PKN presents Pack Chat from Pack Expo, proudly supported by Heat and Control, bringing you packaging innovations that caught our eye on day three of the show.
Watch the video here:
SUMMARY TRANSCRIPT: At CAMA Group, Alessandro Rocca showed me the new MTL monoblock, which forms, loads and closes cartons in one machine – at 80 cartons a minute, handling up to 450 products a minute. It features a cabinet-free design, plus AI-driven monitoring of temperature and vibration. Alongside it is CAMA’s new Machine Enhancement Program: a cobot that loads carton blanks from the pallet into the magazine, and a cobot mounted on an autonomous mobile robot that can change its head and move between machines – loading reels or handling materials, 24 hours a day.
Right-sizing specialist Packsize has just closed its acquisition of Italian automated packaging company Panotec, extending its global reach. Adam Fray says brands now see right-sized, on-demand boxes as a way to fund wider warehouse automation – less corrugate, lower freight and labour costs on every box. Packsize claims up to 30 per cent less material and, on average, 80 per cent less void fill. Its X5 Nozomi, developed with EFI, adds full-colour, edge-to-edge printing, so every right-sized box can carry unique branding. In Australia, Packsize partners with Visy.
Plastic replacement is the big theme at Graphic Packaging International. Its Boardio paperboard canister – now commercial for coffee and Mentos gum – uses 90 per cent less plastic than the containers it replaces, and ships flat to be erected on the filling line. Its EnviroClip paperboard carriers replace plastic rings on bottles and cans, and are already commercial with Pepsi.And for cans, EnviroClip on a rounded-corner paperboard tray locks multipacks together like a brick, so no shrink film is needed.
Technology Excellence Awards finalist Greiner Packaging is showing its Click In Sealing Lid. Instead of a heat-sealed aluminium foil and a plastic overcap, a single lid is sealed ultrasonically inside the rim – in partnership with Telsonic Ultrasonics. The lid reseals with a click, keeps the same line speed as heat sealing, and removes the foil layer, the pack’s biggest contributor to its carbon footprint. Paired with Greiner’s square CUBO cup, it makes a mono-material pack. It’s now moving towards commercialisation with customers in Europe.
And finally, another Technology Excellence Awards finalist: Colorcon’s OneLock puts three functions into one closure for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical bottles. Arianna Keller showed me how it’s child-resistant – push down and turn – and tamper-evident: the first time it’s opened, a disc pops off the top. Underneath, the desiccant lives in the cap itself, so there’s no need for a separate canister dropped into the bottle, and no heat-induction liner either. It fits standard 38mm bottles, so it can drop straight onto existing lines.
Thanks for watching Pack Chat. Join me again tomorrow for another roundup of the packaging innovations that catch my eye here at Pack Expo.
And thanks to our sponsor, Heat and Control. Whatever you want to make, Heat and Control will make it happen – proudly supporting the conversations and innovation shaping the future of processing and packaging.
