My final day at Pack Expo began with attending informative sessions organised by Sidel. The event programme began with a one-hour session on sensitive products. Aseptic packaging for liquid dairy, juices, nectars, soft drinks, isotonics and teas. During the presentation, Sidel displayed examples of products already in the market and it was a good opportunity to learn more about aseptic solutions.
The highlight of the sessions was the discussion on Sidel’s Veloce range. This range has been designed specifically for hot-fill applications such as fruit juice and nectars (with or without pulp), teas, isotonics and beverages with milk packaged in PET or glass bottles. The technology allows the filling of products with ‘bits’ such as Nata de Coco, Aloe Vera, fruits and coconut pieces among others. The hygienic base frame of the Veloce features self-draining surfaces, ensuring a complete and quick draining of the product residue, water and any broken bottles.
Soon after the Sidel presentations, I caught up with Orrin Addis, CEO of the CP group. He demonstrated how his Consapack ‘pop-up’ cup works. The new, patented packaging innovation allows the consumer to have a portion-controlled serving of their favourite drink, instant meal or medicine. The cup works by expanding when the consumer removes the lid. In the US, it has been popular with sport drinks, protein powders, supplements and soups.
One of the stands that has had a great amount of interest at the show is the Fres-Co System booth. I met with marketing and communications manager Pat Rocchi, who showed me the machine being unveiled at Pack Expo. TH FSU 800 is an automatic vertical form fill seal high acid aseptic packaging machine for multi-viscosity liquids with or without particulate.
The machine is ultra-clean, of stainless steel construction, including a Nema 4x control panel with a touchscreen HMI. It also includes Hepa air filtration and the filling system is built to 3A sanitary standards. Mr Rocchi agreed that his main target market is the dairy industry, and for now the technology is only available in the US.
I was impressed with the number of universities promoting their packaging programmes. From engineering and systems to mechatronics – the diverse range of courses are designed to prepare students with the necessary elements to compete in the job market. For instance, Rutgers School of Engineering prepares engineers that can change fields throughout their career, from research to marketing, graphic design, business, regulatory, systems etc.
Pack Expo Las Vegas was a great show. The variety of available programmes, technology, innovation and new companies made my trip very productive. Social media has been embraced by all the companies I had the opportunity to visit. I was astonished to see how companies in the US keep engaging with their employees and customers through social media activity, whether for learning, training or for making employees aware of the activity by their competitors.
The show in Vegas has ended and PMMI is already promoting its next event in Chicago. It has also been announced that a new show will be taking place in Pennsylvania in February 2014.
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Read Jesus’ reports from Day One and Day Two.
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