Canadian Packaging November 2015 by Annex Business Media

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THE MAIN SQUEEZE Food safety and packaging innovation go firmly hand-in-hand at the Unilever spreads factory Story on page 10

THE REAL SKINNY Page 30 IN THIS ISSUE: FOOD SAFETY • PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE • FLEXIBLE PACKAGING

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NOVEMBER 2015 VOLUME 68, NO. 11

SENIOR PUBLISHER Stephen Dean • (416) 510-5198 SDean@canadianpackaging.com EDITOR George Guidoni • (416) 510-5227 GGuidoni@canadianpackaging.com FEATURES EDITOR Andrew Joseph • (416) 510-5228 AJoseph@canadianpackaging.com ART DIRECTOR Mark Ryan • (416) 442-5600 x3541 mryan@annexnewcom.ca PRODUCTION MANAGER Barb Vowles • (416) 510-5103 BVowles@annexnewcom.ca CIRCULATION MANAGER Anita Madden • 442-5600 x3596 AMadden@annexnewcom.ca ANNEX PUBLISHING & PRINTING INC. Vice-President Annex Business Media East Tim Dimpoloulos tdimopoulos@canadianmanufacturing.com President & CEO • Mike Fredericks mfredericks@annexweb.com

HOW TO REACH US: Canadian Packaging, established 1947, is published monthly by Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. 80 Valleybrook Drive, North York, ON, M3B 2S9; Tel: (416) 510-5198; Fax (416) 510-5140. EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: 80 Valleybrook Drive, North York, ON, M3B 2S9; Tel: (416) 442-5600; Fax (416) 510-5140.

ike most packaging products and formats, f lexible packaging will always have its share of critics, but even the staunchest naysayers would be swayed to reconsider their views in light of a life-saving mission that Amcor Flexibles is helping to succeed in one of the poorest regions on Earth. As an active packaging partner in a humanitarian network alliance formed to alleviate the suffering caused by childhood diarrhea in developing countries, the company’s patented Flexi-pack is a critical component of the anti-diarrhea Kit Yamoyo pack that has recently been adopted by the Zambian Ministry of Health as a front-line tool to combat the illness in some the most remote, highest-risk areas of the African nation. Distributed under the auspices of U.K.-based foreign aid charity ColaLife, Amcor Flexibles has recently produced a total of 870,000 of the Flexipack units—packing with special formulations of oral rehydration salts (OCR) and zinc to mix with water in the precisely-measure 200-ml sachets— as a donation to ColaLife, which is working with Keepers Zambia Foundation (KZF) and Medical Stores Ltd (MSL) to distribute the remedy. Now locally-produced in Zambia, the Flexi-Pack package is an integral part of a two-and-a-halfyear program—funded by the U.K.’s Department for International Development—to distribute

COVER STORY

SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: To subscribe, renew your subscription or to change your address or information, contact us at 416-442-5600 or 1-800-387-0273 ext. 3555. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE PER YEAR (INCLUDING ANNUAL BUYERS’ GUIDE): Canada $72.95 per year, Outside Canada $118.95 US per year, Single Copy Canada $10.00, Outside Canada $27.10. Canadian Packaging is published 11 times per year except for occasional combined, expanded or premium issues, which count as two subscription issues. ©Contents of this publication are protected by copyright and must not be reprinted in whole or in part without permission of the publisher. DISCLAIMER: This publication is for informational purposes only. The content and “expert” advice presented are not intended as a substitute for informed professional engineering advice. You should not act on information contained in this publication without seeking specific advice from qualified engineering professionals. Canadian Packaging accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported or advertised in this issue. Canadian Packaging receives unsolicited materials, (including letters to the editor, press releases, promotional items and images) from time to time. Canadian Packaging, its affiliates and assignees may use, reproduce, publish, republish, distribute, store and archive such unsolicited submissions in whole or in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort. PRIVACY NOTICE: From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: Phone: 1-800-668-2374 Fax: 416-442-2191 Email: vmoore@annexnewcom.ca Mail to: Privacy Office, 80 Valleybrook Drive, North York, ON M3B 2S9 PRINTED IN CANADA PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40065710, ISSN 008-4654 (PRINT), ISSN 1929-6592 (ONLINE) We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage for our publishing activities. Canadian Packaging is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia Limited. Back copies are available in microform from Macromedia Ltd., 158 Pearl St., Toronto, ON M5H 1L3

Kit Yamoyo in the private and public sector in the nation’s capital Lusaka last month, extending it into the rural parts of the country in coming weeks. As ColaLife co-founder Simon Berry explains, “The Zambian Ministry of Health welcomed this model, as it means parents can buy the medicines they need for their children closer to their home. It’s been about working with local people to find out what they really want, not what we might think they need. “Now, seeing the pack’s success, the government is piloting its own version.” Adds Amcor Flexibles spokesperson Keith Gater: “Because the Flexi-pack is see-through, the printed leaf let inside, which sits squarely against the front of the pack, can be amended to carry any brand or instructions— adapted to local customs, language or regulations. “Another benefit is that the filled pack lays f lat— improving supply-chain efficiency from packer to wholesaler,” Gater adds, “and it’s easier for retailers to transport by bike.” Despite its apparent design simplicity, the Flexipack is a fairly sophisticated package: a gusseted bag with an easy-to-open laser cut, which stands up well when filled with water to measure the required 200-ml to make the remedy, according to Amcor. (See Pictures) So while notion packaging as a gift of life may sound like a bit of a stretch, it seems only fair to give credit where it’s truly due beyond a doubt.

NOVEMBER 2015 www.canadianp

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10 SPREADING THE WORD By George Guidoni

Unilever’s Rexdale plant in Toronto upgrades its food safety standards and packaging line competencies to firm up its marketplace positioning as runaway category leader in spreads and dressings. Cover photography by Cole Garside

DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS

UPFRONT By George Guidoni

NEWSPACK Packaging news round-up.

5-6 FIRST GLANCE New packaging solutions and technologies. 8

ECO-PACK NOW All about packaging sustainability.

9 IMPACT A monthly insight from PAC, Packaging Consortium. 34 ANNOUNCEMENTS Company news and marketplace updates. 35 PEOPLE Career moves in the packaging world. 35 EVENTS Upcoming industry functions. 36 CHECKOUT By Noelle Stapinsky Joe Public speaks out on packaging hits and misses.

THE MAIN SQUEEZE

Food safety and packagin go firmly hand-in- g innovation hand at the Unilever spreads factory Story on page 10

THE REAL SKINNY

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IN THIS ISSUE: FOOD

SAFETY • PACKAGING

FOR SHELF-LIFE

• FLEXIBLE PACKAGING

Page 30

FEATURES 16 TOBACCO ROADS By Andrew Joseph High-performance conveyors the backbone of First Nation’s thriving cigarette business. 21 THE UPTEMPO BEAT By Andrew Joseph Flexible packaging producer’s steady rise to the top ranks. 27 THE RIGHT ANSWERS By John Lewis What to look for in vision systems. 28 GAME-WINNING INTERCEPTION New metal detector redefines technology’s possibilities. 29 A MOTIONAL RESPONSE by Ajay Rana A timely update on today’s motion control technologies. 30 LIKE MOTHER, LIKE SON By George Guidoni Fresh pasta entrepreneur striking it rich with the healthy crowd.

NOVEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 3

NEWSPACK

BESTSELLING JERKY BRAND GOES FOR A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE Staying on top of the heap is often harder than getting there in the fiercely competitive snack-food market, and folks at the Minon, Wis.-based meat jerky producers Jack Link’s worked too hard to become the acknowledged Number One meatsnack manufacturer in the world to give up their champion status through complacency. In fact, the highly innovative company—currently retailing over 100 different meat-snack products throughout North America—is literally going wild with a new marketing push aimed at cementing its leadership credentials in the protein snack category with an entertaining Feed Your Wild Side branding campaign developed by the Mississauga, Ont.-based branding and package design services group Davis. “Now more than ever, consumers are looking for protein in their snacks,” said Jeff LeFever, vice-president of marketing at Jack Link’s. “As the Number One global meat-snack brand, it was important for us to have a logo that better represented our brand’s Feed Your Wild Side positioning. “We also wanted our package design to appeal to today’s snacker, while also representing our brand’s heritage of high-quality, innovative products,” LeFever points out, citing the brand’s “staple” spon-

sorship status with major league sports, including the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and Major League Fishing, among others. According to Davis, the project encompassed refreshing the brand logo, improving shopability, and achieving better alignment of the brand portfolio through updated packaging presentation that enables specific products to target different consumers. For example, the Jack Link’s Original Turkey

Jerky features clean white-and-green branding, with its healthy halo of lean turkey and key nutritional buttons to appeal to consumers craving for leaner, low-fat protein snacks. “The overall look and feel of the new branding is bold, contemporary and inclusive,” says Davis creative director Mark Roberts. “The new identity communicates seamlessly wherever the brand lives, enhanced with on-pack f lexibility of the brand to work for multiple product formats, shapes and sizes.”

NEW CHIP FLAVORS STAND OUT WITH CRISP PACKAGING PACKED WITH HISTORY As one of the western world’s most enduringly popular snack-foods, potato chips have by now been paired with just about every imaginable f lavor, seasoning and spice out there—making it hard for most newcomers to the business to break through in this highly competitive product category by offering something truly unique and original. And yet that’s exactly what the U.K.-based Tyrrells brand of potato crisps has managed to do since entering the Canadian market about six years ago with its distinct line of thick-cut, skin-on, all-natural chips cooked in small, 100-kilogram batches right at the heart of England’s prime potato country in Herefordshire in the West Midlands. Offered in six strikingly different f lavor variations—including Tyrrells Sea Salt and Apple Cider Vinegar, Tyrrells Sweet Chili and Red Pepper and Tyrrells Mature Cheddar and Chive—the premiumquality chips are all made from premium potato crops grown within a 40-mile radius of the family-owned Tyrrell Court Farm in rich, red soil that is credited with giving the chips a crunchier, heartier crisp. “We only use the real aristocracy of potatoes to make our products, including Lady Claire, Lady Jo and Lady Rosetta varieties,” says Tyrrells director of North American business Lee Hemmings, adding the Tyrrells brand has won 66 major food industry awards in the U.K since its 2002 launch. According to Hemmings, the operation uses a highly automated production workf low that enables it to harvest, wash, slice, hand-cook, pack and deliver one tonne of freshly-picked potatoes to the local farm shops in 43 minutes. “You really can’t get much fresher than that,” Hemmings points out. Cleverly marketed as an “exceedingly English” range of hand-cut chips cooked in sunf lower oil to give each slice its distinct curl, the Tyrrells brand crisps are nowadays retailed across Canada through most major grocery retailers—including Sobeys, Metro, Safeway, London Drugs and Whole

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Foods Market—in eye-catching, matte-finished packages featuring large black-and-white photographs depicting various scenes of daily British country life dating back to the pre-World War II days. Starting this month, the Tyrrells product range in Canada has expanded to include with three new varieties of crisps that actually do not use traditional potatoes as the primary ingredient, substituting it with locally-sourced vegetables and sweet potatoes—also cooked with the skin left on. Designed by the London-based branding services provider Big fish, the 150-gram f lexo-printed bags of Tyrrells Sweet Potato, Carrot & Potato Chips with Sea Salt, Tyrrells Beetroot, Parsnip & Potato Chips with Sea Salt, and Tyrrells Sweet Potato Chips with Smoked Chili all pay homage to the brand’s original cheeky black-and-white photo graphics with the depiction of traditional English farmers holding enormously outsized vegetables in their grasp. “I think Bigfish did a swell job in helping us dial up

important elements of the pack, the photos, and the f lavors in particular, to help us generate more outstanding shelf impact,” Hemmings told Canadian Packaging during the official product launch party in Toronto last month. “We like to think that our entertaining approach to packaging sets us apart form most other brands on the shelf who often follow established branding rules,” Hemming explains. “Each of our packs tells a story—from the bathers doing handstands on the beach at Brighton on our Lightly Sea Salted pack to the produce gardeners on the front of our veggie packs with their humungous vegetables. “These are all real people who represent an important little moment of English history, and we think they’re worth celebrating. “It’s been a process of packaging evolution rather than revolution for us,” says Hemming, adding each of the new three f lavors is made using a gluten-free and vegan-friendly recipe.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

FIRST GLANCE EASY AS A-B-C

THE CASE IN POINT

Designed to stand up to the elements of harsh plant environments with high humidity, moisture or corrosive factors caused by some foods, beverages, chemicals, fertilizers and feeds, the new model 72AGSS palletizer from the A-B-C Packaging Machine Corporation boasts stainless-steel construction and washdown-compatible components rated to NEMA specifications, according to the company. Capable or reaching palletizing speeds up to 50 case per minute, and bag palletizing speeds of up to four layers per minute, the low-level palletizer provides continuous feed and layer accumulation during sweep transfer, whereby each layer is precisely squared before transfer to the pallet to ensure secure pallet loads. Boasting a welded, bolted, heavy-gage frame for maximum strength and durability, the palletizer’s elevator table is reinforced with crossbar beams to eliminate load stress, and the table edges are gently tapered to ensure stable layer transfer. Programmed for quick changeover, the model 72AGSS palletizer can work with a broad range of cases, bags, trays, totes, or multipacks in multiple pallet patterns.

The new fully-automatic Raptor SL case-packer from Edson Packaging Machinery is a fully-integrated, side-loading system that can erect, pack, and seal seal corrugated boxes with hot-melt adhesive at up to 12 cases per minute—handling a wide range of paper products, foods, pharmaceuticals, and personal-care items such as diapers. Designed to offer small and mid-sized companies an automated solution for reducing labor costs and boosting throughput, according to the company, the system can be supplied with an optional extended infeed conveyor that allows operators to stage more than a half-dozen skids containing KDF (knock-down f lat) corrugated cases— automatically loading new stacks while continuing to run—while its fully-integrated hot-melt unit can seal cases measuring up to 20 by 25 inches. Equipped

with automated controls from Beckhoff Automation, the Raptor SL is optimized for fast, precise and fully-integrated motion control, enhanced with touchscreen interface containing recipes for different SKUs (stock-keeping units), alarm settings, production data and maintenance documentation. Edson Packaging Machinery

A-B-C Packaging Machine Corp. 401

TESTING TIMES The new FPSA semi-automatic leak detection control package from Flex Essentials Inc. consists of a sleek stainless-steel independent panel— complete with operator interface, all pneumatics and a PLC (programmable logic controller)—to control the vacuum set-points and test times for administering highly accurate bubble emission tests, vacuum tests, altitude tests and dry chamber tests— requiring the each test with a countdown timer setting for the length of time required to perform the test. Simple to operate and designed for optimal repeatability, the FPSA control package is well-suited for a broad range of quality control and assurance applications for a diverse range of end-users in the meat, fish, seafood, cheese, dairy, confectionery, snacks, pet-food, cereals, baked goods, coffee, medical, pharmaceutical and other industries with critical package integrity requirements Flex Essentials Inc.

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FIRST GLANCE HEAVY METAL The new model UF-3060 metal bucket hopper/conveyor from Advanced Poly-Packaging, Inc. is a heavy-duty bulk loading system designed to handle the types of products that can cause damage to cleated compartment conveyors— fasteners, hardware products, and other items with harsh corners or sharp edges—while also eliminating parts jamming by dropping the product into enclosed steel buckets. According to the company, the new conveyor is virtually indestructible on the account of having all its buckets made from steel, while its vertical design—positioned at a 95-degree angle— forces the buckets to carry the weight, thereby generating no strain on the conveyor mechanism itself. Advanced Poly-Packaging, Inc.

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THE KNIVES’ EDGE EXAIR Corporation has expanded its range of stainlesssteel Long Super Air Knives to include a maximum length of 108 inches (2,743-

mm), while also re-engineering all of its air knives longer than 60 inches (1,524-mm) to one-piece construction from the previous two-piece design— facilitating installation and reducing workspace requirements. According to EXAIR, the improved corrosion-resistant design ensures seamless air f low and withstands temperatures up to 800°F (427°C) when producing a laminar sheet of air f low to blow off, dry or cool large surfaces areas, while its energy-efficient design minimizes compressed-air consumption by entraining 40 parts room air to one part compressed air. Well-suited for blowing corrosive chemicals off parts, drying food products, and cooling hot materials such as molten glass, castings and molded parts, the Super Air Knives are available from stock in Type 303 and Type 316 stainless steel, as well as in aluminum and PVDF construction. EXAIR Corporation

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WELCOME TO THE CLUB Designed as an alternative ‘club store’ packaging alternative to corrugated boxes, the new ClubStak paper-based packaging solution from PaperWorks Industries, Inc. features an outer carton made from 100-percent coated recycled paperboard and an internal liner made with custom-selected, paper-based material

applied in a strategic orientation to add strength to the overall structure. According to PaperWorks, the design results in a crushresistant package that offers similar performance attributes to corrugated— such as strength, rigidity and stackability—while offering the high-quality graphics appeal of a folding carton. The reinforced carton structure can be web- or sheet-fed printed using offset or lithography, while also supporting holograms, film laminations, foil stamping, high-gloss coating, as well as metallic and other specialty inks, to heighten visual appeal. For added convenience and user-friendliness, the f lutefree ClubStak is available with value-added display configurations and features such as handles, easy-open/ reclosable tear-strips, and wide-access/vertical dispensing spouts. PaperWorks Industries, Inc.

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PASSING THE TEST Designed to offer a new level of testing capability for the glass container industry, the model SPT2 automated pressure and

volume measurement system from Agr International is an all-new sampling pressure tester capable of testing up to 270 bottles per hour with unrivaled measuring and testing precision, according to the company. Employing a two-station design with concurrent volume measurement and pressure testing operations, along with a robotic handling system for optimal bottle travel and placement, the SPT2 features closed-loop controls to manage bottles throughout the system and dynamically monitor the testing process to maintain the most efficient bottle processing and throughput, with its multiple compatibility enabling automatic adjustments for bottles of different sizes and finishes. Agr International

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DOMINO EFFECT Designed for secondary and tertiary packaging applications across a wide variety of industry sectors, the new model M230i print-andapply labeler from Domino Printing Sciences plc incorporates the company’s proprietary i Tech (intelligent Technology) features and a QuickStep user interface to offer a fully modular solution to meet the various case and pallet labeling needs through high-resolution online coding for quick application of barcodes, text and graphics onto packaging labels to ensure full GS1 supply chain compliance. Boasting a compact footprint and a tool-free magnetic printhead for quick and easy mounting with minimal downtime, the M230i labeler offers a broad choice of standard applicators—including tamp, blow, wipe and cornerwrap—with its SureStart single-button activation system ensuring superior print quality fro first label to the last, according to Domino. Domino Printing Sciences plc

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TAKING A STAND Regal Power Transmission Solutions has developed a new patentpending, one-piece design for standoffs for flanged mounting bearings, which integrates the bolt-spacer ferrule and stand-off in one assembly for simpler installation and sanitation compliance in a broad range of food-and-beverage operations. Engineered for use with the company’s System Plast flanged mounted bearings and Sealmaster composite-flanged PN Gold bearings, the one-piece design eliminates loose parts during installation, improves bearing installation alignment, and creates a 5/8-inch gap behind the bearing flange for easier cleaning and inspection. Sold in packs of four, the stand-offs are made of 300 Series passivated stainless steel, and are available for both OEM (original equipment manufacturing) and retrofit applications. Regal Power Transmission Solutions

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CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

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ince my recent appointment as managing director of the Carton Council of Canada (CCC), I have been struck by just how misunderstood beverage cartons are, despite their significant growth and proliferation on the grocery shelves. Used primarily for packaging noncarbonated beverages such as milk and juice—along with liquid foods like soup and broth— beverage cartons generally fall into two main categories, differentiated primarily by their composition. The so-called “refrigerated” gabletop cartons are made of 80-percent paper and 20-percent polyethylene, whereas the “shelf-stable” aseptic cartons consist of 74-percent paper, 22-percent polyethylene, and four-percent aluminum. Contrary to a widespread misconception, there is no wax used whatsoever to make either type of beverage carton. From an environmental standpoint, there is little that these cartons do not offer. Being lightweight and made primarily from paper—a renewable resource—beverage cartons provide the benefits of a very low package-to-product ratio, and a low carbon footprint through their life-cycle. Along with their recyclability, these attributes make cartons one of the most sustainable food and beverage packaging options in existence. Given the modern-day context of growing amounts of waste and diminishing natural resources, most packaging professionals will agree that we need to move beyond the traditional benefits of packaging in protecting Figure 1. Gabletop and aseptic food, preventing food waste, and facilitating carton composition efficient distribution of packaged goods. There is a growing sense of responsibility and obligation for the packaging industry to incorporate environmental sustainability in every step of our manufacturing processes. Essentially, this boils down to following three primary objectives: • To use less raw materials in the manufacturing process; • To ensure responsible sourcing of raw materials and to limit the use of nonrenewable resources as much as possible; • To ensure that the used packaging is recycled at the end of its useful life. Since the official formation of our organization in 2009 by leading carton manufacturers Elopak, Evergreen, SIG Combibloc and Tetra Pak, we have seen significant progress in the recycling area. As of January 2015, the national carton recycling rate had risen to 51 per cent—up from 41 per cent in 2009. While there is room to grow the carton recycling rate further, this progress showcases the value of our concerted actions in collaboration with different stakeholders of the recycling value chain. The use of renewable resources sourced responsibly is perhaps the objective least understood or talked about in packaging circles. In our view, truly sustainable packaging requires paying keen attention to all the key stages of the life-cycle—such as sourcing—in order to address important additional impacts of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and resource scarcity. As manufacturers of packaging whose main raw material is derived from forests, and given the crucial role forests play in storing carbon as well as in regulating climate functions, all of the Council’s members have put in place policies to source their fibers exclusively from responsibly managed forests. As the Carton Council of Canada carries on with its mission, we look forward to advancing the dialogue on sustainable packaging through the adoption of a broader lifecycle perspective. Isabelle Faucher is managing director of the Carton Council of Canada in Quebec City.

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COVER STORY

SPREADING THEIR WINGS

Landmark Canadian Unilever factory leverages formidable processing and packaging competencies to rise to the next higher level of food safety and quality excellence BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE

put into U.S. markets as part of its critically important North American manufacturing mandate. But rather than being awed by the weight of responsibility that comes with the job of ensuring the plant runs each shift at optimal productivity and efficiency levels, Sienicki is more happy to keep taking on more challenges and initiatives to keep the venerable Rexdale facility, which he joined last April, near the top of its food chain through continuous improvement and innovation. “This is a key plant to Unilever, especially when measured in terms of SKU (stock-keeping units) produced here,” Sienicki told Canadian Packaging during a recent visit to the 130-employee, three-shift, five-days-a-week operation that has already undergone some key milestone changes since his arrival. “When you look at the top-selling 25 food SKUs produced by Unilever in Canada, also including a dry foods plant in nearby Bramalea and the ice-cream plant in Simcoe, Ont., you have to go pretty far down the list, to eighth, before finding a product that’s not produced in the Rexdale plant,” says Sienicki, who also serves as factory director for the Simcoe operation that manufactures the famed Breyers brand of ice-cream products.

The official FSSC certificate validates the plant’s ongoing compliance to the highly rigorous food safety standards.

Production manager Mandeep Atwal (left) and factory director Galen Sienicki pose in front of one of the Rexdale plant’s high-performance Eagle Pro X-Ray product inspection systems installed to ensure optimal food safety standards.

Since joining the Rexdale plant, one of Sienicki’s first and most important orders of business has been to oversee the completion of the plant’s certification to the new international FSSC (Food Safety Systems Certification) food safety standard of the ISO (International Standards Organization), which he says is “much more rigorous and more universally accepted” than the plant’s long-held, but somewhat outdated, food safety certification issued by the BRC (British Retail Council). Initially FSSC-certified about a year ago, the plant has since passed through an extensive, threeday “surveillance audit” by independent third-party auditing authorities in f lying colors to validate and maintain its hard-earned accreditation. According to Atwal, achieving the vaunted FSSC certification positions the Rexdale plant as one of many Unilever plants in North America to complete the conversion, which the parent company has mandated for all of its North American production sites. “The plan is for all the Unilever plants to go this route under the guidance of our global quality excellence team,” says Atwal. “All the Unilever food factories are already somewhere along this journey, be it at initial audits, stage-two audits or surveillance audits,” she says. “We’re not all just quite there yet locally, but it’s an exciting journey that will be well worth all the hard work when it is completed at all or sites.” As Sienicki explains, “Our goal is to have one industry standard certification that more of our partners and consumers will accept as a qualified and authoritative food safety program, whereby the major vendors from who we receive certain materials, like Hershey sending their confectioneries to our Simcoe plant, will not feel compelled to come and carry out their own audits to reassure themselves about our food safety practices.

or relative newcomers to the place, factory director Galen Sienicki and production manager Mandeep Atwal have witnessed and guided a remarkable number of far-reaching and exciting recent changes at the landmark Unilever Canada spreads and dressings production facility in Toronto’s west-end neighborhood of Rexdale— home to some of Canada’s bestselling brands of margarine, mayonnaise, dressings and other condiments that have either dominated or thrived in their product categories for as long as most modern Canadian consumers can recall. Producing a total of 100 million liters of the perennial stalwart super brands like Becel margarine and Hellmann’s mayonnaise per year, the busy 100,000-square factory—operated by the multinational consumer packaged goods powerhouse Unilever since 1961—is naturally also one of the most important manufacturing assets in the company’s far-f lung global manufacturing operations, nowadays supplying not only the entire Canadian market but also exporting a sizeable share of its out-

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CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

COVER STORY

Both produced at Rexdale, Hellmann’s mayo and Becel margarine are Number One topselling brands in their respective product categories in the Canadian market.

“They are welcome to any time, of course, but having FSSC certification essentially makes that redundant,” says Sienicki, pointing out that other Unilever divisions like beverages and personal-care product area also following suit with their FSSC certification efforts. Happily for the naturally upbeat Sienecki, dealing with change comes a lot more naturally than for most people on account of being raised as an “Air Force brat” by a U.S. Air Force pilot stationed around Europe, followed by a return to the U.S. to complete his high-school and university education. “I have yet never lived in one country or state for more than five years,” remarks Sienickie, holder of an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University in New Jersey, followed by an MBA from Baker University in Kansas. “But I’m loving it here in Canada so far,” he adds, “and very excited to be involved in what’s unfolding here in Rexdale. “Since April, the plant has gone through a lot of changes: the way we manufacture spreads; in our processing capabilities; and a number of things with our plant layout,” Sienecki relates. “We will also soon demolish the aging refinery outdoors, which has actually been out of operation for a number of years now,” he notes, “using the property to enable some key logistics cost-efficiencies, like a more strategic staging of trailers for transportation.” On the processing side, Sienicki relates, the plant has fully embraced a new high-efficiency batch production process that fully complements the facility’s food safety focus and waste reduction efforts. Says Sienicki: “Whereas we used to do a lot more on-the-f ly dosing in the past, converting to the more batch-oriented process has prompted us to change the way we mix and blend our spreads, the way that we store our oils, the way that we batch our aqueous solutions, and the way we mix them prior to sending them to our finishing lines through our new, state-of-the-art margarine processing units, more accurate dosing, and using completely different product formulations.” On the packaging side of business, meanwhile, the plant is making major equipment adjustments and modifications to its labeling and shrinksleeving capabilities to accommodate implementation of Unilever’s self-styled ‘Clean Label Initiative,” launched in the U.S. last years, while also launching a range of new upside-down squeezable PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic dressing bottles with a new uniform cap design and vastly improved product dispensing and handling for the consumers. “Consumers in the U.S. are very fond of the Clean Label Initiative, which is essentially about being

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

Atwal and Sienicki show off the company’s innovative new upside-down, squeezable plastic bottles now being used to package the company’s bestselling Hellmann’s brand of mayonnaise and other popular dressing products in Rexdale.

Sienicki points out some the of powerful capabilities, including inline checkweighing, offered by the recently-installed Eagle Pro X-Ray inspection system, supplied by PLAN Automation, on one of the plant’s margarine packaging lines.

able to read a label on their product and being able to pronounce all the ingredients in it,” he explains, “as well as understand that they are all-natural ingredients that are good and healthy for you. “We’re just a little bit behind the U.S. in that respect at the moment,” he acknowledges, “but we’re about to undertake it in Canada, with plans to launch it in next year.” In the meantime, Sienicki and his production f loor troops are being kept busy fine-tuning and perfecting the new packaging line, commissioned by the Hellmann’s brand division, to fill and package the brand’s many different formations and recipes into the easy-squeeze 11.5-, 20- and 25-ounce size bottles manufactured by Alpla, incorporating uniform-sized, clear protective bottom caps supplied by Berry Plastics. Already retailing at some select retail chains, the

colorful new bottles—adorned with high-impact graphics tightly wrapped around the bottle’s distinct contours with full-bodied shrinksleeves—are expected to be retailing nationally across Canada over the next year. “We’re scheduled to produce about 38 million liters of Hellmann’s brand product this year,” Sienicki notes, “so there are many engineering and technical challenges involved to make it a successful conversion.” Sienicki explains: “We have commissioned the new squeeze-bottle line with two primary goals in mind: to refresh the bottle with new graphics, but also to give consumers a so-called ‘clean bottle’ that enables them to dispense of virtually all of the product inside without any effort, or resorting to shaking or scooping the near-empty bottle to get at the product’s remains.” The trick to pulling this off lies in the ingenious

WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 11

COVER STORY

A custom-designed Serac oiler used to spray clean empty botles with oil mist.

Freshly-filled tubs of margarine transferred inside a Massman case-packer.

application of a fine misty layer of canola oil, already an active listed product ingredient in Hellmann’s product formulation, onto the inside of each bottle in the pre-filling stages on the packaging line. “This creates very low-surface tension in the bottle to let more of the product out just by suing simple gravity,” says Sienicki. This quick inline oil-spray application is expertly executed at dazzling throughput speeds by a converted rotary Serac oiler outfitted with high-preci-

The Invex IM wraparound case/tray-packer with a lane-divider from Douglas Machine.

sion Nordson dispensing nozzles originally designed and intended for hot-melt adhesive applicating. “This is a totally custom-built machine designed for specifically for this very purpose,” Sienecki points out. “There are only two of these machines in the world: one here at Rexdale and one at our sister Kilbourn Avenue facility in Chicago, with the only difference being the Kilbourn plant using soy oil, rather than canola to achieve the same effect.”

Heavy-duty SEW-Eurodrive electric motors are a common sight throughout the busy Rexdale plant.

Says Sienicki: “In the past, one of the biggest consumer complaints about dressing products was the inability to get everything out to the last drop, but this new technology enables them to do exactly that.” Atwal agrees: “Getting more product out of the package is a great consumer benefit, and the consumer feedback in the U.S. has been very positive. “It’s a real value-added feature that we believe will provide a strong competitive edge for the brand out in the marketplace.”

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Manufactured by Ryson International, a towering spiral conveyor facilitates smooth and gentle transfer of loaded boxes of product upwards to the mezzanine level for palletizing.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

COVER STORY

The squeeze-bottle line uses the same-sized base cap for each of the three bottle sizes.

An SEW-Eurodvive motor powers a conveyor moving bottles from the heat-shrink tunnel.

Despite the various engineering challenges involved along the way, Sienicki says he is largely satisfied with the pace and progress achieved in the conversion project so far. “Every engineering change has its challenges but this has been largely a successful undertaking,” he confides. “There were a couple of issues with positioning of spare parts, using different pallet patterns and different stops on conveyors, integrating new ac-

A Krones Canmatic rotary filler used to package round jars of Hellmann’s mayo.

cumulation devices for feeding product into the case-packer and so on,” he says, “but now that we have completed a very robust training program with our maintenance staff and operators, we have a very good handle on the process. “In hindsight, we have benefited from the luxury of learning about some of these challenges that the Kilbourn plant had gone through already in ramping up to the expected output levels, so we had validated all the changes with our machinery

A Pneumatic Scale bottle orienter ensures each cap opening is always at the front.

suppliers before they built the next machine to go onto this line. “We are at about a 50-percent commissioning level right now,” he states, “and we are hitting every milestone we expected to hit in advance of the launch.” Sienicki cites impeccable attention to detail as one of the key factors to the project’s successful execution to date. “Different bottles handle in different ways on the

Prevents contamination from entering production areas

Manufactured by Douglas Machine and distributed in Canada through PLAN Automation, the Contour S-80 series shrinkwapping machine accommodates a very broad range of pack sizes and patterns in high-speed case- and tray-packing applications with its versatile heat tunnel.

Transfers load from one pallet type to another

• Category 3 safety compliant • Enhance safety for warehouse personnel • Helps meet FSMA, HACCP and GMP compliance • Safer, cleaner and faster than other load transfer devices Contact us: 1-800-628-4065 w w w. lo ad t rans fe r. ne t Filled trays of the Hellmann’s brand mayo jars inside the Contour S-80 series shrinkwrapper have a top layer of protective film applied by the system’s high-performance heat tunnel.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

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WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 13

COVER STORY

A high-volume Pro Blue 10 series hot-melt applicator from Nordson integrated into the Contour case-packer.

line, so with the smallest bottle being a little bit top-heavy and more prone to tipping in the case packer, we had to make some modifications there to ensure our cases are filled smoothly and consistently without jamming,” he says. “Likewise, using a standard same-sized cap for different bottle sizes has an impact on shrinksleeving, especially for the smaller-sized containers, and the capper also had to be modified to accommodate the new cap design.” To facilitate these and other changes, the line commissioned a brand new bottle orienter to optimize the process.

A new high-speed shrinksleeving machine from Sleever International used to decorate the new squeeze-bottles.

A fully-loaded, shelf-ready corrugated box from Atlantic Packaging designed for easy handling at the retail level.

“Whereas we used to just dump the bottles into the hoppers and then orient them with another machine, the new orienter not only does that in one step, but it also uses a special stop-cap mechanism to ensure that each and every cap-opening will be positioned right at the front of the label, rather than taking a 50-per cent chance that it may end up either at the front or the back. “It may sound like a small thing, but there is no substitute for leaving nothing to chance—be it food safety or packaging execution.” This uncompromising food safety approach is vividly demonstrated on the plant’s production f loor

with broad array of CIP (clean-in-place)-designed processing and packaging equipment, strategically positioned to optimize the plant’s tight available f loorspace divided into nine packaging lines—six for spreads and three for dressings. In addition, the plant made a significant investment to install state-of-the-art X-Ray product inspection technology on some of its key lines to prevent possible product contamination. Distributed in Canada by PLAN Automation of Orangeville, Ont., the Rexdale plant’s three Eagle Pro X-Ray inspection machines—manufactured by the Tampa Bay, Fla.-based Eagle Product In-

Sienicki displays some of the unique packaging components incorporated into the new plastic squeeze bottles, manufactured by Alpla, used to package the Hellmann’s brand dressings.

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A close-up view of the freshly-filled squeeze bottles of Hellmann’s brand dressings having full-body shrinksleeve labels applied to them from above by a Sleever shrinksleeving system.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

COVER STORY

A Videojet model P3400 label printer-applicator applies product labels onto the sides of loaded corraged trays.

Toronto-based Atlantic Packaging Products supplies the llion’s share of the Rexdale plant’s corrugated packaging.

spection—play a key strategic role in the plant’s proactive product safety regimen by thoroughly checking the final product for the tiniest traces of foreign particles or debris, as well as other imperfections, before the tubs of margarine or bottles or dressing make their way to the case-packer. “These machine do an excellent job of looking for an pinpointing any foreign matter, with instant and easy-to-use metal detection capabilities, and they can be taught and programmed to identify other unwanted substances by measuring product density,” Sienicki says, “and they also have the ability to verify the weight of the product.” Purchased over the course of the year, the Eagle Pro X-Ray systems represent a “far large investment than we would have had to make with installing traditional metal detectors,” Sienicki points out, but they also offer a lot more capability. “You can teach them to do things like being able to recognize the tamper-evident metal inner lidding that we use on some of the products, whereas a metal detector would reject every container.” Each of the X-Ray systems is positioned nearby the respective line’s inkjet date coders, including the Markem-Imaje S8 Classic series small-character coders, which perform high-speed application of best-before dates and the time of manufacture to ensure full product traceability. “Our spread product shelf-life typically ranges from six to nine months,” Sienicki says, noting the spread lines normally run from 120 and 160 tubs per minute, depending on product size and other variables. “Our throughput to capacity is limited to about 14,000 pounds of product that or MPUs (margarine processing units) can turn out, as well as our casepacker’s throughput rate, because it can only make so many movement per minute. “We typically fill our shipping cases with about 24 pounds of product, and it takes a lot more movement to put 48 half-pound tubs of product in the cases than

12 two-pound tubs, so our line speeds will f luctuate to accommodate the differences,” he says. Atwal adds that as part of the plant’s recentlylaunched in-house CRQS (consumer-relevant quality standards) program, “Machine operators take six tubs off the line every hour and to evaluate them against different criteria, like print quality, to make sure consumers will be delighted with each package they purchase. “We also have a team that actually goes inside the stores and evaluates the packages out on the shelves, after which we compare their findings with our factory results,” she relates. Not surprisingly, the same stringent quality control and attention to detail are applied to the recently started squeeze-bottle line, which processes between 160 and 195 containers per minute, depending on bottle size. The packaging process commences at the Pneumatic Scale bottle orienter and a towering Sidel cap sorter to match the main components in proper sequence, and moves onto a modified Pacific Packaging rotary filler/capper after the bottles have passed through the aforementioned modified Serac oiler for a quick spray application of canola oil mist. After the containers are precision-filled, capped and inspected by another Eagle Pro X-Ray inspection system, they pass through a high-performance heat-shrink tunnel—manufactured by Sleever International—followed by application of a tamper-evident seal underneath the cap by a Super Seal induction heat-sealer manufactured by Enercon Corporation. “We purchase our caps with the seals already in them, so when they pass through induction sealer those seals are literally welded to the top rim of the container,” Sienicki explains. The finished bottles are then swiftly conveyed in four lanes to a state-of-the-art, fully-automatic case-packer—manufactured by Douglas Machine Corporation—equipped with a large-sized Nord-

The Columbia Machine palletizer uses signature-blue CHEP pallets to palletize the finished product loads.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

One of two fully-automatic palletizers from Columbia Machine used in the plant’s end-of-line packaging area.

Columbia Machine has supplied the Rexdale plant with two fully-automatic palletizing systems in recent years.

son Pro Blue 10 hot-melt adhesive applicator. Once the case-packer packs the bottles inside the corrugated shipping containers—supplied to the plant by Toronto-based boxmaker Atlantic Packaging Products Limited—the product is moved down the line by a Ryson spiral conveyor towards one of two fully-automatic palletizers manufactured by Columbia Machine, Inc. The high-volume palletizing machines—used interchangeably by the spread and dressing products as required—quickly arrange the filled cases into pre-programmed layer patterns on top of the signature-blue CHEP wooden pallets, which are moved by heavy-duty metal conveyor rollers towards a fully-automatic Orion rotary-arm stetchwrapper to secure and stabilize the loads before they are wheeled out by forklift for transport and distribution. Says Sienicki: “Because we are still commissioning the squeeze-bottle line, we’re trying to limit ourselves to running one size of bottles per week to keep the changeovers to a minimum while we’re working out any bugs. “But after we have established a good comfort level, we intend to change products on the line at least once a day, and the packaging sizes once a week, to become a more f lexible operation.” While the Rexdale plant is still not as optimally automated as it ultimately can be, according to Sienicki, “For the amount of product we make here, we are able to do it with a fairly ‘lean’ staff.” Says Sienicki: “These are exciting time for the Rexdale plant and the entire team here, and we are looking forward to an exciting future with new products, new technologies, and new capabilities in both food safety and continuous product innovation and diversity.”

For More Information: PLAN Automation 415 Eagle Product Inspection 416 Markem-Imaje 417 Sidel Group 418 CHEP Canada Ltd. 419 Nordson Canada, Limited 420 Atlantic Packaging Products, Ltd. 421 Enercon Corporation 422 Ryson International Inc. 423 Columbia Machine Inc. 424 Sleever International 425 Serac, Inc. 426 Amcor Inc. 427 Berry Plastics Corp. 428 Alpla North America 429 Avery Weigh-Tronix 430 Videojet Technologies, Inc. 431

WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 15

CONVEYING

TOBACCO ROADS

Manufacturer of tobacco products uses top-flight conveying systems to maintain smooth workflow on its production lines ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR PHOTOS BY JOHN PACKMAN

Grand River Enterprises director of technical services Michael Martin poses with some of the tobacco products manufactured at the 600,000-square-foot facility in Ohsweken, located on the Grand River Territory of the Six Nations.

Grand River Enterprises utilizes a high-speed X85 wedge elevating conveying system with bends, manufactured by FlexLink Systems Canada to move cartons of tobacco products.

16 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

hile Canada’s Federal government has spent vast quantities of money in various anti-smoking campaigns in the last decade, it was still allowing farmers to grow tobacco as a cash crop. To change the status quo, in 2008 the government created a $300-million program that would allow tobacco farmers to move into other crops, but for those that accepted, a return to tobacco farming would not be allowed. But a funny thing happened. Rather than a decline in tobacco production, it increased by 144 per cent through 2013, while the number of acres of tobacco fields doubled. While there may be numbers to indicate that smoking proliferation in Canada has declined over the years, the global production of tobacco has not. Like it or not, the global tobacco industry is a high-stakes business, and operating within one of the most competitive and highly-regarded markets in the world isn’t easy even for those that have been around for decades. But that has not stopped Grand River Enterprises Six Nations Ltd., headquartered in Ohsweken on the Grand River Territory of the Six Nations about 100 kilometers southwest of Toronto from becoming a highly successful business venture with a global reach. First opening its doors in 1997 as a small company producing cigarette products with a single packer with capacity of 800 cases a month, it nowadays packs millions of cigarettes daily for global customers. Fully native-owned—led by chief executive officer Jerry Montour and president Steve Williams— Grand River Enterprises is fully-licensed by the Canadian federal government as a tobacco manufacturer. In recent years, it has become a major business for the Six Nations community, bringing both

Cartons of tobacco product slide down a chute on the elevated wedge conveyor from one elevated level to another, moving towards a case-packing system.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

CONVEYING employment opportunities and a healthier economy on the Reserve—helping generate some 1,000 indirect jobs being spun off for the Six Nations, a league of nations consisting of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora bands. “We are the largest First Nations manufacturer of tobacco products in Canada, with about 450 people directly employed here at the Ohsweken facility,” Grand River Enterprises director of technical services Michael Martin told Canadian Packaging during a recent visit to the tobacco processing operation. A large part of the company’s booming export business is geared to production of over two dozen product lines with unique profiles catering to specific audiences: including cigarillos, loose to- A FlexLink X85 wedge conveyor line installed at the A close-up of the infeed mechanism used to feed the bacco leaf and chews. Grand River Enterprises Ohsweken production facility. FlexLink wedge elevator conveyor with product. As for domestic cigarette packs, the company offers: Oakdales; Putters; Sago; DK’S, Golden Leaf; Menage; Seneca; Westport, 38 Special, Opal, Couture and Scenic 101, all available in various sizes and strengths. According to Martin, these brands are popular enough to keep the plant’s production lines humming along 20-hours-a-day, five-daysa-week, making it one of Canada’s most successful aboriginal businesses. “Our strengths are in the development of brands that provide our customers with a large variety of choices, value and quality tobacco,” relates Martin. “We have a strong and wellbalanced portfolio that we feel will enable us to continue growing both our Canadian and international markets.” According to Martin, the founders believe that the First Nations Fruits and vegetables are living organisms. Their life cycles often end soon peoples had trade routes worldwide after being picked. FreshSAFE packaging from MULTIVAC protects fruits before Europeans came to North America, and now the company is and vegetables in a specially developed atmosphere, allowing them to stay merely retracing those routes and fresh, appetizing, and nutritious longer. To fnd out what FreshSAFE can do rebuilding international trade partnerships while building an ecofor you, call or write our packaging specialists. MULTIVAC offers: nomic base with North American indigenous communities. Says Martin: “There’s a certain • 15 Service Technicians Nationwide degree of spirituality involved in the production of tobacco, as we believe it is a sacred plant that • Packaging Technology Centres in Ontario (Brampton) comes from our Mother Earth.” and British Columbia (Richmond) According to aboriginal lore, Sky Woman fell to earth on to the back of a turtle representing North • 25 packaging equipment models to choose from America, Later, her own pregnant daughter died after giving birth to - Compact, to semi-automatic to fully automated twins. solutions available The body of the daughter gave birth to the Three Sisters of Corn, Beans and Squash, and from her • Preventative Maintenance contracts available heart the tobacco plant grew. This daughter is known as the Earth Mother. • Equipment training offered in three languages Along with rebuilding trade (French, English, Spanish) routes, Grand River Enterprises says its goal continues to be a responsible, effective and respected | producer and marketer of consumer products for adults, while FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 111 ensuring it produces the highestquality tobacco products.

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CONVEYING

A FlexLink conveyor system with a pneumatic pusher and gravity shoot/chute quickly moves cartons of cigarettes around the expansive facility.

Martin and the folks of Grand River Enterprises are all immensely proud of the aboriginal roots of the company. “Along with being one of the largest First Nation workforces in Canada, Grand River Enterprises believes that as its employees grow, so too does the business,” notes Martin. As Grand River Enterprises grew over the years, adding more tobacco processing machinery to its production line arsenal, it has repeatedly utilized the transportation capabilities of FlexLink Systems Canada in Burlington, Ont., to supply the operation with conveyor systems to move the individual packs of cigarettes over to the cartoner equipment. “Fifteen years ago,” relates Martin, “I bought my first conveyor line from a company that FlexLink eventually purchased. “It was very robust and never any trouble to run; I

Toronto-base boxmaker Atlantic Packaging Products supplies the Grand River Enterprises plant with all its corrugated shipping cases.

never even had to replace a chain in it. “FlexLink continued that tradition admirably over the years. It’s why I love FlexLink, and why all of the conveyors we use at Grand River Enterprises are FlexLink conveyors.” Founded in 1980, FlexLink is a leading provider of high-end solutions to manufacturing industries like food, beverages, personal-care, healthcare, automotive and electronics, perhaps best known for its high-quality, high-performance conveyor systems installed worldwide. Today, FlexLink is part of the COESIA group of innovation-based industrial solutions companies operating globally, headquartered in Bologna, Italy and fully-owned by Isabella Seràgnoli. FlexLink general manager Jeff Jones says: “Because of the way Grand River Enterprises has expanded since it opened, it has had to place its case-packing

equipment a long way from the packers—up to 400 feet in some instances. For Grand River Enterprises, it was imperative to maintain as much f loorspace as possible in the working environment—just in case it needed to expand again. To address that issue, FlexLink boldly looked up to above to create an opportunity to move the product in the free space above through eight fastmoving X85 wedge elevating conveying systems in conjunction with horizontal conveyance lines. “While some of these systems have long and winding conveyor routes, we worked with them to ensure there was a conveyor route planned that was both efficient for their production line and safe for all of their workers throughout the entire facility,” Jones recalls. The wedge conveyor utilizes two conveyor tracks

A heavy-duty SEW-Eurodrive electric motor helps to ensure smooth turns for the cartons of cigarettes traveling on the elevated FlexLink conveyor line.

A close-up of a high-speed SEW-Eurodrive motor that helps provide the power to the FlexLink X85 wedge conveyor system.

18 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Freshly made cigarettes are quickly moved in bulk to be inserted in individual branded paperboard cigarette packs at the Ohsweken production facility.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

CONVEYING facing each other to provide fast and gentle transportation of product—both horizontally and vertically—thanks to the X85’s use of powerful SEW-Eurodrive drive unit motors. “The X85 gets product up in the air quickly so it can travel through the plant where space is much more abundant,” explains Jones. “There is no log-jam at the wedge either, as the X85 can run at the same speed as the rest of the production line—up to 80 meters per minutes, though admittedly we don’t run it that fast.” “The wedge makes a difficult transfer an easy proposition,” he states. According to FlexLink, it has been able to use a few different methods to raise product from one level to another. This includes using a small fiveto seven-degree incline with a standard chain via cleated links to positively push the product up a much steeper incline up to 90 degrees; and via the wedge, which squeezes the product from the side with f lexible fingers built into the chain.

The outfeed of a wedge elevator conveyor from FlexLink swiftly transfers cartons of cigarettes to a cartoner in another part of the facility in quick but gentle motion without damaging the exterior face of the brand’s primary packaging.

SMOOTH AND STRONG The FlexLink chain used on the X85 is designed for smooth running, low noise levels, and minimum wear and tear, according to Martin. Says Jones: “We’re also very proud of the strong extruded aluminum structure of the X85 at Grand River Enterprises, though we do offer a stainless steel version, too. “The beams and the slide rails were all designed for a long service life, rigidity, smooth running, low-noise for handling high-speed movement.” According to Jones, there are a couple of factors that determine the load capabilities of the X85: the basic load capacity of 2.5-kilograms per link of chain, with a maximum working tension of 400N; and the tension applied to the chain by elevation, with each X85 model designed for maximum efficiency on the production line. The FlexLink standard chain is actually made of three components: chain link; pivot; and pin, with the product riding smoothly on an acetal resin chainlink. Other equipment and options for the conveyor lines supplied by FlexLink include: • Multiple S-configurations and C-shaped configurations and even a Sledge—a wedge with a guide rail. Jones says that, depending on the situation, the cost of a wedge can be reduced by using specific types of chutes to bring the product back down to f loor level, along with pneumatic pushers and breakers. After tobacco comes in from various sources around the world, it is stored for proper aging and then put through various levels of curing and fermentation, f lavoring and processing. All in all, Martin says that Grand

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CONVEYING

A Grand River Enterprises worker manually applies stretchwrap plastic film from Uline to help stabilize pallet loads prior to transportation.

River Enterprises is a well-oiled production facility equipped with multiple industry-standard Hauni Protos 90 cigarette making machines that are directly linked to the high-performance Focke F5 Packer carton wrapping systems.

HASSLE-FREE The finished product cartons utilize the FlexLink conveying systems to move over to Supercase casepackers manufactured by MonTrade S.r.L. The Protos 90 cigarette makers at the Ohsweken facility generally run at speeds up to 10,000 filtered smokes per minute, with Martin calling them “fast, safe, easy-to-operate, and very robust. “Our operators can easily work with the Protos 90s via integrated industrial touchscreen,” notes Martin. “It’s virtually hassle-free.”

A Lantech stretchwrapper quickly secures a pallet of cigarette cartons.

One of many Baumer hhs model Xmelt adhesive melters used to secure individual cigarette packs at the Ohsweken facility.

All control and quality monitoring systems on the Protos 90 are bus-linked modular units using the Siemens S7-400 PLC (programmable logic controller) system. According to Hauni, the Protos 90 machine inspects all cigarettes for total ventilation and pressure drop; has spring-mounted pressure rollers to provide a neat and clean printmark; performs in-line laser perforation with LASER 300S or 400S-1; has a split-rolling unit to give spot-on laser perforation; and employs a MIDAS weight control system that also detects non-tobacco related materials. The operation uses Henkel’s Technomelt adhesive during the manufacture of the cigarette packs, which is applied via Baumer hhs model Xmelt adhesive melters to provide a strong, tight seal to help maintain cigarette freshness.

Despite the Focke & Co. F5 carton wrapping units being under 10 years of age, according to Martin they performs as robustly and as quickly as the day they were first installed. Martin adds he’s very pleased with the performance of its multiple Supercase horizontal carton feeding case-packers, which operates at speeds up to five cycles per minute within its small footprint. Other supplies utilized at the facility includes: • Uline stretchfilm, used to secure palletloads of product via a Lantech stretchwrapper or manually; • corrugated cases manufactured by Atlantic Packaging. While it is the goal of every business is to be a successful and profitable company, Grand River Enterprises goes to great lengths to make sure it gives back to its communities. Notably, the Dreamcatcher Charitable Foundation was created by Grand River Enterprises to provide grants and donations to First Nations communities and people, focusing on youth, education, health, and cultural development for future community leadership. “For Grand River Enterprises, and according to the mantra espoused by the company owners, we will continue to move forward in the future as we look to the past to re-establish our trade routes around the world,” sums up Martin. “Grand River Enterprises is one of Canada’s most successful aboriginal businesses, but we are always looking to grow our business,” he says. “So far, our business model, excellent products built around the consumer, and high-tech manufacturing principles conducted by our well-trained employees has all contributed to our success,” he concludes, “and there’s no reason why that won’t continue for the foreseeable future.”

For More Information:

A front view of a cleated FlexLink elevator conveyor moving cartons of cigarettes up to an elevated line.

20 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

The back view of a cleated FlexLink elevator conveyor at the Grand River tobacco manufacturing operation.

FlexLink Systems Canada, Inc. SEW-Eurodrive Co. Hauni AG Focke GmbH & Co. KG MonTrade S.r.L. Uline Canada Baumer hhs Corp. Henkel Canada Corporation Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. Lantech Siemens Canada

450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

FLEXIBLE PACKAGING

THE UPTEMPO BEAT

Canadian flexible packaging stalwart aims for bigger piece of the global action with highquality product range and world-class manufacturing

The Tempo Plastics Limited ownership team consists of (from left, back row) vice-president of human resources and logistics Richard Hardwick; president Michael Mencarelli; vicepresident of production Michael Bannon; (front row) vice-president of marketing Leonardo Giglio; and vice-president of quality assurance Lee-Anne Giglio.

ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE

or Tempo Plastics Limited, being able to take pride in 45 years of quality, reliability, award-winning printing in the f lexible packaging is only outdone by the pride it takes in its long-term relationships with its customers and its dedicated employees. Located in Innisfil, approximately one hour’s drive north of Toronto, Tempo first opened its doors in 1969, starting out as a distributor of standard PE (polyethylene) plastic bags. The very next year, the company got started in converting polybags, followed by extruding polyethylene film in 1973, In 1976, the company purchased its first six-color printing press, quickly becoming vertically integrated under one strategic roof. “Our current Innisfil building is something we purchased and moved into in 1984, and then renovated in 2008 to increase our facility footprint to 100,000 square feet—providing us with the foundation and implementation for HACCP (Hazard

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

The award-winning line-up of Tempo pouches includes, (from left) Duo Pouch, TimeFresh, The Edge, and the #4.

Analysis Critical Control Points) food safety programs,” Tempo Plastics vice-president of marketing and co-owner Leonardo Giglio told Canadian

Packaging during a recent visit to the busy, and yet extremely tidy facility producing custom-printed, award-winning f lexible packaging with superior

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A close-up of some of the packaging created by Tempo Plastics showcasing the Wolfgang Puck Estate Grown Coffee brand in coffee pod format, with product contents and the packaging being 100-percent compostable.

print quality—supplied directly to manufacturers, food processors and advertisers. “We offer full graphics capabilities produced on modern, state-of-the-art flexographic printing presses,” Giglio explains. “Our ISO 9001 quality system is fully-implemented to ensure that our customers receive only the best quality product that they deserve,” he says, adding that all of the company’s processes—from quotation to invoicing—are fully computerized, with all key documents and product requirements kept accurate and well-maintained.

“We are also an ISO 2008-certified facility with full GFSI PACsecure,” notes Giglio. A collaboration between IFS Management and PAC, Packaging Consortium, the IFS PACsecure has been developed as a certification standard for primary and secondary packaging materials, and is now officially benchmarked to the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) to ensure high level safety and quality standards for food packaging material converters. “We tend to go ‘old-school’ with regards to the way we do business,” relates Giglio.

“We still have the small-company mentality that allows us to avoid having bureaucracy and red-tape getting in the way we go about our daily business, which has helped us tremendously in growing our global marketshare.” As Giglio relates, his father Joseph along with his partner John Paterson were working in the bag converting business in Toronto when they saw an opportunity to start their own company. While still in their early 20s, they founded Tempo Plastics and paced themselves for slow and steady growth built on solid relationships with customers, suppliers and employees, with the goal of achieving long-term commercial success. Originally based in Mississauga, they decided to move the business to Innisfil, just off Highway 400, back in the 1980s when, Giglio says, there was practically nothing else in the area, not even a coffee shop. “I think what is very much telling about Tempo Plastics is that we still have employees who worked in that Mississauga site that are still working with us now,” Giglio states. “They liked Tempo Plastics so much, that they transplanted not only themselves, but their families up to Innisfil,” adds Giglio. “That’s how much they believe in our company.” According to Giglio, Tempo is one of the largest privately-owned companies in Innisfil nowadays, “with 120 employees and growing.” Giglio says that Tempo Plastics has always made the workplace a comfortable work environment with a team atmosphere that encourages employees to provide feedback to improve processes to make the workplace and production efficiencies even better. “We’ve never actually laid a person off in the history of this company due to a lack of work,” admits Giglio. “What we have is not just a workforce, but a highly-skilled workforce that has earned the right to provide us with feedback on everything and anything. “They understand the business, the equipment and the people we work with,” he stresses.

A Flexotecnica rewinder running an intricate package design Tempo Plastics press operator Jason Stanutz compares past orders to the current production run samples with director Richard Hardwick to ensure there is no variance in final print quality. for a single-serve coffee pod brand.

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CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

FLEXIBLE PACKAGING To pay tribute to the hard work of it employees, in 2013 the plant created the ‘Builders of Tempo Plastics’ wall of fame in the boardroom, featuring framed photographs of all the employees who have worked 30 years or more with the company. The display naturally features the portraits of industry veterans, such as: vice-president of human resources and logistics Richard Hardwick; vicepresident of production Michael Bannon; and company president Michael Mencarelli Along with Giglio, his sister and vice-president of quality assurance Lee-Anne, Hardwick, Bannon and Mencarelli form the Tempo ownership group. Since joining Tempo in 1979, Hardwick has been applying a methodical approach to achieving the quality objectives set forth by the company directors. Making good use of his printing background and holistic understanding of packaging, he has helped the company grow by obtaining certifications as ISO 9001:2008, HACCP, and the vaunted IFS PACsecure. Says Giglio: “The PAC, Packaging Consortium consulted directly with Richard as an industry voice in its efforts to support the development of the GFSI food safety program IFS PACsecure.” During his 38 years with Tempo, Bannon has spearheaded key machinery acquisitions and implementing a fine-tuned manufacturing process but, according to Giglio, he will be retiring at the end of this year. “While it will be extremely difficult to lose a person like Michael, he has been working closely with the Tempo department heads to ensure the team has all the right tools to continue on the path to growth and development,” he states. For his part, Mencarelli is not only the company leader since 2012, but is also Tempo Plastics’ longest-standing employee, with 40 years of experience. Initially working as a salesman and then as vicepresident of sales, “Mencarelli still keeps his hands in the sales segment, maintaining some of his original customers the same way he treats his own family,” notes Giglio, explaining that as company president Mencarelli’s role is to focus on long-term growth while guiding the team and next generation into the next phase with more complex and innovative product offerings and maintaining high customer service standards. “Another long-term employee with Tempo is Joseph Montalbano, who has worked with Tempo for 35 years in the sales department, and has transitioned into the senior business development manager,” explains Giglio. “He maintains a long history of servicing the produce industry, one of Tempo’s core customer bases, and continues to use his expertise and stellar reputation to increase market share with TimeFresh, our shelf-life extension product line.” Giglio says that when Tempo Plastics added an additional 40,000 square feet in 2008, the expansion was primarily customer-driven. “While we certainly needed some additional manufacturing space and to add a work-in-house processing area for the laminating curing process, warehousing space was actually key for us,” says Giglio, citing Tempo’s many customers located in Toronto. “Those customers had space restrictions in holding our finished plastic bags and pouches, and were also faced with high local warehouse fees, so we decided to help them out by offering a more affordable and convenient alternative.” Customer service and employee loyalty aside, Tempo Plastics is well-respected in the packaging industry for the exceptionally high quality of its

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

Citing an opportunity to help reduce food waste, Tempo Plastics created the TimeFresh stand-up produce bags for the fresh-cut and whole foods customers looking to maximize freshness and shelf-life.

products that enable brands to really ‘pop’ on the retail shelves, according to Giglio. Giglio notes that key elements required for basic packaging design today primarily revolve around product functionality, consumer convenience and product security. “But we also look at providing a design that will appeal across multiple consumer demographics for higher market success, practical implementation throughout the entire packaging and marketing process and, of course, sustainability, in an effort to reduce environmental impact,” he explains. Citing the lightweighting advantages of plastic bags over other package types, Giglio is very proud of the efforts Tempo Plastics has put forth, especially with the recent advent of multiple formats

of plastic bags it has introduced: TimeFresh, The Edge, Air, Duo Pouch, and the simply-named #4. The company’s extensive product portfolio comprises monolayer polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) bags and rollstock; gusseted and non-gusseted sideweld, bottomseal, wicketed, back-seam, Ufilm, J-film and sheeting; and multilayer laminated pouches and rollstock stand-up pouches in bottomseal, three-sided, backseam, and wicked with optional zipper closure formats. “We now see laminates as our key growth area, driven by stand-up multi-layer pouches and rollstock,” Giglio relates, citing success of its innovative TimeFresh stand-up pouch developed for customers in the produce industry. “The produce market segment has been our

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Tempo Plastics press assistant Veron Merriott cleaning and polishing printing plates after completion of a press run.

bread-and-butter for 45 years,” Giglio extols, adding that the company considers itself to be a leader in MAP (modified-atmosphere packaging). “We have taken our pouch technology to the next level with an entire new series of TimeFresh bags, pouches and films, with custom-tailored permeability rates.” Giglio says that invisible laser perforations in the TimeFresh packaging concept help protect the package’s integrity and limit the risk of contamination for superb consumer safety, which in turn helps protect the customer’s brand reputation. Depending on a customer’s product needs, two additional attributes can be added into the packaging: ethylene gas absorption and anti-fog functionality. “Fruits and vegetables release ethylene gas as they age as part of their life-cycle, but retarding the rate of ethylene gas is key to slowing down food decay, and therefore increasing product shelf-life,” explains Giglio. “We can add the anti-fog property to a package to keep water moisture from condensing within a package, providing shoppers with a clear pack to see the product inside,” he explains. “Also, the lack of water condensation helps keep the product fresher longer.” Other TimeFresh benefits include: • Organic products kept fresh longer without preservatives;

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• Longer shelf-life extends the distribution chains reach meaning it can travel farther; • Improved customer profits with decreased shrinkage and spoilage. Boasting a 21-day shelf-life, TimeFresh took home the Gold award in the 2015 PAC Global Leadership competition in the Food Waste Raw Material category. Over the past three years, Tempo has maintained a mutually-beneficial partnership with the graphic design department of Georgian College in Barrie, Ont. “Students come to our facility and we explain the entire f lexographic printing process and discuss all of the necessary pre-press steps required that will get their design reproduced as accurately as possible,” Giglio relates. “We want them to know it’s not as simple as hitting CTRL-P from a Mac screen.” As part of this relationship, Tempo Plastics also hosts a design competition for the students that corresponds with whatever new project Tempo is coming up with at the moment. The students are given a dieline and a set of criteria, and then they apply their creativity to showcase Tempo’s printing capabilities and pouch technologies. “After choosing a winner, we make the plates, and manufacture their design on the package just as though it was an actual customer order,” he says.

“We then fill it with something tasty and send it to all our customers during the holiday season.” According to Giglio, two of those student success stories have involved The Edge and Duo Pouch, with next year’s competition to focus on Tempo Plastics’ new generation Select Met and Sure Tear technologies that have not yet been revealed to the general public at the time of this publication. Along with being used in the Georgian College design competition, The Edge is a well-deserving 2015 PAC Flexible Packaging Silver Award winner, being customizable, environmentally-friendly, cost–effective and decorated with full-bleed graphics that cover the entire pack right to the edge, and offering extended shelf-life capabilities. “It’s actually very cost-competitive to its more rigid counterparts, but the excellent graphic capabilities it possesses are really off the charts,” Giglio asserts. Available in a wide range of sizes and resealable zippers, Giglio says the unique Edge pouch’s ability to offer a full-bleeding rotogravure-quality look, without the cost, has been garnering inquiries from many customers interested in using it for liquids and dry goods. Giglio points out that the Duo Pouch offers cross-promotional possibilities because each bag actually contains two separate pouches to house entirely different products, such as dry and liquid, side by side. “We can customize the bag into a vast array of sizes and configurations,” Giglio enthuses, adding the inclusion of a resealable zipper and self-supporting gusset enables the Duo Pouch to showcases multiple product lines in one convenient package—perfect for lawn-and-garden, coffee, health-and-wellness, pet food products, and Club Store formats. Sustainability and how packaging pertains to the environment is also a top focus at Tempo Plastics, which developed the #4 pouch, like its moniker suggests, for satisfying the #4 recycling stream requirements. “It still offers a rigidity like other laminated pouches, plus we can add the typical pouch features such as durable f lange style press to close zippers,

The Tempo Plastics high-definition 3D pouch with a carry-handle is printed in both matte and gloss finishes.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

FLEXIBLE PACKAGING as well as different types of hanger or handle options,” Giglio notes. Made of LDPE (low-density polyethylene), Tempo Plastics calls the #4 more Blue Box-friendly—a key concern for consumers and municipalities with issues surrounding landfill. Because LDPE is considered less toxic than many other plastics, and safe for human use, it is gradually becoming more recyclable, as more communities create recycling programs able to handle this material. “Our #4 pouch exceeds market criteria for performance and cost by being more durable than standard LDPE film, and it is also less expensive than traditional laminated pouches one usually sees in the marketplace,” says Giglio, noting that the #4 pouch is geared towards customers in the frozen produce, confection, pet treats, and lawn-andgarden products. The Air pouch comes with a one-way degassing valve that Giglio says was designed with the coffee industry in mind, but it could also be used for medical packaging, health-and-wellness, and lawn-and-garden. The f lexible one-way valve is applied inline to provide a degassing rate equal to anything else on the market, says Giglio, while offering it at a more competitive price-point. According to Giglio, Tempo’s competitive edge lies in combing cutting-edge technologies with the company’s award-winning printing capabilities to create maximum shelf impact. While reluctant to reveal the finer details of the company’s state-of-the-art, best-of-breed range of equipment used to create its diverse line-up of f lexible packaging, Tempo is happy to lavish praise on its recently-installed f lexographic printing press manufactured by KBA-Flexotecnica, an Italianbased company recently acquired and integrated into the KBA Group. The high-performance press was a natural fit for Tempo’s high-speed work environment. “Yes, it’s an eight-color press, but it’s not just an eight-color press,” states Giglio. “Not only can I run filmSEW-PACKEX2015.pdf through it once to get eight colors, I can 1 04/05/2015 10:33:55 AM

As part of the quality assurance process, pouch operator Mona Russell tests the finished, randomly-picked stand-up pouches for leaks inside the high-accuracy FlexPak Leak Detector measuring the presence of air bubbles.

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A Preco laser adding the virtually invisible laser perforations to a controlled-atmosphere film to help provide extended shelf-life properties to packaged food products to reduce food waste.

run it through again to add an additional eight colors, or again and again adding as many individual colors as the customer wants,” he extols. Installed in 2013, the Flexotecnica press is a significant addition to the company’s already impressive production arsenal, including a Deacro slitter and a Preco laser, the latter used to make near-invisible perforations in the film aiding the product’s shelf-life. To ensure optimal quality control, Tempo uses a FlexPak leak detection system, manufactured by Flex Essentials, that can provide multiple formats of testing to help ensure the packs are not compromised in any way to impact product integrity or customer safety. Being in business for 45 years, Giglio says that Tempo has seen many peaks and valleys in the

business cycle, like most manufacturing companies—but it has always continued to grow despite the general economic condition. Giglio credits the manner in which it goes about its daily business for creating a loyal and growing customer base, and also fostering employee loyalty and stability, noting that approximately one-third of all the current employees have been with Tempo Plastics for over 20 years. “We certainly appreciate our workers, and every year we recognize ‘years of service’ and mark the occasion with five-, 10- and 15-year celebratory pins,” Giglio points out. Tempo doesn’t just spout company rhetoric with regards to team-building—it lives it, with bi-monthly employee appreciation events both on- and off-site, with festivities that also includes employee families.

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“It’s been Tempo’s philosophy that since we work together many hours a day, and if we are going to focus on our common goals while we are here, then we want to know each other, break bread with each other, and share the good times and memories,” relates Giglio. “For us, it’s all about maintaining a positive attitude, whether it’s us all rolling up our sleeves to collaborate on a new project, or proudly wearing our Tempo T-shirts just as my father Joseph Giglio intended.” In terms of promising new areas of growth, Giglio points to the urgent imperative to reduce food waste, aided by the PAC Food Waste global initiative as a potential catalyst. Says Giglio: “We joined PAC Food Waste in its inaugural year, and have been actively participating and discussing how packaging can be a solution to positively affect the overall environmental footprint. “It’s a point of view the general public doesn’t get to hear often enough, but one that many large grocery chains are concentrating on, by starting to educate people on what is wasted throughout the supply chain,” he says. Giglio explains that some 30 percent of all the fresh produce purchased for the home ends up in the garbage, which is why Tempo feels strongly that packaging can and should play a large role in extending product shelf-life. “Even extending a product’s shelf-life by a matter of days could have a huge impact on the amount of waste that is generated overall,” Giglio asserts. “Even with all the studies that show how packaging has provided a positive impact on our food stream,” he notes, “there is still an emphasis to reduce what we can do on our side as manufactures.” “Committees like PAC NEXT have provided a platform for companies like Tempo Plastics to come to the table with all of the players such as regional MRF (material recovery facility) operators, Stewardship Ontario and brand owners to discuss solutions to the residual of our products,” Giglio notes. “This collaboration is still in the early stages, but over the past year there have been some great insights to what the rest of the world is doing about its packaging waste, and Ontario is actually a leader in North America when it comes to its recycling programs. “Flexible packaging is the fastest-growing packaging segment, and dealing with multilayer laminates is a challenge that has many potential answers,” Giglio acknowledges. “The good news is every product that Tempo Plastics Makes is fully recyclable,” he says. “The problem is figuring out the best solution to dealing with contaminated post consumer waste. “Educating the public will be key in developing an understanding as to how to properly recycle f lexibles, whether it be curbside pick-up or returnto-depot programs. We are just happy that progress is being made in making solutions for our products,” Giglio concludes. “And while I think we are on the correct path, the future looks bright to see how we can improve upon ourselves even more.”

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Tempo Plastics Limited PAC, Packaging Consortium KBA-Flexotecnica S.p.A. KBA Group Deacro Industries Preco, Inc. Flex Essentials Inc.

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AUTOMATE NOW

ALL THE RIGHT ANSWERS

The key questions to ask in selecting the right vision systems for your application BY JOHN LEWIS

ith so many vision systems available today, it can be a daunting task trying to figure out which one is right for your particular application. Simply finding a system that can perform the necessary vision tasks is not enough; there are several other factors that need to be considered to ensure a successful deployment. Whether you are new to machine vision or an experienced user, here are some of the questions you may want to keep in mind to help you through the vision system selection process:

mal performance by more powerful vision tools and can significantly improve the accuracy and robustness of the overall system. Pre-processing tools can: • Increase the contrast between the part and its background; • Mask insignificant and potentially confusing image features; • Eliminate “hot spots” reflecting off the part surface; • Smooth rough surface textures.

What is the importance of part location tools, and how can I assess their performance?

Part location software tools find the part within the camera’s field of view. This is typically the first step in any vision application—from the simplest robot pick-and-place operation to the most complex assembly verification task. It’s also the most critical step, because it often determines whether an application succeeds or fails, since you can’t inspect, measure or identify the part if you can’t find it. While it sounds simple enough, locating parts in an actual production environment can be extremely challenging. Vision systems are trained to recognize parts based on a pattern, but even the most tightly controlled manufacturing processes allow some variability in the way a part appears to the vision system. Therefore, the vision system’s part location tools must be intelligent enough to quickly, and accurately, compare trained patterns to the actual objects moving down a production line, and tolerate variations in part appearance.

Does the vision system have a complete set of image pre-processing tools?

Image pre-processing tools alter the raw image to emphasize desired features while minimizing undesirable features. This prepares the image for opti-

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

If your application involves critical dimensional measurements, the vision system’s gauging tools must be accurate and perform with a very high degree of repeatability. For high-accuracy measurements, the vision system should be able to correct the lens distortion that can affect measurements, especially in the outer areas of the image.

How do I evaluate industrial code reading tools and what are some specific features to look for?

Industrial environments demand a vision system that can read 2D Data Matrix codes that are degraded, poorly marked, or vary in position from part to part. The vision system should perform well regardless of the part material (such as metal, glass, ceramic, and plastic) and the type of part marking method employed (such as dot peen, etching, hot stamping, and inkjet). Beyond these criteria, there are several specific code reading features worth inquiring about:

Does the vision system make it easy to set up applications, create custom operator interfaces and administer vision system networks?

Setting up a vision application should not require you to be a machine vision expert. Does the setup interface walk you through all of the steps of a vision application, including setting up the acquisition settings, finding and inspecting the part and communicating the results to other devices on the factory f loor? Does it require programming knowledge, or is it a configurable system? Does the setup software make it simple to calibrate the system to work in real world units instead of pixels? As you add tools to the application, does it show you a quick view of which tools are passing and failing to help you understand how well the application is set up? Does it allow you to build a complete operator interface to allow changing tolerances or to support line changeovers?

How can I determine the repeatability of a vision system’s gauging tools?

What networking and communications features should I look for?

What should I look for in character reading and verification capabilities?

Whether you’re reading stamped alphanumeric codes on automotive parts or verifying date and lot code information on medicine bottles or packages, there are several capabilities to look for when evaluating character reading and verification tools, including: Statistical font training is the capability builds a font by learning models of characters that appear in a series of images. The images should include multiple instances of each character, and span the full range of quality likely to occur in production. The resulting font will be highly tolerant of normal variations in print quality, whether due to poor contrast, variable locations, degradations, or variations in stroke widths. Unless you know in advance that every code will be marked with the same quality seen in the reference images used to learn the character models, statistical font training can be crucial to the success of your application. • Image pre-processing tools optimize a trained model by sharpening the edge contrast of characters and filtering out extraneous background in the image. Optimized models maximize the reliability and repeatability of the vision system. • Instant image recall is a capability that enables line operators and technicians to quickly and easily view failed images on a display. Whether the failure is caused by a camera jarred out of position or a missing or damaged label, it is important to know immediately why the failure occurred so corrective action may be taken.

Networking is essential to many vision applications as a means to share data, support decision-making, and enable highly-efficient integrated processes. For example, networking enables vision systems to transmit pass/fail results to PCs for analysis, or communicate directly with PLCs, robots, and other factory automation devices in an integrated process control system. To integrate a vision system with the PLCs, robots and other automation devices in your plant, the system you choose must also support the following: • Industrial Ethernet protocols such as EtherNet/ IP, PROFINET, MC Protocol and Modbus TCP— to enable vision systems to be linked to the most popular PLCs and other devices over a single Ethernet cable, eliminating the need for complex wiring schemes and costly network gateways. • Fieldbus networks, including CC-Link, DeviceNet and PROFIBUS. A protocol gateway accessory is usually needed to add a vision system to a Fieldbus network. • RS-232 and RS-485 serial protocols, needed to communicate with most robot controllers. As more and more vision systems are used throughout the manufacturing process, the need for a centralized way of managing them becomes increasingly important. Make sure the vision system you choose comes with proper software that allows you to easily control and monitor the operation of all your vision systems remotely over the network from any location—on or off the plant f loor. John Lewis is global content marketing manager for vision products at Cognex Corporation in Natick, Ma.

For More Information: Cognex Corporation

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METAL DETECTION

A GAME-WINNING INTERCEPTION New metal detection range offers enhanced sensitivity, accuracy and cost efficiencies for bakers and cheesemakers

uilding a better mousetrap may not be quite in the same league as inventing one from scratch, but in today’s high-speed food production environments, any significant improvement in technologies used to ensure optimal food product safety is naturally welcomed with open arms. So it was not all that surprising for Steve Gidman, president of the Toronto-based metal detection systems manufacturer Fortress Technology Inc., to be facing a very welcoming and eager audience during his presentation at the PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2015 international packaging technologies exhibition earlier this fall. Held on the second day of the well-attended threeday event as part of the show’s popular, live Innovation Series product demonstrations, the Fortress presentation offered plenty of support to the notion that for many food manufacturers, metal detectors still offer a highly effective and cost-effective means of helping ensure optimal food safety and quality control on their packaging lines. According to Gidman, the company’s patient development of the new-generation Interceptor series metal detector—boasting simultaneous multiple-frequency operation for effective inspection of challenging products such as baked goods and cheese—represents a profound technological leap in the metal detection field.

Fortress Technology president Steve Gidman making his Innovation Stage presentation highlighting the performance benefits of the company’s new Interceptor series metal detector during the PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2015 trade show.

BIG STEP “It represents a step change in the technology of metal detection,” Gidman told the overf low audience of show attendees. “This introduction is equivalent to advent of digital systems in the 1990s, with even greater impact in terms of performance,” he stated. Originally developed as a custom-built one-off to help out a large baking company struggling to meet quality control specifications from a restaurant chain customer, the Interceptor metal detector extends the capabilities of traditional metal detectors, Gidman noted, but fits in the same space and offers an operator interface with a familiar look and feel. “With a difficult-to-inspect product, detecting sensitivity for stainless steel improves dramatically with the Interceptor system,” Gidman related. As Gidman explained, “Up until recently, operating frequency had to be picked to suit the product. “If it was a difficult, conductive product like meat or cheese, or a larger product, the frequency had to be set low to deal with product effect. “That made the system less sensitive to the detection of stainless steel and nonferrous metals,” Gidman pointed out. “About 15 years ago, the introduction of selectable frequency made life a little bit easier,” he acknowledged,” but the metal detector still had to be set to run at a specific frequency. “ In worst-case scenario, that would be a low, lesssensitive frequency.” The baking operatin that approached Fortress needed to inspect stacked rolls, Gidman related,and while running at a high frequency met the spec for

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The Interceptor metal detector can handle the inspection of many traditionally ‘wet’ products like meat and dairy.

The new Interceptor metal detector from Fortress provides users with simultaneous multifrequency operation.

stainless steel, it wasn’t good enough for ferrous metal detection. “So we built a system that had two frequencies for simultaneous inspection at a high and a low frequency,” Gidman said. “The high frequency could detect stainless steel,” he revealed, “while the low frequency was able to meet specs on ferrous metals. “It worked really well, with performance to spare,” Gidman related, “but it was quite expensive and difficult to build. “So we refined the concept, and the Interceptor is the result,” Gidman said, recalling the significant engineering and other challenges Fortress had to overcome to make the system more affordable for smaller-sized food manufacturers. Instead of two output frequencies, the Interceptor operates along multiple frequencies at the same time within a range of 50 K to 1 M. Gidman related, while adding more electronics and a new coil structure enabled new cost efficiencies to bring the Interceptor system’s costs to “slightly more than a standard metal detector. “However, the Interceptor metal detector provides an important advantage with challenging products

that are highly conductive or wet,” he pointed out. “The size of contaminant that’s detectable depends on the product and its size and temperature, as well as the machine’s aperture size and coil structure,” Gidman explained.

BETTER DEAL “Since detection limits are so product dependent, it’s hard to be specific, but Interceptor performance generally can improve detection levels for stainless steel by as much as 100 per cent,” Gidman proclaimed. “In addition, a built-in noise immunity structure minimizes effects from external electrical noise, thus lowering the occurrence of false rejects. “When compared to a much more expensive Xray inspection system,” Gidman concluded, “the new Interceptor costs far less, and could perform equally well for detecting stainless steel, better for lower-density metals like aluminum, and about the same as the X-Ray for ferrous contaminants.”

For More Information: Fortress Technology Inc.

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AUTOMATE NOW

A MOTIONAL RESPONSE

New breed of motion control technologies shows great promise for streamlining packaging line installation and performance BY AJAY RANA

s everyone in the industry knows, automation is the key watchword for a modern packaging line and the equipment or machinery builder who supplies it. Combined with properly trained personnel, automation provides faster, more efficient, and more costeffective production of whatever packaged product one makes, and with automation products and software becoming much more reliable and affordable all the time, the days of the purely mechanical system are numbered, if not already spent. Having a high degree of automation in your line or on your machine means faster product changeover, faster recipe adjustments, better homing of new line components after installation and enhanced troubleshooting capabilities, among many other benefits. With continuous improvement being an openended end goal for packaging automation users, here are some of the key areas currently offering the most potential for end-user’s line improvements, along with expanded capabilities for the packaging machinery manufacturers:  Decentralized drive technology, an integral part of today’s “Hybrid Cable technology,” employs a drive that is mounted directly over the motor—thereby significantly reducing the amount of required cabling, while conserving control cabinet space, cooling costs, and related energy expenses. The use of quickconnects and a common DC bus further enhance the effectiveness and field performance of the decentralized drive concept, and since there is just one cable per motor, there is no need for a separate communication cable.  The incorporation of EtherNet I/P interface into the drive to permit online communication with other brands of equipment has significant advantages in a brownfield line expansion/upgrade with legacy controls, or when new equipment utilizing various brands of motion control components is being incorporated by an end-user or system integrator. Through a regular Ethernet/IP cable connection, other communication languages can be routed to the drive system components and motion controller, thereby providing huge savings in time and capital. In short, it gives the end user and OEM a f lexibility to choose the best control components. While the heterogeneous automation software environment of the past was a significant engineering challenge and financial roadblock, which is just no longer the case today.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

 Advancements in the “Safety Wall” for packaging machine builders, whereby a safety PLC (programmable logic controller), hardware and software, plus features such as safety integrated into the drives, provide an effective double safety scenario. The days of the mandatory keyswitch lockouts and intense engineering of the line safety have given way to the fail-safe controller—with safety functions integrated on the drive—while closed loop position control of the drive remains fully active. Because required set-up functions can be performed with the protective covers and guards open, the end result is shorter downtimes, less wasted product, a higher level of productivity, and faster line startup all in a totally safe environment that effectively protects operators and machinery alike.  New-generation motion controller technology, ranging from one- to 128-axis capacity, combining motion control and a PLC functionality in one hardware package, which adds an extra advantage both in cost saving and engineering time. Because this development is emerging in tandem with enhanced communication protocols from machine-to-machine or up to a full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) network, this can result is faster construction, commissioning and line integration, while having an integrated web server inside the controller and helps perform troubleshooting—from basic to advanced.  Motor advancements, including field replaceable encoders, plug-and-play and quick-connect technology, have changed the landscape in both machine-building and line maintenance. As high-performance, energy-efficient AC servomotors—coupled with a drive component—are increasingly being offered as a package, manufacturers are making more software tools available for motor size selection, drives pairing and communications hardware options. Likewise, many servo, torque and linear motors are nowadays available with a quick identification device to make line integration a one-click operation.  Gearmotor packages are generally used for specific heavier-duty conveyor applications. The use of advanced helical bevel technology that allows lower HP motor usage, smoother starts, high torque control, operating efficiency and less energy consumption are some of the features that should be considered when specifying gearmotors. As a side-note, most manufacturers today provide downloadable CAD files for easier design integration by the builders and end-user communities to facilitate both in-plant and engineering system documentation.  Washdown motor technology is becoming an integral part of the hygienic design considerations required in the food-and-beverage sectors of the packaging and processing industries, whenever

machine components often come in direct contact with food, beverage, cosmetics, etc. Having a washdown motor with totally hygienic design adds value to the overall machine for the builders and keeps the downtime to a minimum for the end users. Currently, the IP69K standard—used for all applications where high-pressure and high-temperature washdowns are used to sanitize equipment—is getting considerable attention in this huge market segment, and it is bound to become the norm for food-processing in the near future.  Modular solution technology, whereby a single large machine with multiple sections of motion control or a full production packaging line can be run without the need for multiple CPU’s. Because modularity means f lexibility, one can engineer the solution to provide a seamless transition from a machine with all options to a machine with fewer, but job-specific options.  Remote connectivity through an integrated web server will allow complete condition monitoring and onsite troubleshooting on a packaging line, with the end-user also being able access a full library of “fixes” online. In a more complex arrangement, the machine-builder and end-user can also extract performance data to track machine uptime, component wear, maintenance strategies and other considerations in an overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) paradigm.  Global standards compliance is becoming ever more critical with more and more North Americanbased machinery and equipment builders selling overseas, with worldwide supplier presence essential to make it easier for the machine builders to get parts and competent service quickly. To be competitive on the world market, builders must be cognizant of their vendors’ international capabilities, which in turn will make it necessary for the multinational end-users to achieve the required compliance approvals from the local standards organizations.  The emergence of regenerative drives technology in the packaging world afford both builder and end-users unprecedented improvements in the areas of sustainability and energy conservation, with excess energy being used to drive other machine components or returned to the grid in a measurable manner. This “active front end” technology on the drive, coupled with more energy efficiency on the motors used, yields a definable best practice accomplishment in energy cost savings for the builder and end-user alike. Ajay Rana is industry business development manager with industrial automation controls manufacturer Siemens Industry, Inc.

WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 29

PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE SON

Fresh pasta products upstart off to a sizzling start with its unique range of low-carb, high-protein alternatives catering to the growing health-and-fitness crowd

The new folding-carton packaging for the skinnypasta brand has been well-received by major retail customers.

with an all-natural combination of durum wheat and vegetable-based proteins that easily fit into anyone’s low-carb, low-calorie eating regimen or diet. And unlike many meat substitute products out in the market, the hand-crafted pastas deliver a tasty and deeply satisfying meal experience with all the trappings of the authentic, Italian-style pasta dishes beloved my millions of North American consumers of all the major age and demographic groups. According to the company’s 25-year-old vicepresident of operations Chris Fenn, the business initially got its start about six years ago after his mother, Margot Micallef, switched to a low-carbohydrate diet—essentially making most of the pasta dishes she enjoyed all her life off limits.

SOMETHING NEW

Gabriella’s Kitchen’s vice-president of operations Chris Fenn put his last year of university studies in Vancouver on hold in order to accommodate his move to Toronto to take charge of soaring production requirements and customer demand.

here’s no better way to prove the skeptics wrong that having the hearty last laugh. And it seems only right that the good folks behind the family-owned pasta products upstart Gabriella’s Kitchen in Toronto could well be laughing all the way to the bank with their recently-launched skinnypasta line of highly innovative, breakthrough fresh pasta products. Undaunted by their ultimately rejected sales pitch a year ago to the judging panel of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC)’s top-ranked Dragons’ Den television series—inviting budding

30 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Canadian entrepreneurs to attract additional capital investment for their f ledgling business enterprises— the company’s founders pooled their resources to make their vision of freshly-made, premium lowcarb, high-protein pasta dishes not just a reality, but quite possibly a runaway commercial success. Already boasting ringing endorsements from numerous high-profile athletes—including Canada’s Olympic curling team—the skinnypasta line was specifically developed to, as the brand’s tagline states, “Love Pasta Again” by drastically reducing traditional white pasta’s high levels of carbohydrates

“Being Italian, this was very hard for her to accept, so after looking all over the market in vain to find a high-protein pasta product, she decided to make her own,” says Fenn, describing the product’s early days back at his parent’s home residence in Calgary, when the new product was marketed locally under the Hollywood Foods brand name. Largely through the word of mouth, local demand for the product “just went crazy,” Fenn recalls. “We hired a well-known Calgary chef and caterer to produce my mother’s recipe for us, and before long people at his many catering functions were besieging him with inquiries about where they could purchase this product,” he relates. “Soon thereafter, my mother took over the production side of the business and moved it to Toronto, where my aunt Gabriella took over the day-to-day operations,” Fenn relates. Tragically, Fenn’s aunt was soon after diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, which forced his mother to hire an outsider to “baby-sit” the tiny operation for time being. In 2012, the company acquired another f ledgling pasta innovator specializing in gluten-free prepared pasta meals, Toronto-based Antipastos Kitchen, thereby expanding its product portfolio to set the stage for Margot and Chris taking over the company on full-time basis in November of 2014. “Their (Antipastos) vision really matched our own company’s vision, which is to give people food that they can all enjoy together,” Fenn states. “Just because one person in the family or other group

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE

The Ross Inpack tray-sealer distributed by Reiser produces two gas-flushed, fully-sealed tray packages per cycle.

may have a dietary restriction, it doesn’t mean that person has to be served a special meal,” Fenn explains. “We want to make food that not only caters to people’s dietary needs,” he points out, “but is also so delicious that everybody in the group will enjoy it. “So it was a natural fit for both companies,” says Fenn, who had to put his last years of undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver on hold to make his move to Toronto to take on the company reins. Given the exceptionally quick embrace of the company’s products by major retailers, that last year of may have to wait a bit, as Gabriella’s Kitchen integrates the remaining Antipastos brand products out in the market into its own skinnypasta brand label. The company’s biggest retail customer Loblaws, says Fenn, is in fact expected to complete the conversion by the end of November—providing the skinnypasta brand with plenty of prime retail shelfspace in the frozen-food aisles of its supermarkets. Comprising high-protein, gluten-free and the so-

Assistant packaging team supervisor Romnie Brunacciomi, the company’s longest-serving employee, holds up a tray of finished packages, sealed on the Ross Inpack tray-sealer behind him, ready to be inserted inside the folding cartons.

called ‘superfood’ product offerings, the revamped brand family currently comprises nine different stock-keeping units (SKUs), including: • Superfood. Made from the Teff grass grain native to Ethiopia, the 200-gram skinnypasta Teff Penne pack offers two servings of a highly nutritious sidedish loaded with remarkably high calcium, iron, magnesium, and Vitamin C content, with only 230 calories per serving and zero cholesterol. • Gluten-Free. Formulated with a proprietary blend of ingredients to deliver authentic Italian taste and texture, the 300-gram entrées include skinnypasta Gnocci in Pomodoro Sauce and skinnypasta Roasted Vegetable Lasagna: both made with no gluten or wheat; no rice or corn; no additives or preservatives; and no soy, artificial f lavors or GMOs. Also offered in dairy-free options, the Gnocci entrée contains only 270 calories, while the 420-calorie lasagna entrée packs 21 grams of protein derived from fresh vegetable ingredients.

The Gluten-Free line also comprises both regular and dairy-free versions of skinnypasta Ravioli and a skinnypasta Manicotti offering. • High Protein. Made from all-natural ingredients and fortified with vegetarian protein from nonGMO (genetically-modified organism) sources, the skinnypasta Spaghetti, Linguine and Fettuccine contain no corn rice, additives or preservatives, with each 250-gram pack providing 13 grams of protein per one 63-gram serving, with only 110 calories and 75 grams of sodium per serving. The secret to achieving the products’ high-protein content, according to Fenn, lies in finding the right balance between the raw pre-mixed flour blends and the vegetables used to fortify them with protein. “Our high-protein products use the same durum wheat semolina that is used in Italy to make their pasta, except a lot less of it, which we enhance with pea and soy protein,” Fenn explains. “Because this makes the pasta a lot more delicate, it takes a lot more work to reach the desired con-

Finished trays of freshly-made skinnypasta linguini wait their turn to be inserted inside the new folding cartons.

A Gabriella’s Kitchen production team member cuts the thick layers of pasta dough produced on the Agnelli pastamaking machine into precisely-measured slabs to go inside a collator for repeated pressing into the desired thinness.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

Depending on operator speed, the Ross Inpack tray-sealer can produce from eight to 12 finished packs per minute.

WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 31

PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE “Basically, the consumer gets one-third of the carbs and three times the protein of the regular commercial pasta serving,” he states. “That’s about the same amount of protein that you would get from consuming a small steak or chicken breast. “As such, product offers a great option as a source of protein for people who don’t eat meat,” he points out, “and it’s also very safe to eat for diabetics because it does not spike up the glycemic index, being so low in carbs. “But above all, it’s a product for people who care about what they’re eating and who want to eat all-natural products,” says Fenn, citing a growing number of high-caliber, top-tiered athletes that have openly endorsed the product on the company’s Ambassador Program website page. A semi-automatic Eastey case-sealer is positioned close to the Squid Ink case-coder in order to make optimal use of Gabriella’s Kitchen’s very limited available space to take care of all the necessary secondary packaging requirements.

Model CO Pilot 382 case-coder springs into action to apply A close-up of the broad range of character sizes and fonts product barcode and other graphics onto the loaded carton. produced by Squid Ink’s model CO Pilot 382 case-coder.

sistency and firmness,” he says, noting that the thick sheets of fresh pasta dough coming out of the plant’s made-in-Italy Agnelli model A-250 pasta machine are typically f lattened and reprocessed at the operation’s pasta-making calibrator machine about 15 times to get to the ready-to-cut stage. “We think of ourselves as a hand-made mass-production operation turning out a hand-made product,” says Fenn. “It is a very labor-intensive process to feed the machine to press the dough together.” To get its dietary and nutritional message across loud and clear, the skinnypasta brand makes effective use of the text, graphics, product photography, symbols and other visual cues on all sides and panels of the litho-printed, 100-percent-recyled-content paperboard folding cartons supplied to the company’s 4,000-square-foot kitchen in west-end Toronto by a local print-shop Colour Innovations. Many of the brand’s recently-updated packages—de-

signed by a U.S.-based marketing group Doner—also feature a large front-panel cutout that lets consumers have a good look at freshly-crafted pasta packed inside a fully-recyclable black plastic tray lidded with a layer of high-barrier, transparent plastic film to obtain maximum shelf-life for the gas-flushed contents. “We get six-week product shelf-life for the refrigerated products, and up to a year in the freezer,” says Fenn, noting that any unused product can remain in edible state for up to a week in the home fridge after the package has been initially opened. “The product also expands after it’s been cooked in boiling water, so in the package nets consumers about 500 grams of finished cooked product,” says Fenn, citing ease-of-cooking as another one of the product’s appealing traits. “It cooks just like the regular pasta, but because it is never dried out, it’s ready in just one to two minutes in boiling water.

Sealed tray packages pass through a high-sensitivity quality assurance check by the plant’s S+S brand metal detection system, manufactured by Sesotec, sold by JG Packaging and installed by RJP Packaging.

32 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

TEAM SPIRIT “Guys on the Canadian curling team swear by this product,” he extols. “It is a huge vote of confidence to have guys who take care of their bodies and what they put into their bodies to endorse our product like that.” Such warm feedback has enabled Gabriella’s Kitchen to build up a fast-growing fan following not only across Canada, Fenn relates, but also in the health-and-fitness-obsessed southern California—especially among many women on low-carb diets longing for pasta’s taste and comforts. “We had run a very successful billboard and food-truck marketing campaign in the Los Angeles area, drawing enough interest to justify serving that market directly with full-truckload shipments,” Fenn relates, citing equally glowing feedback from across Canada. “We have had the product sampled at many trade-shows and stores, and the feedback that we get is just terrific, with people telling us, ‘I can’t believe this is actually good for you!’,” he relates. This overwhelmingly positive reception is already translating into surging demand for the product amongst retailers, according to Fenn, with his 20-employee staff scrambling to keep pace by running four daily shifts—two for production and two for packaging—five-days-a-week. “The growth we have achieved in the last nine months has been extraordinary,” he beams. “We have just shipped an order out west to CO-OP (Federated Co-operatives Ltd.) that equaled half of our entire production output in the previous year. “We went from simply fulfilling orders to actually building an inventory, and running our operation in a sustainable way in terms of growth,” he adds. “Our goal at the moment is to get to 15 pallets, or 14,400 units, per day, and we’re about a third of the way there. “We are constantly adding new machinery and staff members to the team,” he says, “but if demand outstrips our capacity to supply it, we may well have to add a third shift to keep up, as well as move to a bigger location.” To accommodate the growth, the company has recently installed a Ross Industries semi-automatic model Inpack tray-sealer—distributed by leading food packaging equipment supplier Reiser of Canton, MA.—to apply the top layer of highbarrier plastic film to the plastic trays containing the fresh-made pasta, two trays at a time, just after gas-f lushing them with a nitrogen/carbon-dioxide gas mixture, supplied by Air Liquide, to obtain extended product shelf-life. “It’s been a great machine for us to have,” Fenn states. “The Ross series sealers are the Mercedes of sealing machines, and although we may not yet have a top-of-the-line model that does everything

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

PACKAGING FOR SHELF-LIFE

The S+S metal detector form Sesotec plays a critical role in the plant’s quality control and food safety assurance.

automatically, this unit fits our needs perfectly for now with its exceptional reliability and seal integrity. “The people at Reiser Canada have been superb to deal with,” Fenn notes, “and we are already contemplating placing an order with them for another, more automated tray-sealer that will have an integrated conveyor to automate some of the steps.”

FLOUR POWER

NOVEMBER 2015

Moreover, Gabriella’s Kitchen has been asked by Dragons’ Den to come back onto the show for an update on the company’s progress—scheduled to air in March of 2016—with Fenn naturally expecting a very different reception this time around. Sometimes, after all, simply living and doing well is the sweetest form of revenge there is.

For More Information: Reiser (Canada) Limited Sesotec Inc. Colour Innovations Squid Ink Manufacturing, Inc. Air Liquide Canada Eastey Entterprises, Inc. Celplast Packaging Systems Ltd. Ross Industries, Inc.

480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487

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While Fenn says he’s well aware of the need to automate the production f low further down the road, he is not prepared to sacrifice the patient, authentic pasta-making process that makes the company’s product so unique. “The f lour blend comes in premixed from our supplier as specified by our special recipe every morning, and we put it into our pasta machine with other key ingredients to make the pasta dough, which comes out in thick sheets,” he explains. “After the dough is made, we put it through the calibrator machine to press it together repeatedly over and over again, up to 15 times, until we reach the desired binding ability and consistency to hold the dough together. “Only after that’s been achieved, we put the pasta into the cutter to cut it into the desired shapes,” says Fenn, adding that all the shift changes are times and synchronized so that “the machines never stop running” over the course of each work day. After the trays are sealed with the barrier film—both supplied by Celplast Packaging Systems Ltd.— they pass through an S+S brand metal detection system, manufactured by Sesotec Inc., before being inserted into the folding-cartons. “This metal detector is also a fantastic piece of machinery for us to have,” says Fenn, adding the operation is currently going through the process of obtaining formal HACCP (Hazardous Critical Control Points Analysis) food safety certification. The filled cases are then taped shut by an Eastey case-sealer and passed through the model CO Pi-

lot 382 case-coding machine, made by Squid Ink Manufacturing, for application of barcodes and all the required variable product information before being placed into the on-site freezer for storage. While the process is not going to shatter any production sped records any time soon, Fenn allows, “For the amount of product that we turn out in a facility this small, we are a pretty efficient operation.” As for the Dragons’ Den snub, Fenn says the value the exposure skinnypasta gathered with the appearance more than makes up for the panel’s cold feet. “Appearing on the show provided terrific marketing for us: our website actually crashed the day the show aired because of the all the online traffic,” he recalls. “People just could not believe there was such a thing as a low-carb, high-protein, all natural and non-GMO pasta, but we are more than happy to make them believers,” he says.

Thermo Scientific™ Versa Teorema Checkweigher US and Canada 800.227.8891 sales.packaging.us@thermofisher.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 116

PEOPLE  WAGO Corporation, Germantown, Wis.-based supplier of spring pressure connectors for industrial automation applications, has appointed Juliano Matias as national sales manager for Canada.

Matias

 Paperboard and folding-carton manufacturer PaperWorks, Inc. of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., has appointed Brandon Clairmont as senior vicepresident of packaging sales.  Athens, Ga.-based pharmaceutical products contract manufacturer and co-packer Pharma Tech Industries has appointed Matthew Milner as director of supply chain operations.  Plastic packaging films group Toray Plastics (America), Inc. of North Kingstown, R.I., has appointed Joseph Chandrl as business manager at its Lumirror Polyester Film Division business, responsible for sales activities in the U.S. southeast region.  Key Technology, Inc., Walla Walla, Wash.-based manufacturer of automated sorting, conveying and other fresh food processing systems, has appointed Randy Unterseher as senior aftermarket director for North America and the intercontinental regions, comprising Latin America, Asia Pacific and Australia/ New Zealand.  Colordyne Technologies, Brookfield, Wis.-based manufacturer of digital labeling and die-cut converting systems, has appointed Brian Connolly as vicepresident of sales and marketing.

Clairmont

Milner

Chandrl

Unterseher

Connolly

ANNOUNCEMENTS  Flexible packaging products manufacturer Bemis Company, Inc. of Oshkosh, Wis., has received the 2014 Spirit of Excellence Award from the U.S. food giant Hormel Foods Corporation in recognition of the high quality and innovation of its “transformational” packaging—including branded packaging for bestselling products like Lloyd’s barbecue ribs, Hormel REV wraps, Hormel Natural Choice deli meats, Hormel Compleats microwave meals and Jennieturkey bacon—along with outstanding sales, customer and technical support to Hormel’s manufacturing facilities. “There are only a handful of suppliers who earn this award,” says Hormel Foods corporate purchasing buyer Eric Winters. “We understand that packaging plays an important role in the company’s growth, and we are happy to recognize Bemis Company’s hard work behind the scenes and their strong partnership with our company.”  Montreal-headquartered printing, publishing and packaging group Transcontinental Inc. has completed the acquisition of Ultra Flex Packaging Corp.—Brooklyn, N.Y.-based f lexible packaging products manufacturer employing close to 300 people and generating annual revenues of about US$72 million—for an undisclosed amount. “We are very pleased to welcome the Ultra Flex Packaging team into the TC Transcontinental family,” says TC Transcontinental president and chief executive officer François Olivier. “This solid business joins our packaging division—which already comprises Capri Packaging, acquired in 2014—and it is part of our strategy to ensure our future growth path through diversification.”  German beverage production line equipment and technologies manufacturer Krones AG has recently been awarded the German Packaging Prize of the German Packaging Institute for the company’s innovative BEVkeg packaging idea in the compe-

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tition’s beverage sales package category on the eve of the recently-held FachPack 2015 exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany. (Picture Above) Developed as an all-inclusive solution in the market for nonreturnable PET (polyethylene terephthalate) beverage kegs, the BEVkeg container—supplied either as a pre-form or a compressed, pre-rolled container that significantly reduces the required amount of carbon-dioxide to f lush the assembled kegs prior to filling—is currently marketed by the Krones subsidiary KIC Krones, with the parent company supplying all the machinery and systems required for the filling, labeling and palletizing of the awardwinning BEVkeg vessels.

 Industrial conveying systems manufacturer Dorner Mfg. Corp has commenced a 25,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturing facility in Hartland, Wis., to keep up with the company’s robust growth in the past 18 months, during which it has added a second shift and hired 65 new employees. “With the addition of multiple new products, along with the increased volume in our custom solutions business, we need the extra space to accommodate our current and anticipated growth,” says Dorner president Terry Schadeberg, adding that the expansion, scheduled for completion in late 2016, will provide Dorner with over 150,000 square feet of production space.  Burlington, Ont.-based industrial measurement instrumentation and controls supplier Endress+Hauser Canada has appointed K&D Pratt Group—located in Dartmouth, N.S. and St. John’s, Nf ld.—as its exclusive sales representative for the entire Maritimes region. “Partnering with K&D Pratt Instrumentation in Atlantic Canada offers our customers improved access to our technologies, solutions and services,” says Endress+Hauser Canada’s general manager Richard Lewandowski. “Ultimately, the customers are the beneficiaries as we leverage the combined strengths of both our organizations in the Atlantic Canadian marketplace.” Adds KD Pratt president Andrew Bell: “With the business approach of Endress+Hauser being similar to ours, Endress+Hauser’s position as a global leader in measurement instrumentation, coupled with K&D Pratt’s expertise in the local market, creates a vibrant strategic alliance that meets the future growth plans of both companies.”

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

EVENTS Nov. 19-20

Oct. 4-7

Naples, Italy: Advances in the Packaging Industry 2015, international congress by GIFLEX. At Castel sell’Ovo. To register, go to: www.api2015.it

Tokyo: Tokyo Pack 2016, packaging technologies exhibition by the Japan Packaging Institute. At the Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition Center. To register, go to: www.tokyo-pack.jp/en

Nov. 19-22

Oct. 12-14

Toronto: Gourmet Food & Wine Expo. At the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. For details and tickets, go to: www.foodandwineexpo.ca

Nairobi, Kenya: East Afripack 2016, regional processing, packaging and converting technologies exhibition by Ipack-Ima Spa. At the Kenyatta International Conference Center. To register, go to: www.ipackima.it

Dec. 1-4 Shanghai, China: Labelexpo Asia 2015, regional labeling technologies exhibition by Tarsus Group Limited. At Shanghai New International Expo Centre. To register, go to: www.labelexpo-asia.com

Oct. 19-26 Düsseldorf, Germany: K 2016, inter-

national trade fair for the global plastics and rubber industries by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. At Messe Düsseldorf Fairgrounds. Contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524.

Nov. 6-9 Chicago, Ill.: PACK EXPO International 2016, international technologies exhibition by PMMI-The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Concurrently with Pharma EXPO 2016, pharmaceutical and packaging conference and trade show by ISPE (International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering). Both at McCormick Place. To register, go to: www.packexpo.com

RossIN650TraysealerAd_Produce_2015March_CP_Layout 1 4/2/15 4:47 PM Page 1

2017 May 2-6 Essen, Germany: Metpack 2017, international metal packaging exhibition and conference by Messe Essen Gmbh. At Messe Essen fairgrounds. To register, go to: www.metpack.de

May 4-10 Düsseldorf, Germany: interpack 2017, global trade fair for packaging technologies by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. At Messe Düsseldorf fairgrounds. Contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524.

Dec. 3-4 Singapore: Consumer Packaging Asia Pacific Summit 2015, by Duxes (Shanghai) Business Consulting Inc. At Goodwood Park Hotel. To register, go to: www.duxes-events.com

2016 Moscow, Russia: Upakovka/Upak Italia 2016, international trade fair for processing, packaging and printing technologies by OOO Messe Düsseldorf Moscow. Concurrently with interplastica 2016 international trade fair for plastics and rubber. Both at Centerexpo. In Canada, contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524.

Feb. 8-10 Henderson (Las Vegas), Nev.: The Packaging Conference 2016, by Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI) At The Green Valley Ranch. Contact Ron Puvak of PTI at (419) 7250-5613; or go to: www.thepackagingconference.com

Only Ross MAP packaging keeps your product looking this fresh and appetizing.

May 17-20 Mexico City: EXPO PACK México 2016, packaging technologies and materials exhibition by PMMIThe Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. At Centro Banamex. To register, go to: www.packexpo.com

May 31 - June 10 Düsseldorf, Germany: drupa 2016, global trade fair for print and crossmedia technologies and solutions by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. At Messe Düsseldorf Fairgrounds. Contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524.

Nothing keeps your product fresher than MAP packaging produced on a Ross IN inline tray sealer. n Produces MAP packages using preformed trays of almost any size or shape – easily packages your entire product line. n Consistently produces packages with reliable, high-quality seals that extend shelf-life. n Fast, highly flexible, and extremely easy to operate. n Innovative tool/storage cart allows rapid, tool-less changeovers between tray sizes in 10 minutes or less. n Stainless steel washdown construction and IP67 components. n Compact footprint allows it to fit into tight areas. n Test the Ross IN for yourself. Contact us to set up a demonstration at the Reiser Customer Center.

June 23 Toronto: The Business of Water: Canadian Water Summit 2016, by PAC, Packaging Consortium. At Hilton Toronto. Contact Lisa Abraham of PAC via email registration@watersummit.ca; or go to: www.watersummit.ca

NOVEMBER 2015

www.reiser.com Reiser Canada Burlington, ON • (905) 631-6611 Reiser Canton, MA • (781) 821-1290 2015

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CHECKOUT BY NOELLE STAPINSKY

There’s no denying it: I’m a tad eclectic. I’m a female in my mid-30s that spent 17 years as a journalist, with a special focus on the industrial sector. Today, I’m a brewer at an amazing craft brewery in Ontario’s cottage country, while still penning articles for my favorite business publications and dabbling part-time as a barber at the second-oldest barbershop in Toronto. While my occupations may make me seem tomboyish, my personal life leans heavily towards the elegant, vintage and creative. And if it’s local to boot, so much the better. By now everyone knows how craft-beer business has exploded in North America in recent years for all the right and virtuous reasons, including local material sourcing and generation of rewarding new full-time jobs in their local communities. To get there, craft breweries have not only changed the way people shop for beer and the consumer palate, but most have taken packaging design to a whole new level, as aptly illustrated by this eclectic mix of bottle labels from the Burlington, Ont.-based Collective Arts Brewing Limited. Intended to encourage consumers to custom-mix their own six-packs right at your local neighborhood LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) outlet, the hipster labels trick consumer into spending more intimate time connectiing with the brand up close—each label one boasting a reproduction of original, limited-edition artwork produced by local artists, musicians and filmmakers. Easily accessible by smart phone using the Blippar App to discover new talent, these millennial-friend-

ly labels are well matched by the taste and quality of the beer inside, which is becoming a very ‘sessionable’ and a ‘total hit’ at social gatherings, according to trusted sources. Most recently, the brewer also partnered with Toronto’s hip Indie88 radio station for its Collective Arts Black Box Sessions, where indie artists deliver intimate performances that are recorded and promoted online and on air. Bravo! With interior design and collecting antiques being two of my biggest passions in life, I always take it as a compliment when visitors to my home tell me it looks like something out of a fancy lifestyle magazine. Constantly refining my décor in a minimalist old-meets-new style, I am often brows through style magazines and follow interior design and fashion on social media, which has led to a somewhat surprising revelation that laundry machines are no longer the dreaded utilities that must, out of necessity, be tucked away out-of-sight in special rooms or spaces. With the trend to cast your laundry chores in a more flattering light, the Nellie’s All-Natural Laundry Soda brand, marketed by North Vancouver-based Batten Industries Inc., fits the theme like a glove. The intentionally ‘Old School’ tin—adorned with a surreal image of a beaming “Happy Days’ era housewife doing her favorite thing in life—cheerfully promises to set you up with enough soda to cover up 100 loads in a much more jovial way than the traditional eye-sore of a plastic jug that literally cries out to be hidden away after use, while also offering great reuse potential for other laundry-related items. Speaking of spa-like experiences, the lovely burlap bag of PLANTLIFE’s Lemongrass soap-and-scrub ensemble is the perfect fit for the soothing, spa ritual vibe I attempt to create in my master bathroom to

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX R.S. # ADVERTISER 103 Atlantic Packaging

117 Baumer hhs

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106 Regal

118 Reiser

107 Ryson

109 Columbia

115 Fortress Technology

105 Harlund Industries

110 SEW-Eurodrive

116 Thermo Scientific

clean up and refresh after a 12-hour shift hauling buckets of hops up the steep brewhouse stairs. As everyone knows, soap does not really need to be perfectly square or rounded to do the job, and the rough-cuts of all-natural soap inside the Luffa-style sack—which is actually used as a washcloth to achieve superb skin exfoliation—release a pleasant, subtle scent for a mellowing, soothing and relaxing experience befitting the product’ California origins. Considering their critical role in the overall interior décor scheme of things, light bulbs often tended to get overlooked in my home improvement purchases—at least until my recent discovery of this Edison-style electric beauty from Global Electric at a nearby Big Box store, of all places! Beautifully packaged in elegant black-and-gold boxes radiating with class and warmth, the Globe brand bulbs provide an affordable way to shed some new light on your surroundings with a very hip and trendy bit of illumination boasting a very sleek design, stylishly enhanced with rustic barn-board accents. The available variety of shapes and styles help create an astonishing ambience in any room, with the bulbs themselves often being the conversation piece now and then. Trendy it may be, but I don’t see this little crazy bulb going out of style any time soon. Noelle Stapinsky is a brewer at Muskoka Brewery Inc. in Bracebridge, Ont.

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November 2015 PRODUCT INFORMATION CIRCLE THE R.S. NO. THAT MATCHES THE NUMBER ON THE ADVERTISEMENT OR ARTICLE OF INTEREST. FAX THIS BACK TO US AT (416) 510-5140 Name Title

112 Harpak-ULMA

104 Intelligrated

113 U-Line

Address

5 108 VC999

119 Mettler Toledo

111 Multivac

Company Name

City Prov. P/Code

120 Veritiv Corporation

OBC

Telephone Fax

101 Plan Automation

IFC

36 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

102 Videojet

Email Address

CANADIAN PACKAGING • NOVEMBER 2015

Photos by Noelle Stapinsky

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