front layer, does an optimal job in terms of meeting the various industry-specific shelflife requirements, he adds, while the easy-squeeze dispensing of the packaged contents ensures minimal product waste—a critical consideration for many OTC (over-the-counter) pharmaceutical formulations.

A Capmatic Conquest filler-and-capper employed on the antiperspirant line at the LEK production facility in Knowlton.

“The reality of our industry is that if we had gone to our customers with new concepts like these five years ago, many would not have been interested because they operated under the impression that R&D had to be developed within their own walls,” remarks Coopland, stressing that KDC’s open-door approach to sharing its research findings with clients and partners has ultimately

“Our clients can clearly see for themselves that a company like ours can really enable them to focus more on what they do best—branding, marketing and distribution.”

“The sky really is the limit for this revolutionary packaging technology,” echoes Coopland.

“Along with personal-care products like hair-gels, shampoos, soaps, sunscreens, moisturizers or toothpastes, the Butterfly is also the perfect package for OTCs and products that should never come into contact with the mouth, such as laundry detergent, which cannot be packaged in a conventional sachet that you may be tempted to tear with your teeth—like the standard ketchup sachets, for example.

“We are very excited by the possibilities, and we know our customers are as well,” he states.

“This technology provides a perfect example of how we strive to partner with great innovators and like-minds.”

As for other recent KDC product innovations, Coopland says he is very encouraged by the company’s recent development of the ZEA Natural Deodorant platform—a patent-pending, all-natural deodorant stick that replaces the traditional petroleum-based propylene glycol with an all-natural propanediol alternative derived from corn sugar.

Manufactured by DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, the biodegradable Zemea glycol substitute is said to consume 40 per cent less energy to manufacture than propylene glycol—thereby providing significant savings in GHG (greenhouse-gas) emissions to produce a key deodorant-stick ingredient that accounts for up to 60 per cent of the total contents.

Lebel explains that combining the propanediol with other natural ingredients, such as grapefruit seed extract and sodium bicarbonate, has enabled KDC to develop an all-natural, healthier and more efficacious antiperspirant product that is also completely free of synthetic chemicals like parabens, triclosan, aluminum and silicones—while still providing consumers with effective all-day protection.

SEW motors help power an Elmar filler on LEK’s liquid soap line.

helped overcome that instinctive reluctance.

“With all the R&D and innovation capabilities at our disposal nowadays,” he says, “our clients can clearly see for themselves that a company like ours can really enable them to focus more on what they do best—branding, marketing and distribution.

“By creating the future today,” Coopland sums up, “the KDC Innovation Group will continue to position itself and its contract manufacturing customers ahead of the competition.

“It’s just a matter of allowing ourselves and our customers to think outside of the proverbial box—to ensure that KDC and its customers will remain successful long into the future.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

KDC EasyPack Solutions Inc. DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products NJM/CLI Packaging Systems Capmatic Ltd. Storcan Ltd. Videojet Technologies Canada SEW-Eurodrive Co. of Canada Bonfiglioli Canada, Inc. Nenotech Inc. Elmar

411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421

APRIL 2010 • CANAD IAN PACKAGING

new productsequipment Vivo! Photo-Quality Digital Label Printer

Blank Labels & Inks

7,500 Labels? By this Afternoon? No Problem!

QuickLabel® manufactures labels, inks, and thermal transfer ribbons for every label printer brand. We have labels in 1000s of shapes and sizes, and dozens of materials and price ranges. We’ll drop-ship to your customer or deliver to meet your own needs.

The Vivo! digital color label printer is designed for manufacturers who need fast-turnaround on “short-runs” of labels for printing just-in-time, private label packaging, and export labels. The Vivo! digitally prints photo-quality labels at high speeds, up to 3 ips in 600 dpi CMYK color and is cost-effective for moderatehigh volumes of labels, from 100s to 10,000s per batch. The Vivo! is a tonerbased printer, similar to a laser printer, and printed labels are extremely resistant to fading, abrasion, and moisture. Prints onto paper and synthetic die-cut labels and tags.

QuickLabel Systems 877-757-7978 (Toronto & western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec & eastern Canada) www.QuickLabel.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 128

Barcode Printers with Lifetime Warranty

QuickLabel’s Pronto! Barcode Printer Family offers more features than most other barcode printers on the market. Our 203 dpi, 300 dpi, 600 dpi printers come with Lifetime Warranty, QuickSwap™ Loan & Replacement Service, and 24-Hour Support from our factory.

QuickLabel Systems 877-757-7978 (Toronto & western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec & eastern Canada) www.QuickLabel.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 129

Custom Label Printing

QuickLabel prints your custom labels using our own digital label printers or our flexographic presses. Fast turnaround, artwork assistance, and low minimum order quantities.

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Cut Costs by Making Labels On-Demand and save time!

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Integrate Digital Color Label Printing In-line

QuickLabel’s Xe series of digital color label printers can be addressed by an ERP system and integrated “in-line” with automatic label applicator systems.

They produce color labels faster than any other in-house label printers, with highest speed processing and printing of variable label content. Ideal for industrial applications, with “peel off” option for faster label application. Speeds of up to 7 ips (in spot color print mode) or 4 ips (in process color print mode). Prints on flexible rollstock up to 8.3” wide.

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Do you ever need “short runs” of labels?

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Call us to start printing labels on-demand:

877-757-7978 (Ontario and western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec and eastern Canada) Visit us: www.QuickLabel.ca

With a QuickLabel printer, you can print your own custom labels for any product. It’s affordable, fast, and easy to print your own labels on-demand for each product variation, for private label customers, and for labeling short-runs of seasonal products and prototype products.

With QuickLabel’s powerful Vivo! electrophotographic label printer, you can print about 2300 photographic labels an hour. With QuickLabel’s desktop Zeo! inkjet label printer, you can start printing labels in minutes, at about 150 labels an hour.

QuickLabel printers dramatically cut turnaround times for labels and make it profitable for you to label products on-demand and fulfill small-quantity custom orders with high-quality, custom-labeled packaging.

CONTRACT PACKAGING

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY SANDRA STRANGEMORE

DOING IT RIGHT! P

Canadian repacking services specialist continues to thrive by reincarnating packaging line rejects into shelf-space standouts

roduct rejects and defects may be a regrettable but unavoidable part of life in today fast-paced, fiercelycompetitive CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry, but thanks to companies like Repack Canada Inc., there is no reason for poor-quality or inadequate packaging to keep otherwise perfectly decent products from reaching their rightful shelf-space.

Marketing itself as a ‘disaster restoration services’ provider, the Mississauga, Ont.-based company has carved itself a lucrative niche in the briskly-growing third-party manufacturing and co-packing marketplace by, according to president Carol Levy, enhancing its standard contract packaging capabilities with uncanny eagerness to take on the odd repacking jobs that either no one else wants to do or has even thought of doing.

“We differentiate ourselves from other contract packagers by our involvement with various product reclamation projects for clients throughout Canada and the U.S.,” Levy told Canadian Packaging during a recent visit to one of the company’s two 10,000-square-foot facilities located about a 30-minute drive west of Toronto, with the other nearby building housing Repack’s graphic design sistercompany The Freelance Portfolio Inc., which Levy founded 28 years ago.

Levy says a lot of such ‘packaging reclamation’ work revolves around products with faulty or unreadable UPC codes, ruined labels, and products entering the Canadian market either without the proper bilingual packaging in place, or missing key labeling requirements such as the Nutrition Facts table, to use an example.

product was back on the store-shelves in no time.”

While the company’s business premise sounds simple enough, it certainly wasn’t all easy going for Levy right off the bat when she purchased Repack back in 2000.

In fact, the company lost money for the first two years while operating at its old and cramped 4,500-square-foot building in nearby Milton, with not even enough elbow room to accommodate all the workers needed to execute some of the larger customer orders.

Once the lease ran out, Levy relates, the company swiftly moved on to its current, much larger Mississauga location that has also allowed Repack to tap into a higher-skilled local workforce pool.

Today employing 20 people to handle about 300 different projects per year, the two companies generate combined annual revenues in the $2.5-million range, Levy reveals, crediting the new location and better inhouse talent for keeping the business growing even during the worst of the recent economic recession.

“There is nothing worse than having a customer come to you with work and having to turn them down when you realize you are limited by the size of your own operation,” states Levy, “which is why I have vowed to never let the operation’s size limit my business opportunities.”

Equipped with a state-of-the-art, motion sensorcontrolled security system, temperature monitoring devices, and top-of-the-line air-conditioning, pest control and sprinkler systems, the new Repack

FINAL STOP

“For many of our customers, Repack is their last line of defense before their next and final destination—the storefloor,” says Levy, stressing the importance of having the vast graphic arts and merchandising display expertise of The Freelance Portfolio staff at her disposal to meet even the most challenging customer demands and deadlines.

“Repack and Freelance Portfolio work closely together to ensure that our deadlines are always met, that there is no product waste, and that our customers are more than satisfied,” she says, praising the two companies’ shared ‘whatever it takes’ work ethic to instill disciplined attention to detail, responsiveness and personal attention among staff to resolve even the most daunting tasks.

“A client of ours recently came to us with thousands of a canned product that could not be scanned at the store, causing great inconvenience all around,” Levy recalls.“But rather than destroy the product and lose the order, the customer sent the cans to us, and we proceeded to remove the labels and replace them all by hand with working UPC codes—doing it quickly enough to ensure that the 18

A Repack Canada employee uses a Videojet 43s small-character inkjet printer to apply lot and code data to a gift-with-purchase product.

From left: Repack Canada’s Yvonne Rutherford, senior sales representative; Carol Levy, owner and president; Jennifer Stephen, junior sales representative.

Above right: A 3M-Matic 200A case-sealing system provides consistent, high-quality closure for Repack Canada’s cartons.

facility boasts all the pre-requisite infrastructure and certifications to reassure the company’s existing and prospective clients about its professional pedigree, including the Excise Warehouse license, a Spirit license, a Health Canada Establishment license, and a Health Canada Precursor A license for the handling of precursor products as outlined

by Health Canada.

Says Levy: “When people hear that we now have airconditioning, some of them may immediately assume it’s merely us pampering the staff, and while that is certainly an added bonus, the air-conditioning in our production area was a calculated addition that has allowed us to expand our range of work.

“Take chocolates, for example. We can now package chocolates in the summer without the fear of them melting, so it has had a very positive effect on the types of jobs that we could take on,” states Levy.

HOT AND COLD

“Also, the storage of OTC (over-the-counter) pharmaceutical products is limited to a certain range of temperature. Too hot or too cold could have an adverse effect, so we have put in place certain fail-safes that allow us to work with them safely and securely,” she says, adding that precise temperature monitoring is just one of 39 key modus operandi principles outlined in the company’s SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) manual.

This explicit commitment to optimal customer service and satisfaction has certainly not gone unnoticed among the company’s steadily growing customer base, Levy relates, citing the likes of Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, Dynamic Food, C.B. Powell, TFB & Associates, Calkins & Burke, and the Canadian Fishing Company as some of Repack’s loyal repeat clients.

But it’s not all just about fixing the packaging that didn’t come off right the first time around, says Levy, pointing out that developing high-impact promotional and display packaging is also becoming a key growth opportunity for both Repack and The Freelance Portfolio.

“We also offer ways for companies to create innovative promotions for their products by combining them with other products—we’ve packaged hockey pucks with tins of Gold Seal tuna; added a weekly pill-box to bottles of Centrum Select vitamins; and even added keychains holding real miniature Tabasco bottles to the boxes of regular-sized Tabasco sauce,” she adds.

Wyeth Consumer Healthcare promotions manager Glen Batista concurs.

“Repack Canada has done some challenging yeoman’s work on our behalf for the past 10 years by continually providing us with fast and top-notch service in creating in-store displays—flip-trays, sidewinder floor-stands, miniwing displays and pallet displays—or helping us create effective promotions with special ‘gift-with-purchase’ items,” Batista relates.

“As long as I’ve been dealing with Carol, I know that when we call on her with our impossible deadlines, she APRIL 2010 • C ANAD I AN PAC KAGI NG

contract packaging

Repack has carved out a niche for itself by doing the odd repacking jobs no one else cares to, like replacing faulty labels on canned goods.

with a six-foot RBS model ACT 2010 shrink-tunnel; • a 3M-Matic 200A case-sealing system from 3M Company; • a high-resolution model C1000 case-coder from Domino Printing Solutions; • a Videojet Excel series small-character inkjet printer; • a Citronix model ci1000 continuous inkjet printer; • an Artel high-speed wraparound labeler; • a Custtech conveying system; • a conveying system from Baldor Electric Company; • a model LP-2100 semi-automatic, low-profile turntable spiral stretchwrapper from Cousins Packaging Inc. According to Loncar, Repack’s unique combination of talented and dedicated staff and high-performance packaging equipment puts the company in a fairly select group of contract packaging providers despite its relatively small size.

“After more than 20 years in the business, I am honestly not aware of any other company that offers the same range of services as Repack Canada,” Loncar sums up.

will always come through for us.”

Cara Loncar, a senior sales and marketing professional in the Canadian food industry who has worked with Repack on numerous occasions, adds: “Their ‘whatever it takes’ attitude is invaluable in the fast-paced food industry, where any issues need to be resolved quickly and efficiently, and I also appreciate their personal touch.

“I know them, they know me, and I can always trust them to do an excellent job,” states Loncar.

“They have a creative collaborative approach, they have a lot of experience, and they are always service-oriented and cost-efficient, which is another very COME, important criteria these days.”

Over the years, Loncar relates, Repack has provided her with many valuable ser vices—including labeling and relabeling, multipacking, sample-packing and inserting, etc.—for a wide variety of popular food products ranging from Neilson ice-teas and hot-chocolates to Stagg Foods chili, Ridgways teas, Angostura bitters, Patak Indian foods and Swanson Frozen Foods packages.

“I always feel that I am in a truly professional relationship with them, and I would never hesitate to recommend Repack’s services to others.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

Repack Canada The Freelance Portfolio Inc. Zebra Technologies Corporation Videojet Technologies Canada LP Damark Shrink Packaging Systems Benison & Co. RBS Equipment Designs Ltd. 3M Canada Company Domino Printing Solutions Citronix Custtech International Inc. Baldor Electric Company Cousins Packaging Inc.

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DISCOVER THE LATEST IN HYGENIC TRAYSEALER DESIGN

The Right Stuff

While Levy credits the bulk of the company’s success to the talent and dedication of her employees, she also stresses the importance of having the right packaging systems and equipment in place for her staff to do the best job they can— especially when it comes to labeling.

Although customers often supply Repack with pre-printed replacement product labels, Repack also frequently made new labels from scratch with its own Z4Mplus model printer, manufactured

by Zebra Technologies Corporation, which was recently replaced with the newer ZM400 model.

To assist the labeling process, Repack also employs a 43s small-character inkjet printer manufactured by Videojet Technologies Inc.—a cost-efficient, noncontact industrial coder that clearly prints up to three lines of text, barcodes and logos at speeds up to 800 feet per minute, in character heights of two to 10 mm.

“It’s been a pretty good printer for us—easy to use and, above all, very lowmaintenance,” says Levy, complimenting the coder’s automatic printhead-cleaning during startup and shutdown; user-friendly operation; generous memory capacity to accommodate up to 25 programs; and handy versatility in terms of usable inks and substrates.

Other key packaging equipment employed at the Repack facility includes: • a model MB34 flowwrapper and model 534T heat-tunnel from Damark Shrink Packaging Systems; • three Damark SMC1620 semiautomatic L-bar sealers and two Damark SMC 16 shrink-tunnels; • a model LSA-504C automatic L-bar sealer from Benison & Co., integrated

The T700 is not only extremely productive but also very hygenic and easy to operate and service. You can change the tray format or clean the machine in just a few steps - for more efficiency and productivity.

Contact your local area sales manager to arrange a demonstration of the latest hygenic traysealer design the T 700 can offer you, conveniently in our Canadian location.

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Multivac Canada Inc. 6221 Hwy 7, Unit 7, 8 Woodbridge, ON L4H 0K8 Tel : 905 264 1170 Fax : 905 264 9647 Toll Free: 877 264 1170 FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 109 www.multivac.com

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR • PHOTOS BY JOHN HRYNIK

Left: Boehmer Box LP president and chief executive Mark Caines strikes a happy pose in front of the company’s newly-purchased KBA model Rapida 142 six-color, 56-inch printing press, which accounted for a large part of the paperbox converter’s $10-million investment in new printing and prepress technologies over the last year.

Inset: LYFT Visual press operator Luis De Oliveira checking out the print quality of a run being processed on the recently-installed Dotrix digital press from AGFA Graphics.

BIG BANG FOR THE BUCK I

Ontario folding-carton converter gets a leg up on the competition with a massive technology upgrade and overhaul

f spending money is a key pre-requisite for making more money down the road, then there are some very exciting years just up ahead for Boehmer Box LP—a historical institution in Canada’s folding-carton industry and one of its largest players, with virtually unmatched market reach and plenty of pent-up production capacity just waiting to be unleashed.

Founded way back in 1874 under the A&C Boehmer moniker in Kitchener, Ont., the 125-year-old foldingcarton producer today ranks as one of the country’s three largest manufacturers of high-quality paperbox packaging products for brand-owners and private-label customers in the food-and-beverage, pharmaceutical, personal-care and other high-profile CPG (consumer packaged goods) industries—producing an estimated 700 million lithoprinted packages last year at its sprawling, 320,000-squarefoot Kitchener facility.

Today operating as part of the CanamPac ULC group of packaging companies—also comprising the Strathcona Paper LP paperboard mill in Napanee, Ont., and a newly-formed independent affiliate LYFT Visual, a provider of pre-media services and printed marketing products to retailers, CPG companies, product manufacturers and ad agencies—Boehmer managed not only to post double-digit growth during the recent economic downturn, according to company president and chief executive Mark Caines, but also embarked on an extensive, $10-million capital investment program that firmly entrenches the company at the forefront of the Canadian industry’s technological leadership.

“Our goal is to be producing one billion packages at our Kitchener plant in coming years,” Caines told Canadian Packaging in a recent interview, pointing out that the 270-employee Boehmer plant is currently operating at only about 70 per cent of its total output capacity, despite running a busy four-shift, 24/7 schedule throughout most of the year, with a day or two off for Christmas.

“We have experienced sales growth of about 20 per cent in the last year and we expect another 15-percent increase in the coming year,” says long-time printing industry veteran Caines, who joined Boehmer in September of 2005 to steer the company on a course of continuous improvement and investment in next-generation printing and converting technologies to support the projected production growth.

“We are now the largest producer of primary packaging 20

for the private-label brands of Sobey’s, Loblaws, Walmart, Metro and most other main retailers, with about a 50-percent share of the Canadian private-label business, serving our clients coast-to-coast right across Canada,” says Caines, adding that the Boehmer plant had created over 40 new full-time jobs in the last year to keep up with growing production levels.

“Don’t get me wrong, the Canadian folding-carton industry is an extremely tough place to make a buck—it is highly competitive and the margins are very small,” points out Caines.

“But we really believe that we can achieve our growth targets and objectives through a combination of our highly-efficient manufacturing processes, high product quality, fast turnaround times, and continued investment into world-class printing press technologies.”

PRESS TO IMPRESS

Manufactured in Germany, the recently-installed KBA model Rapida 142 six-color, 56-inch press—supplied

by KBA North America’s Canadian distributor KBR Graphics Ltd.—accounts for a large portion of Boehmer’s $10-million investment spree, Caines relates.

“Our reputation has been built on investing in new technology to differentiate us from our competitors,” says Caines, adding the new, UV-prepped KBA press will make a perfect production complement to the Kitchener plant’s existing MAN Roland six-color, 56-inch offset press and the six-color, 50-inch sheetfed press from Mitsubishi.

“Our new Rapida 142 press is an essential part of the investment,” Caines asserts. “We needed a new press that would provide the automation, fast make-ready, color fidelity, and ability to easily integrate with our robust prepress department, as well as our unique FM6 expanded color printing technology.

“Our plan is to run this press to capacity where it will be operating 24/7 along with our existing 56-inch press,” he expands.

“We’ll be much more efficient in make-ready and turnaround times because our new KBA press is running 45-percent faster than the press it is replacing,” says Caines, complimenting its robust operating speeds of up to 15,000 sheets per hour, as well as full compatibility with the proprietary, extended-gamut FM6 six-color process technology, licensed from the Belgian-based PrinTech Systems B.V., which enables the matching of a broad

range of specific brand colors in a single pass without having to load special inks.

“Color and graphics are very important to our customers,” says Caines,“which is why in 2006 we invested in the patented FM6 technology—making us the only printer in North America to be using this process, which reproduces the traditional Pantone spot color library in a single printing pass using CMYK, FM orange, FM blue and FM green.

“Due to this technology, we’re able to put 10 or 15 different boxes on one sheet and hit the color gamut for each customer,” he relates. “In fact, FM6 has become so popular that nearly 80 to 85 per cent of our customers now ask for it.

“In order to run it properly, we needed a press like the KBA Rapida 142, which has the required color and density control technology.”

Called Densitronic Pro, this proprietary, combined density-and-color measuring system is designed to permit direct measurements within the image both during and after printing, according to KBA, quickly displaying any deviations from target densities, color values, and other quality parameters such as dot gain, trapping, etc.

With integration for online control, the density and spectral deviations are converted into corrective adjustments for the individual ink keys, with the Densitronic Pro system automatically controlling the density and spectral parameters of each sheet by measuring along control strips or directly on the image—at far greater

Color management specialist Paul Filso (left) and Mark Caines showing off a freshly-printed sheet coming off the Dotrix digital press.

APRIL 2010 • C ANAD I AN PAC KAGI NG

speeds than with the traditional hand-held measuring devices.

Combined with the Rapida 142 unit’s fully-automatic and simultaneous plate-changing capabilities for vastly reduced make-readies, “This installation is the best press startup I have experienced in my 25 years in the printing industry,” Caines enthuses.

While the high-output Rapida 142 press may be the Boehmer plant’s newest workhorse, the newly-acquired digital Dotrix press—manufactured in Belgium by AGFA Graphics—is more of a rare-breed, multi-trick show pony geared for flexible, short-run production of cartons, high-end labels, posters, product samples, and various promotional and test-marketing kits.

Installed about three months ago around the same time as the Rapida 142 press, the digital press has “already been getting great feedback from our customers,” says Caines, praising its unparalleled flexibility that allows for the customization of each and every carton or other product being processed during the actual print run.

“This is just about the most hightech printing technology out there right now,” says Caines, adding that the Dotrix installation has enabled CanamPac to establish the new LIFT Visual digital printing and pre-media unit, headed by himself and industry veteran Serge Traikovich.

(return-on-investment) in coming years.

“Just a couple of weeks ago, we performed a complete product changeover on the new KBA press in under 18 minutes,” he extols,“whereas it would’ve taken us an hour or more on the old press that it replaced.

“For a company like ours, which produces more than 3,000 SKUs (stock-keeping units), such flexibility and agility is a priceless asset that will serve us well into the future, as we continue to grow and consolidate our marketplace gains.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

Mark Caines says he wants to see the 320,000-square-foot Boehmer Box plant reach 100-percent output capacity in a few years, which would see the Kitchener facility produce one billion cartons per year.

WORK TO DO

“It’s a very new technology, so we have some work ahead to develop the market,” Caines admits, “but in terms of final print quality, the results we’ve been getting have already exceeded our expectations.

“There is definitely a trend in the marketplace towards a higher frequency of graphic changes on the package and a reduction in length runs,” says Caines, “and the Dotrix digital printing process is exactly what we needed to capitalize on this trend.

“Being a digital press, and having no printing plates, allows us to be very costeffective on short runs with a high level of graphic changes,” he explains,“and it allows us to run jobs requiring variable data.

“The press is also capable of running essentially any substrate that can be purchased on a roll—from plastic to paperboard,” Caines points out. “We can also run it roll-to-roll or roll-to-sheet, as required.

“I think that it will take a little time for the digital printing process to become more mainstream, mainly because of the high cost of the inks and consumables,” he allows, “but these costs are offset by less waste, less plates, etc.

“We are happy to embrace this technology right now because it accurately represents the future evolution of packageprinting technology, while also allowing us to support the marketing efforts of our customers.”

All in all, Caines says he is highly satisfied with the performance, quality, flexibility and the high level of process automation that the two new presses have enabled the Boehmer plant to achieve in the relatively short time since their installation, concluding that the company’s extensive capital investment—also including the purchase of a rebuilt 56-inch Bobst die-cutter and next-generation prepress technologies from ESKO Graphics— will prove its worth with a healthy ROI

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

125

Boehmer Box LP LYFT Visual KBA North America PrinTech Systems B.V. AGFA Graphics ESKO Graphics

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METAL DETECTION

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE

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CASE STUDY

OVER TORY

Malabar has partnered with German spice producer RAPS to become its first North American distributor.

From left: Doris Valade, owner and president of Malabar Super Spice Co. Ltd., and John Tavares, operations manager.

Malabar keeps comparative samples of all of its spices at its in-house laboratory.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Canadian spice producer ensures optimal product quality assurance with leading-edge metal detection technology

I

t wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to suggest that processors and marketers of spices may well be the undersung heroes of the modern food-processing industry, but for the folks at Malabar Super Spice Co. Ltd. in Burlington, Ont., simply keeping its clients in the meat-processing, snack-food manufacturing, and foodservice industry coming back for more of the company’s many exotic and aromatic spice blends and powders, time after time, is a sufficient reward in its own right.

“We are here to support food processors from start to finish—not just with all the products and supplies they need, but also with all the advice and technical support that they may require,” explains Malabar’s operations manager John Tavares.

“That means making things easy for our customers and, in some cases, helping them generate new ideas and to bring them to fruition.”

Operating out of a 16,000-square-foot HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points)-certified facility, Malabar Super Spice—its name derived as a tribute to the Indian southeast-coastal province of Malabar, renowned worldwide for the quality of black pepper originating there—has worked closely with thousands of food-

processors over the last 28 years, according to company president Doris Valade, consistently drawing top praise for superior service and exceptional product quality of its spices, ingredients, seasonings, custom formulations, flavorings, marinades, batters, breadings, and related processing supplies.

Valade estimates that Malabar today offers over 5,000 distinct spice products in four to six different variations apiece—providing its food-processing customers with a broadly diverse range of product options and recipes.

“Our job is to support processors by supplying them with what they need to make excellent food products to sell to the Canadian consumers to bring home to their dinner tables,” says Valade, who has incidentally made the prestigious W100 list of top Canadian women entrepreneurs of the Toronto-published Profit magazine for the past seven years.

“I think what makes us unique is that we don’t just offer your run-of-the-mill spice products,” Tavares told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the tidy, 15-employee Burlington facility. “Right from the time Malabar opened its door, Doris has been literally traveling the world looking for unique and authentic products of superior quality for our Canadian food-processing clients.”

CLIENT LIST

Purchased just months ago, the Phantom metal detector provides superior product safety inspection performance as part of ensuring the spice manufacturer’s HACCP certification compliance.

22

“In many cases, the only place you can get products like these in Canada is from Malabar,” says Tavares, citing an impressive list of loyal clients that includes: R. Denninger Ltd., an Ontario-based producer of European-style sausages, meats, cold-cuts, salads and prepared foods; the federally-registered Springer’s Meats, processors of high-quality cooked and smokedmeat products; and the popular restaurant franchise chain Kelsey’s, to whom Malabar supplies everything from chicken-wing sauces to seasoning mixes for the Bloody Caesar cocktails.

According to Tavares, Malabar even played a key role in the development of the popular seasonal favorite Lobster Sandwich from the Subway restaurant chain.

Tavares says that ensuring long-term success in the highly competitive spice industry often requires smaller-sized companies like Malabar to hook up with high-profile, globally-operating companies with wellestablished world brands, which is why Malabar recently became the Canadian distributor for the German-based group RAPS GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in the Bavarian town of Kulmbach.

Operating a global network of 12 subsidiaries and

over 30 distributors, the German company’s PureLine Seasonings product line makes a perfect portfolio complement to Malabar’s own PureSpice ultra-pure premium spices.

“Malabar and RAPS have been working in partnership since October of 2008,” explains Valade, “and it is certainly an honor for us to have been sought-out by RAPS to be their partner on the account of our industry reputation for high quality and customer service.

“It’s also a great business opportunity for us to get our hands on spices that are considered to be amongst the highest-quality in the world.”

Tavares estimates between 35 to 40 per cent of Malabar’s current spice inventory is supplied by RAPS from its globally-located farms, and he expects that number to increase in coming years.

“We have found out that the quality of spices offered by RAPS is far superior to those from many other sources,” says Tavares.

“In fact, we require less RAPS product to create the flavor, which ultimately means less cost to produce, less product waste and better taste.”

Despite the company’s impressive marketplace gains and inroads to date, bothValade and Tavares agree that the spice industry is one tough nutmeg to crack—with plenty of fierce competition and relatively slim margins—making continuous investment in efficient and more productive production machinery an ongoing quest.

A worker utilizes an Orion stretchwrapper to prepare a shipment.

APRIL 2010 • C ANAD I AN PAC KAGI NG

METAL DETECTION

As part of this open-ended continuous improvement process, Malabar recently purchased a new Phantom series metal detection system from Fortress Technology Inc., Toronto-headquartered manufacturer of industrial metal detection systems for food, pharmaceutical, lumber, plastic and textile industry applications, with operating subsidiaries in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Banbury, U.K. “Like many other companies in our industry, we have to operate by following ‘lean manufacturing’ techniques for optimal productivity,” Tavares recounts, “and we just felt that the addition of a new metal detection system would help us speed things up for us, and that it would also be an integral part of our HACCP compliance.”

Installed at the Burlington plant last December, the Phantom metal detector has been doing an outstanding job of ensuring that all the product leaving the Malabar facility is completely free of metal contaminants and debris, relates Tavares.

“We have utilized another metal detector prior to our purchase of the Phantom, but if it broke down we would be unable to ship anything out to our customers,” says Tavares.

facility and train us, but they contacted us with followups to see how it was working for us, so we are all very impressed with their customer relationship skills.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase another machine from them again, or to recommend them and their top-notch equipment to anyone else,” adds Tavares, noting that the Malabar plant conducts three tests daily with the Phantom system to separate the actual metallic debris from the naturally-occurring metallic particulates in some spices.

“The Phantom really knows the difference between a natural and an unnatural metal count and acts accordingly,” he asserts.“It has truly exceeded my expectations.”

To complement the plant’s hard-earned reputation for superior product integrity,Tavares adds, Malabar also makes extensive use of the Toshiba model TEC B-SX5 thermal transfer/direct thermal printer for quick generation of labels with complete customer and product information for every package that leaves the plant.

Equipped with Toshiba’s proprietary 306dpi printhead,

the B-SX5 printer provides Malabar with all the performance advantages of a high-precision heat history CASE control, displayed in seven stages; a new hyper-heater STUDY COVER mechanism and improved alpha protection layer; and a STORY handy ribbon-saving function for optimal cost efficiency.

“Along with providing a high-quality product,” sums up Valade, “we like to pride ourselves on being flexible enough to respond to any client’s requests creatively, costeffectively and with a smile.

“We don’t stop trying until the customer has exactly what they need when they need it,” she concludes.

“I believe that is called ‘good customer service,’ and it’s something we actually like to do as a matter of course, rather than just talk about it.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

Fortress Technology Inc. Toshiba TEC Corp.

Orion Packaging Systems Inc.

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Malabar plant employee preparing a spice recipe.

METAL METTLE

“So having this new Phantom system here really helps us cover the angles,” says Tavares, adding that the new Phantom system now handles most of the plant’s metal-detection tasks in the ingredient picking area—relegating the original metal detector to secondary-packaging operations in other parts of the plant.

Designed to provide high-speed detection with superior accuracy and userfriendliness, the Phantom system uses the latest advances in digital signal-processing technology to ensure complete product integrity, according to Fortress, with key performance features including: • Core DSP (digital signal processing) capabilities for enabling optimal speed and precision; • UltraSense detection capabilities for pinpointing even the tiniest metal contaminants; • AutoTest self-diagnostics to save users from time-consuming manual testing procedures; • The Auto Cal instant system set-up, activated via a simple touch of a button.

“Perhaps because the Phantom utilizes newer technology, we haven’t recorded any ‘false positive’ readings with it yet,” says Tavares, while dispensing high praise for the after-sale customer service and training provided by the Fortress staff.

“The folks at Fortress have been absolutely superb with their customer service,” Tavares enthuses.

“Not only did Fortress come to our

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SUSTAINABILITY

STILL KEEN ON GREEN An Earth Day conference on sustainability to reaffirm Walmart’s environmental pledge

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he last year or so may not have been the best of mental demonstration store in Burlington, Ontario, which times for the environmental movement world- features a first-of-its-kind application of geothermal techwide—given the lamentable failure of the Co- nology in a large-scale Canadian retail operation, along penhagen climate-change summit and much public anxi- with numerous energy-conserving lighting innovations ety over the weakening global economy—but there has and other sustainable features. been little to suggest that the Canadian consumers have This Supercentre store, featuring a full grocery products lost much of their collective zeal and enthusiasm for greater operation, is expected to use an estimated 60 per cent less environmental sustainability in their everyday products. energy than our previously-built Supercentres—equating So it is then hardly surprising that the country’s biggest to an estimated reduction in annual carbon emissions of retailer, Walmart Canada, has not skipped a beat in fulfill- 141 tonnes. It is also expected to divert an estimated 85 per ing its publicly-stated pledge to Canadian consumers about cent of its waste from landfill through a variety of recycling continuing to reduce the environmental footprint of its programs. massive operations—in large part through implementation Earlier this year, we announced plans to open a sustainof the company’s ambitious Packaging Scorecard initiative, able refrigerated DC (distribution center) in Alberta, which designed to enable its parent company Walmart Stores we estimate will be 60-percent more energy-efficient than Inc. to achieve a five-percent packaging reduction across our company’s traditional refrigerated DCs. its global operations by 2013.

It will also be the first-ever refrigerated DC facility to Formally launched in Canada on July 1, 2009, the loombe lit exclusively by low-energy soling deadline does not leave very much time for the Canaid-state (LED) lighting, and will also dian-based Walmart vendors and their packaging suppliers be our first Canadian test site for apto achieve their respective target reductions, which is way plication of fuelcell technology, with this month’s Walmart Packaging Sustainability Conference additional plans for testing solar and IV—produced and managed by PAC-The Packaging wind energy.

Association of Toronto— takes on an a much greater sense Also this year, we announced plans of urgency in accelerating the development of new prod- Duncan MacNaughton, to conduct two significant wind and uct and packaging innovations to keep Walmart’s packaging Chief Merchandising solar power projects in Ontario, inobjectives on track than the last three joint Walmart-PAC and Marketing Officer, cluding installation of a rooftop soWalmart Canada conferences. lar system and a wind turbine at two Suitably being held on the internationally-designated separate Walmart store locations.

Earth Day, April 22, at the Toronto Congress Centre, the Notably, Walmart Canada also held its first Green Busihalf-day event will feature a number or presentations, work- ness Summit this year in Vancouver—a high-profile event shops, progress reports, survey results and tabletop exhibits that brought together more than 300 of Canada’s largest arranged to emphasize the event’s main mission and theme: corporations, NGOs, academics and government leaders to How to Embed Sustainability intoYour Corporation. share the business case for sustainability.

As one of the event’s two main keynote speakers,Walmart What is Walmart Canada doing to enable Canada’s recently-appointed new chief merchandising and Q Canadian consumers to make more marketing officer Duncan MacNaughton will update the environmentally-friendly purchasing Canadian vendors and their packaging suppliers on how far decisions at its stores? they have come along in their use of the Packaging Scorecard to make their packaging more sustainable so far, as well as A Walmart Canada carries over 700 environmentallypreferable products across the business—ranging spell out Walmart’s expectations and targets for the coming from environmentally-friendly cleaning products to CFL years.

To get a better sense of his views on the subject, the Cana- (compact fluorescent) lightbulbs—and it is clear that our dian Packaging magazine recently approached MacNaugh- customers are continuing to embrace environmentallyton to ascertain Walmart Canada’s continued commitment preferable products.

Our research has shown that they are concerned about to true packaging and manufacturing sustainability. the environment and are always looking for ways to make a difference, and we firmly believe our customers shouldn’t you explain the significance of the Q Could have to be making a choice between products they can afenvironmental sustainability movement to ford and products that are better for the environment.

Walmart Canada?

At the same time, we have invited Canadian consumCanada believes that environmental ers, to voice their concerns about the packaging of specific A Walmart sustainability and business sustainability go hand-in- products on our website (forthegreenergood.ca), and we hand. Being a steward of the environment is the right are using this collected feedback as we work towards the thing to do, but it’s also critical for the long-term success implementation of Packaging Scorecard goals and objecof our business. tives—namely working with our suppliers to reduce the We have an incredible opportunity, because of the scope packaging of products by five per cent by 2013. of our business, to bring about significant environmental We believe this goal is entirely achievable and we’ll conchange within our own operations, with our suppliers, and tinue to take bold steps to reach it. also with the more than one million customers we serve Q Why the focus on packaging reduction? every day.

Q

What has Walmart Canada done recently in its operations to make them more environmentally-friendly and sustainable?

A

Last year Walmart Canada opened its first environ-

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It’s estimated that just eight per cent per cent of our environmental footprint is the result of our operations, with 92 per cent comings from the products we carry. That being the case, packaging is an area of our business where Walmart’s scale can drive substantial in-

A

dustry-wide change.

Q

What are some of the concrete results in packaging reduction that Walmart Canada achieved since introducing the Packaging Scorecard system to its suppliers?

Over 65 per cent of all the new cardboard packaging is now made from 100-percent recycled material, and 30 per cent uses vegetable-based dyes and inks for printing.

It 2008,Walmart Canada announced that it would phase out all PVC plastic packaging in the energy-saving light bulb category and replace it with the more environmentally-preferable cardboard packaging. The change will eliminate an estimated 150,000 pounds of PVC plastic waste each year, while significantly increasing package recyclability and saving natural resources.

A

Q

Could you provide a specific example of a Walmart Canada supplier using the Packaging Scorecard to implement a significant improvement in packaging sustainability?

We have achieved very good success in packaging sustainability recently with out Great Value privatelabel brand.

Before the packaging makeover, the frozen poultry for the Great Value Chicken Fingers, Chicken Burgers and Breaded Chicken Burgers was contained in a paperboard carton that was coated with a wax lining to protect the integrity of the package from moisture in the freezer.This wax coating prevented the packaging from being recycled through the conventional recycling facilities.

After being challenged to make its packaging more sustainable as per our Packaging Scorecard methodology, the vendor developed new product packaging that achieved significant sustainability improvements, including the use of 100-percent recyclable cartons for all three product lines, as well as packaging reductions of 19 and 16 per cent by weight for two sizes, with an 18.2-percent overall packaging reduction for all three items.

These packaging improvements equal 16.3 tonnes of paperboard diverted from landfills to recycling facilities, and 2.5 tonnes of less paperboard being consumed for packaging, per year.

A

Q

So how satisfied are you with way that your Canadian vendors and their packaging suppliers have responded to the Packaging Scorecard to date?

We’re very happy with the progress that company and our vendors have made with the Packaging Scorecard: Our vendors have clearly embraced it and we believe they are seeing the business benefits of thinking of packaging through the sustainability lens.

A

Q

Describe the extent of Walmart’s long-term commitment to environmental sustainability.

Walmart Canada believes that we have an opportunity to drive significant environmental change today and well into the future.

Everyday, and for the long-term, we’re guided by the sustainability goals of generating zero waste; to be powered 100-percent by renewable energy; and to sell products that help sustain both people and the environment.

Meeting these goals will take innovation and bold thinking, but we believe that these goals are all 100-percent achievable.

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APRIL 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

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BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR

The new E-Just servomotor designed by Festo is utilized on Edson’s SR 3600 high-speed, large case- and tray-packer for fast and accurate parts changeovers.

SPARE CHANGE

Canadian case-packing equipment manufacturer leverages cutting-edge automation technology to make light of time-consuming changeovers

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ometimes you just can’t have too much of a good thing. And when you’re in the business of manufacturing high-performance, high-precision packaging systems and machinery, it’s hard to see the downside of having as much world-renowned German engineering prowess at your disposal as you can handle.

It’s certainly a premise that has worked wonders recently for the folks at Edson Packaging Machinery Limited, Hamilton, Ont.-based manufacturer of case-packing machines and equipment that earlier this year embarked on a mission to drastically reduce the product changeover times across its equipment range.

“Since the creation of our first case-packer in the 1960s, Edson has constantly evolved by developing and adapting innovative new technologies for end-of-line packaging solutions,” Edson’s engineering manager Bob Krouse told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the company’s 45,000-square-foot production and administrative headquarters facility—directly employing 70 to 90 people over the course of a year to generate annual revenues of just under $20 million.

Regularly reinvesting between three and five per cent of its annual revenues towards new product development and innovation, Edson has dutifully earned its stripes as a reputable and well-respected packaging machinery supplier to many high-profile manufacturers of food, converted tissue, personal-care products and DVDs, relates Krouse, with an extensive product range comprising well-proven machines such as the SR3600 high-speed large case- and tray-packers; the SR3500 series case- and tray-erectorpacker-sealers, the RPd270 robotic top-load case/traypacker; the servo-cassette SCt Packer; and the AuxMag KDF (knock-down-flat) box accumulator and loader.

“For us, continued innovation is the key to our success,” Krouse asserts.“We are certainly not one of those companies that wants to sit back and see what other companies come up with.”

“We would much rather be leading the way at the forefront of technological advancement,” says Krouse, recalling how Edson’s recent collaboration with the Stuttgart, Germany-headquartered industrial automation technologies group Festo AG & Co. KG resulted in a remarkable technological breakthrough that had enabled Edson to reduce the changeover times on its case-packing

The E-Just servomotor and the point-of-adjustment tamper-arm.

26

machines from about 30 to just under five minutes.

“A lot of our customers are Fortune 500 businesses who are always looking for ways to improve their bottom line, so we looked at ways to improve machine changeovers,” says Krouse, pointing out that machine downtime associated with product changeovers has been a long-enduring drag on manufacturing productivity in the case-packing equipment segment.

“We had thought about combating the changeover problem for years,” relates Krouse, “but we were always stymied by the technology, or rather the fact that the technology had not yet advanced far enough to the point where it could significantly help us to achieve our goals of saving our customers time, labor and money.”

Krouse says he has long suspected that thoughtful incorporation of modern servomotor technology into the case-packing machine design would ultimately hold the key to resolving the downtime conundrum, but when Edson approached a leading North American manufacturer of servomotors with its ideas, “We were told that it’s just ‘not what they do.’

An RFID reader is attached to an Edson pusher-arm on a SR 3600 packer, sensing the RFID tag placed on the pusher-plate.

like Rockwell Automation, Siemens and Schneider Electric.

“I’m sure we can accommodate just about everything,” says Krouse, praising the so-named Edson E-Just servomotor platform for its ability to perform all the required changeover adjustments electronically, with setting accuracy of within one millimeter.

Working in concert with Rockwell Automation’s Allen-Bradley range of programmable logic controllers (PLCs), the system’s HMI prompts the operator to remove the change-parts to activate changeover by pressing a single button—causing all of the axes to move, Krouse explains.

While the axes are moving, the operator obtains all the required replacement change-parts and—after approximately 80 seconds—all the axes set-point adjustments are completed, with the operator then just needing to insert the right parts into their proper places.

This smooth changeover process is enhanced in large part, Krouse explains, by clever incorporation of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, whereby each change-part is marked with its own RFID tag to ensure correct alignment with a mounted tag-reader over a 12mm range within the machine.

“Should the wrong component be included in the changeover, or if the operator has forgotten to change a part, the RFID tag will inform the operator via the HMI,” explains Krouse,“and the equipment will not function until the correct part is properly put into its correct place.”

According to Krouse, Edson has already commenced the

BIG SURPRISE

“I have to admit that their response surprised us,” says Krouse, who then turned to Festo’s Canadian branch Festo Inc. in Mississauga, Ont., to pursue the matter.

According to Krouse, effecting a product changeover process on a case-packing machine involves more than just changing parts and adjusting up to 60 different axis points on the machine, as it also takes a certain amount of time to get the machine running back at its optimal production rates again.

Although Festo did not have exactly what Krouse had in mind at the time, the company made it clear that the parent company’s highly-knowledgeable engineers back in Germany would be able to develop the proper technical solution for Edson’s needs—namely a low-voltage servomotor that was easy to wire; inclusion of absolute encoders to eliminate re-homing; and design flexibility to enable its retrofit across a broad machinery range.

“It also had to have a small an non-intrusive footprint,” Krouse adds. “I did not want to utilize panel space for this application; I wanted it built right into the motor.”

After Festo’s engineers in Germany were introduced to Krouse’s concept, they proceeded to put together an optimal solution by utilizing the company’s own MTR DCI mini-servomotor platform—completing the entire project in a mere four months, Krouse recounts.

“We visited Stuttgart in September of 2009 to offer our thoughts on the project, and they had working motors for us by November,” Krouse recalls.“Simply amazing!”

Krouse says he was very impressed by Festo’s lowvoltage (24-volt) servomotor technology that can be easily integrated across a wide range of HMI (human-machine interface) platforms from leading automation suppliers

The E-Just servomotor and the K2 Tucker’s point-of-adjustment, which bends the bottom flaps of corrugated cases at the seam.

commercial use of the innovative Edson E-Just servomotor with the recent release of the company’s model SR3600 large case-and-tray packer—designed for handling cases ranging in size from a fast and flexible design that can handle cases ranging in size from a minimum of 11.5x11.5x14-inches to 16x24x234-inch cases.

“The SR3600 uses our new E-Just to move all the 16 axes on it—shifting all the changeover points in about 80 seconds, and doing so within one-millimeter accuracy,” enthuses Krouse, quickly adding that the new servomotor platform can be employed across a broad range of automated packaging machinery, including case-packing equipment made by other manufacturers.

“I can put the Edson E-Just servomotor in any machine and it will work flawlessly,” he concludes. “It is truly a revolutionary piece of technology that will speed up any production line.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

Edson Packaging Machinery Limited Festo Inc. Rockwell Automation

490 491 492

APRIL 2010 • CA NAD I AN PACKAGI NG

PHOTOS COURTESY OF EDSON PACKAGING MACHINERY

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PRE-SHOW REPORT

STEAK & SIZZLE! Cautious optimism brightens the outlook for global meat industry’s biggest showcase

the fastest-growing product groups at IFFA, according to show organizers, with no less than three major exhibit halls being allocated specifically for the meat packaging technologies, products and services. or the global meat industry, trade exhibitions don’t cooling and freezing, storage and distribution, transporting Exhibiting in Hall 6.0, German based foodcome any bigger this year than next month’s IFFA and selling, and the use of spices and additives right across packaging equipment manufacturer MULTIVAC 2010 extravaganza in Frankfurt au Main, Germany. the ever-growing range of meat and sausage products.

Sepp Haggenmueller GmbH & Co.—which While the recent global economic recession may have Running from May 8 to May 13, 2010, the triennial operates its two North global showcase of the world’s leading meat industry dampened some expectations for this year’s event, show American subsidiaries File Name: SMBIZ_AD_Contractor-CanPkging-0323 Publication: Canadian Packaging heavyweights and their suppliers has really come a long way organizers Messe Frankfurt are confidently predicting Trim: 7.875 x 10.75" Safety: .25" Around Material Deadline: March 23, 2010 in Kansas City, Mo. and sinceMarketing the show’s first edition back in 1949—with its broad another lively, world-class trade fair expected to draw over Canadian Colours: CMYK Insertion Dates: April 19, May 17, June 21 2010 Woodbridge, Ont.— 100 Yonge Street, Floor covering just about every imaginable 60,000 visitors from more than 100 countries around range of 6th exhibits will exhibit a fullyToronto, ON M5C 2W1 sector and aspect of the international meat business’s the globe, with some 900 exhibiting companies covering automated packaging process chain, including slaughtering, dismembering, more than 100,000 square meters of exhibition space. line for primal red meat cuts (steaks) that will feature the Not surprisingly, the packag ing segment is one of processing, weighing, filling and packaging, conveying, company’s latest technological developments in meat handling, labeling and quality inspection, all be operated from a graphical user interface.

Featuring the company’s high® perfor mance R 275 CD model thermoformer as the line’s key centerpiece (see picture), the packaging line will demonstrate high-speed production of the Darfresh range of vacuum skin-packs from Sealed Air - Cryovac—namely the Darfresh Bloom vacuum skin process, triple-film packaging which combines the visual advantages of vacuum skin packaging with MAP (modif ied-atmosphere packaging) technology to ensure that the packaged cut of meat will permanently retain its red color under vacuum.

In addition, the R 275 CD machine will also produce Mutivac’s own LipFORM packaging, incorporating innovative rolled edges to make the packs appear exactly as prefabricated trays.

According to Multivac, visitors will be treated to an impressive display of the new under-grip grippers perfectly placing pieces of steak, smoked salmon, fresh pizza and other floppy food products into the thermoformed packaging tray virtually within a blink of an eye, without any visible impact on the shape of the product.

The lines other innovative technologies include: • Multivac’s H 050 handling module for automatically filtering out empty packs right off the line; • a model H 130 handling module for loading the transport cases at the end of the line; • an integrated Multivac Vision System (MVS) and an MR811 x-ray inspection— made by Multivac’s subsidiary MR As a small business owner, do you ever feel you're spread too thin and wish you could be in two - or more Etikettiertechnik—to check correct - places at once? That's why we created the Get Growing for Business Program. positioning of the product in the packs, while detecting any contaminants and We go above and beyond the financial services you'd expect. We're committed to helping you grow your foreign objects; business by offering more tools, resources and advice to help you.

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• a fully-integrated automated price labeler, manufactured by Bizerba, for pricing Come in and talk to a Scotia Small Business advisor today or visit getgrowingforbusiness.com the packs with variable weight; • a model MR313 box labeler from MR Etikettiertechnik for case-coding of transport cases; • the central HMI 2.0 user interface.

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499

events EVENTS

April 21-23 Montreal: SIAL Canada, international food show by Comexposium. At Palais des Congrès de Montréal.

Contact Thierry Quagliata at (514) 289-9669, ext. 2232; or go to: www.sialcanada.com May 9-12 Chicago: International Pulp Week, conference and exhibition by the Pulp and Paper Product Council (PPPC). At The Drake hotel.To register, contact PPPC at (514) 861-8828, or go to: www.pppc.org May 11-12 Mexico City, Mexico: Label Summit South America 2010, labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc. At Hilton Mexico City Reforma.

To register, go to: www.labelexpo.com May 16-20 Orlando, Fla: ANTEC 2010, plastics industry exhibition and conference by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). At Marriott Resort & Convention Center Orlando. Contact Lesley Kyle at (203)740-5452; or go to: www.4spe.org May 18-20 Montreal: MMTS (Montreal Manufacturing Technology Show), by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).

At Place Bonaventure.To register, go to: www.mmts.ca May 19-20 NewYork City: Luxe Pack NewYork, luxury packaging exhibition by Luxe Pack Monaco. At Metropolitan Pavilion.To register, go to: www.luxepacknewyork.com May 29 - June 2 Istanbul,Turkey: IPT Istanbul 2010, annual paper/ carton/corrugated production and processing machinery and paper-based packaging technologies exhibition by TUYAP Fairs Inc. At TUYAP Fair, Convention and Congress Center. To register, go to: www.iptistanbulfair.com June 13-15 Chicago: 2010 Paper Recycling Conference & Trade Show,

by GIE Medica, Inc. At Marriott Chicago Downtown.To register, go to: www.PaperRecyclingConference.com June 16-19 Bangkok,Thailand: ProPak Asia 2010, international processing, filling and packaging technology fair for Asia by Allworld Exhibitions. At Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center. In Canada, contact Canada Unlimited Inc. at (416) 237-9939; or go to: www.propakasia.com June 22-25 Mexico City: EXPO PACK Mexico, international packaging technologies exhibition and conference by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI). Contact PMMI at (703) 243-8555; or go to: www.packexpo.com June 29-30 Barcelona, Spain: Digital Label Summit, digital labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc. At Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I. To register, go to: www.labelexpo.com July 14-15 Miami, Fla.: MATTECH 2010, material handling, manufacturing, packaging and supply chain technologies exhibition by B&B Expositions. At the Miami Beach Convention Center. Contact B&B at (941) 320-3216; or go to: www.mattech.us July 14-16 Shanghai, China: ProPak China 2010, international processing, packaging and end-of-line printing exhibition

by Allworld Exhibitions. Concurrently with the China BevTek 2010 exhibition. Both at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. In Canada, contact

Canada Unlimited Inc. at (416) 237-9939; or go to: www.propakchina.com July 22-23 Tokyo, Japan: Label Forum Japan 2010, labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc and Label Shimbun. At Bellesalle Shiodome.

To register, go to: www.labelexpo.com Sept. 14-16 Chicago: Labelexpo Americas 2010, labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc. At Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.To register, go to: www.labelexpoamericas.com

drink technology India exhibition by Messe München.

Both at the Bombay Exhibition Centre. In Canada, contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524; or via eamil: messeduesseldorf@germanchamber.ca Nov. 22-25 Paris, France: EMBALLAGE 2010, international packaging exhibition by Comexposium. At Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre.To register, go to: www.emballage.com Dec. 1-2 Düsseldorf, Germany: European Bioplastics Conference, by European Bioplastics. At Hilton Hotel.To register, go to: www.european-bioplastics.org

Oct. 4-8 Baltimore, Md.: Corrugated Week 2010, joint fall meetings and supplier trade fairs of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) and the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC).

At the Hyatt and Hilton hotels.To register, go to: www.tappi.org or www.aiccbox.org

Dec. 8-10 New Delhi, India: Labelexpo India 2010, labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc. At Pragati Midan.To register, go to: www.labelexpo.com

Oct. 17-20 Norfolk,Va.: TAPPI PEERS Conference, technical symposium on Pulping, Engineering, Environment, Recycling and Sustainability (PEERS) by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI).To register, go to: www.tappi.org

Jan. 25-28 Moscow, Russia: Upakovka/Upak Italia, packaging technologies exhibitions by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, concurrently with the Interplastica 2010 exhibition for plastics technologies. All at Krasnaya Presnya Expocenter.

To register, go to: www.upakovka-upakitalia.de

Oct. 20-22 Monaco: Luxe Pack Monaco, luxury packaging exhibition

by Luxe Pack Monaco. At Grimaldi Forum.To register, go to: www.luxepackmonaco.com

May 12-18 Düsseldorf, Germany: interpack 2011, international processing and packaging technologies exhibition

by Messe Düsseldorf. In Canada, contact Messe Düsseldorf Canada at (416) 598-1524; or via email: messeduesseldorf@germanchamber.ca

Oct. 27 - Nov. 3 Düsseldorf, Germany: K 2010, international trade fair for plastics and rubber by Messe Düsseldorf. In Canada, contact Messe Düsseldorf Canada at (416) 598-1524; or via email: messeduesseldorf@ germanchamber.ca

2011

Oct. 31 - Nov. 3 Chicago: PACK EXPO International 2010, international packaging technologies exhibition and conference by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI).

At McCormick Place.

Contact PMMI at (703) 243-8555; or go to:www.packexpo.com Nov. 2-4 Orlando, Fla.: 2010 Automation Fair exhibition and 2010 Manufacturing Perspectives conference

by Rockwell Automation Inc. To register, go to: www.automationfair. com Nov. 18-20 Mumbai, India: PackTech India 2010, international packaging technologies exhibition

by Messe Düsseldorf.

Concurrently with the FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

CANADIAN PACKAGING • april 2010

105 29

C H E C KO U T

BY JULIE SAUNDERS

One of the major open-ended challenges faced by CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies today is conveying an accurate sense of what’s inside that package through effective use of package graphics and colors. Which is all very well—except for the visually-challenged segment of the consumer public. No problem, though, for Johnson & Johnson’s Band-Aid Brand Adhesive Bandages Sheer Comfort Flex 60-piece boxes, which have recently started using Braille alphabet to spell out the word “band-aid” across the upper half of the carton’s front panel. This just seems like such a perfectly ingenious way of labeling the package that I’m actually surprised that I haven’t seen it—or felt it, rather—before. Good on J&J for doing this, and I truly hope that more and more CPG companies will follow its lead in making life just a tad easier for the visually-impaired consumers.

of the African savannah—I found my initial enthusiasm for both the product and packaging wear off rather quickly afterwards. In fact, the design of the tin and its super-tight lidding had me spilling some of the loosepacked tea-leaves explosively all over the place when struggling to open the tin the first couple times—with great risk to my fingernails. Definitely not a good way to package loose product such as tea-leaves, despite the nice picture. In contrast, the Tetley White Tea – Raspberry canisters seem to be perfectly designed for loose-leaf tea—with an ergonomically correct, snug-fitting lid featuring a nice deep rim all around the circumference for ultimate ease-of-opening.

But as irony would have it, of course, the canisters are instead used to retail 20 pre-packaged tea-bags instead. Nothing wrong with that, but it just feels like there’s a decent packaging opportunity out there going begging.

if not immediately recognized, vegetable creations. On this account, the The Toby Brand Cookin’ Greens Chopped Rapini fits the bill perfectly.

Not only is this U.S.-grown product a fairly rare sight at the Canadian supermarkets’ freezer sections, the playful packaging does a nice job of conveying the message of fun for this fairly unfamiliar, broccoli-like vegetable, with a nice hint of nutty bitterness providing a tasteful culinary departure from the more conventional frozen greens.The casual spelling of the product in a funky font on the package dispels any subconscious notion that this vegetable will be difficult to cook, with the interesting product facts and information on the back offering a richness of fun facts about a “sensory journey that is luscious and earthy.” Who wouldn’t love a package that has that much raw enthusiasm?

•••

For its part, the President’s Choice brand of Dine-in Tonight frozen foods is less about fun and much more about function—with the big, bold all-caps black lettering carrying a fairly austere graphic representation of the packaged food products being cooked and served in a white dinnerware on a stark-white background. However, the choice of unconventional packaging for the brand’s Porcini and Truffle Tortelloni variety—an upright paperbox, rather than the standard plastic pillow-bag— does an effective job of catching the consumer’s curiosity, which is ultimately the main point of the whole exercise.

Similarly, seeing the Emmental Cheese Soufflé entrée in the grocer’s freezer section is also a refreshing departure in terms of offering consumers an interesting meal option, with the 450-gram sand-up pouch containing all the handy preparation instructions on the back for making your soufflés as large or as small as you want it to be.

Another company dong a commendable job of catering to a wider audience is the Old South juice-processing business of McCain Foods (Canada), with its spacesaving 350-ml containers of Premium 100% Pure Frozen Concentrated Apple Juice outfitted with easy-to-open plastic tabs that smoothly pull off right to the very end, without ever snapping off prematurely. Frozen juice concentrates have long been one of those frustrating products held back by unduly stubborn packaging, so this bit of consumer-friendly innovations is a very welcome development. And the fact that you can also dethaw these little metal-free boxes in the microwave has really sealed the deal for this satisfied juice fan.

If imitation is the height of flattery, cereal powerhouse Kellogg Canada Inc. can take much pride in the company’s high-selling Vector Meal Replacement product line, with the Loblaws private-label store brand, President’s Choice Force Active Meal Replacement, also adopting most of the key package design elements for its own 850-gram boxes. Carrying a very similar color scheme of bluish tones and striking red accents, the Force Active Meal Replacement box is also all about capturing the sense of motion on its packaging with the cleanlined font leaning to the right side, the photograph of running athletes trailed by a motion blur, and the cereal looking like it is being blown right out of its bowl by some mysterious but vigorous force.

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After being instantly drawn to the tins of President’s Choice Memories of South Africa Rooibos Citrus Spice Loose Leaf Herbal Tea—with their gracefully lush, green images of a majestic tree showing off its natural splendor in the midst

As the remnants of winter continue to drag on to test the limits of everybody’s patience, the thoughts of summer can often be enhanced with a pleasant discovery of new product packages offering some of Mother Nature’s finest,

•••

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX R.S. NO. For more information on Classified Advertising please contact:

416-764-1497

• Cremer 12 Lane Tablet/Capsule Counter TO-1230 • Tisma Vertical Cartoner TC-50E BL • Austin-Gordon Desiccant Dispensers PD-202 • Qty 2. 48” Thomas Accela Coaters 48-M-111 • Kalish LabelIt Wraparound Labeler Model 7200 • Patterson Kelley 10 Cu Ft “V” Blender • Benison L-Bar LSA-50 w/ Heat Tunnel PP180844EU • Kalish Mini Bandit Neck Bander 5415 • Palace S/S Bottle Unscramblers, Model P-3 • Custom Made Chocolate Cooling Tunnel • Hayssen Ultima Vertical Form Fill Sealer CMD-12-16 • Omega Bottle Unscrambler 20-RP1-6

X-RAY INSPECTION SERVICE What would you do if you have or suspect Foreign Object Contamination?

RISK IT? SCRAP IT? INSPECT IT? Reclaim good product so you can ship with confidence & protect your brand reputation. CFIA approved x-ray system detects metals down to 0.8 mm. Stainless (even foil packaging) as well as glass, stone, bone, etc. Case-size also available.

Onguard Product Inspection Inc. Tel: 905-631-8456 Fax 905-631-9307 info@onguardinspection.com www.onguardinspection.com

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101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111

PAgE

Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. 4 Bobst Canada Inc. 14 Cryovac 11 Flexlink Systems Canada 7 Harlund Industries Ltd. 29 Intelligrated 23 Krones Machinery Co. Ltd. 9 Markem-Imaje 13 Multivac Inc. 19 Paper Packaging Canada 25 QuickLabel Systems, 17 An Astro-Med Product Group 112 Repack Canada 2 113 Robert Reiser & Co. Inc. 8 114-119 SEW Eurodrive Co. of Canada 31 120 Scotiabank 28 121 Tsubaki of Canada Ltd. 27 122 VC999 Packaging Systems 6 Videojet Technologies 3 123 Canada Ltd. 124, 125 WeighPack Systems Inc. 21, 32

•••

Julie Saunders is the director of interactive media at InViVo Communications Inc., a developer of media-based healthcare services based in Toronto.

FREE

PRODUCT INFORMATION

APRIL 2010

CIRCLE THE R.S. NO. THAT MATCHES THE NUMBER ON THE ADVERTISEMENT OR ARTICLE OF INTEREST.

FAX THIS BACK TO US AT (416) 764-1755 Name ________________________________________________________ Title__________________________________________________________ Company Name_________________________________________________ Address_______________________________________________________ City__________________________________________________________ Prov. ____________________________P/Code_______________________ Telephone_____________________________________________________ Fax___________________________________________________________ Email Address__________________________________________________

APRIL 2010 • C ANAD I AN PAC KAGI NG

PHOTOS BY ELENA LANGLOIS

Using packaging to get the right message across

MECHANICAL DRIVES

SEVERE DUTY CORROSION PROTECTION

the

F-SERIES SNUGGLER ®

Parallel Helecal Gearmotors SEW-Eurodrive’s F-Series parallel helical gearmotor lives up to its name as the ideal drive for tight space conditions. This compact drive, with its multiple mounting configurations, is a rugged alternative to right angled gearmotors.

SEW-Eurodrive has introduced a new line of aseptic gearmotors to meet the high levels of hygiene crucial to the production of food and beverages, as well as the stringent demands of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. SEW has solved this challenge with the aseptic design of helical, parallel shaft helical, helical-bevel and helical-worm gearmotors made entirely of smooth stainless steel, cooled by pure convection cooling — eliminating conventional fan and cooling ribs, which prevents the build-up of germs and bacteria on the surface and allows for easy regular cleaning.

CORROSION PROTECTION PRODUCT RANGE Power ratings from 0.34 to 2.0 HP Can be mounted directly onto R, F, K, S-Series gear units in all standard positions FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

119

F-SERIES PRODUCT RANGE

Get off Easy for a Change.

Power ratings from 0.05 to 336 HP Output speeds from 0.06 to 464 rpm (based on 4 pole motor) Output torques to 159,300 lb-in.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

115

K-SERIES Helical-Bevel Gearmotors SEW-Eurodrive’s K-Series right angle helicalbevel gearmotors deliver maximum performance and reliability with 95%+ efficiency and high torque density. Durable gearing designed for long service life makes this drive an ideal choice for demanding around-the-clock applications.

K-SERIES PRODUCT RANGE Power ratings from 0.05 to 615 HP Output speeds from 0.05 to 326 rpm (based on 4 pole motor) Output torques to 442,500 lb-in.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

116

S-SERIES

With TorqLOC ®. The keyless hollow shaft mounting system.

Helical-Worm Gearmotors SEW-Eurodrive’s S-Series right angle gearmotors offer helical-before-worm gearing combining durability with power-packed performance in a compact design that requires no motor belts or couplings.

S-SERIES PRODUCT RANGE Power ratings from 0.05 to 46 HP Output speeds from 0.05 to 257 rpm Output torques to 35,400 lb-in.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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AC MOTORS

TorqLOC’s corrosion-resistant, stainless steel design makes it the perfect choice for production line wash-down environments.

and Breakemotors SEW-Eurodrive’s squirrel-cage motors and brakemotors deliver exceptional performance and reliability combined with low maintenance.

Designed for continuous duty under tough service conditions, these low-noise brakemotors are used wherever fast, safe braking is a major application requirement.

While hollow shaft mounting systems offer advantages over traditional securing methods, they’re extremely susceptible to corrosion. As a result, getting a gearbox off the shaft is difficult, often impossible. The revolutionary TorqLOC makes things easy for a change.

TorqLOC is a compact, keyless hollow shaft mounting system that offers manufacturers operating in wash-down environments an unrivalled solution for coupling drive systems to their machinery.

With a keyless design that fits a variety of standard shaft sizes without additional machining, TorqLOC reduces operating costs and allows simple, fast assembly by eliminating the need to cut keyways or turn solid shafts to exacting tolerances.

Made from bronze and nickel-plated steel, TorqLOC’s tapered bushings are inherently corrosion-resistant, making the system ideal for wash-down environments. And with no corrosion problems, TorqLOC ensures fast and easy removal, even after years of use.

With a flexible mounting system and corrosion-free components, you now get off and on easy with TorqLOC. Driving the World FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 114

AC MOTORS PRODUCT RANGE Power ratings from 0.25 to 100 HP 2-, 4-, 6-, 8-, 4/8-, 2/6-, 2/8-pole plus others Integral brakes to fit all frames FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

Toronto (905) 791-1553 118

Montreal (514) 367-1124

Vancouver (604) 946-5535

www.sew-eurodrive.ca

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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