Pack Rat
A blog with a different twist on packaging and plant operations, equipment and developments - past, present and on the horizon.
A man's got to know his limitations - so does a company
My main job at Packaging Digest is writing packaging line stories, most of which I get first hand by visiting plants. A short time ago, a person told me what a great job King Juice, Milwaukee, WI, was doing as a contract packer for one of its specialty juice products. Adding to the allure was the fact that King Juice had just installed a new bottling line, so this week I paid them a visit. (You ...... Read More
Comments (2)It works for the casinos, but how does it affect you?
Bar codes and RFID are now common elements in packaging operations, as well as in many everyday situations. A recent article in Popular Mechanics magazine describes how they are being used as part of the security and surveillance operations at casinos. According to the article, Las Vegas’s gaming industry invests in the best surveillance and behavioral monitoring technology in the world, so ...... Read More
Comments (1)Watch out for soda cans. Kids are swallowing the pull tabs.
I read an interesting article recently regarding soda cans. Dr. Lane F. Donnelly, radiologist-in-chief at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, has found that kids, mainly teenagers, are swallowing the pull tabs on the tops of soda cans. Pull tabs for cans were introduced in 1963 and were first used for soft-drink cans by the Royal Crown Cola Co. However, the tabs detached easily ...... Read More
Comments (6)If I can do it, anyone can do it
This has been a traumatic two weeks for me. As anyone who knows me knows, I am not the world’s most accomplished internet person. I’ve managed to adopt to some of the developments, but it’s not been without a fight. One thing I never learned was the (to me) esoteric process called “posting to the web,” which is making something available on our web site. I would ...... Read More
Comments (2)Sticking together isn't always good
It seems to me that the number of unopenable plastic packages has ballooned in recent years. In the past I would just swear a little, use them when I had to and not give them any more thought. Now, either there are more of them, or I’m noticing them more. One that I find very annoying is a new package that Folgers is using for the coffee they supply for our company coffee service. Previous ...... Read More
Comments (1)"A mosquito bit me ..."
As I think of all of the great people I’ve worked with in my 50 years of (mostly) fun, I realize that it’s the screwballs and worse that make the biggest impressions. The first of these, and maybe the weirdest, was at my first job out of college, which was with the U.S. Steel research center outside of Pittsburgh. Actually, I was assigned to a pilot plant they had established at Sou ...... Read More
Comments (0)Laxative or Candy? Labels should give stronger clue
I was walking through our office the other day, and saw some individually wrapped York peppermint patties in a bowl. I love these things, so I picked up a couple. However, on my way back to my desk, one of my co-workers said, "Watch out! I ate a few of those yesterday, and I was in the bathroom half the night." That prompted me to take a closer look, and it turned out that there is a banner proc ...... Read More
Comments (0)Zip-up potato chips
As I have mentioned previously, I am a potato chip fanatic, so when my daughter asked me why potato-chip manufacturers don’t put zippers on their bags of chips, I didn’t have an answer. Personally, it doesn’t cause me a great of discomfort, because I go through a bag of chips before it has time to get stale. My daughter has much more self discipline than I, so she can eat a h ...... Read More
Comments (1)Packaging is everything
When I started working at Kraft in 1963, part of my orientation was a visit to its research center in Glenview, IL. Since I’m a potato-chip junkie, one project that I thought was really neat was a small pilot operation producing potato-chip look-alike products that tasted wonderful. Of course, they were right out of the hot oil, when just about anything would taste wonderful. The pr ...... Read More
Comments (0)MillerCoors is doing its part for sustainability
I just saw a copy of the 2009 MillerCoors sustainable-development report titled “From Grain To Glass.” The report affirms MillerCoors strong commitment to sustainability across every aspect of its business—from grain to glass. Available online at www.MillerCoors.com, the 44-page report showcases the progress made by MillerCoors since the 2008 joint venture between Miller Brew ...... Read More
Comments (0)Why do people buy organic foods?
As I walked the few aisles of the Organic Food Show in Chicago last week looking for interesting new packaging, I again pondered one of the mysteries of the universe—why do people buy organic foods? It brings me back to the dim dark days when my kids were in elementary school, and one of the other parents constantly was beating on my wife to buy “healthy” foods. (They didn&#x ...... Read More
Comments (5)Inspecting plastic bottles with mass spectrometers
When I started working at Abbott Laboratories in the early 70s, I went through an orientation process where I talked to various divisions about ongoing projects. One that truly blew my mind was a continuous system that that they were considering to inspect plastic bottles that were to be filled with surgical irrigating solution. They were proposing a rotary machine with multiple chambers, each eq ...... Read More
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