Ceepackaging

The Saarbrucken based Meyer-Hentschel Institut is investigating the effects of advanced age and how this effects purchase decisions. With vital questions to be answered for packaging providers, CEE Packaging tries out the equipment.

The South-German packaging-specialist Gaplast is one of the recipients of a DuPont Packaging Award 2008. The company’s patented Bag-in Bottle technology, for the manufacture of disinfectant bottles with a capacity of 1000 ml. and airless functionality (see picture 1), succeeded against almost 80 entries from Europe, America and Asia. According to the jury, principal reasons for its selection were the responsible deployment of resources and optimised energy usage during production. Roland Kneer, proprietor and managing director at Gaplast, along with Stephan Kneer, technical manager, accepted the award on the company’s behalf during a ceremony held at DuPont headquarters (Wilmington, Delaware, US) on 17th April 2008.

The European Commission has closed an infringement procedure against Germany relating to the deposit system for one-way drinks packaging, such as cans and plastic bottles. The Commission considers that the rules applied are now in line with the requirements concerning the free movement of goods and Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste.

In 2006 HANSA-HEEMANN AG, one of Germany's leading mineral water and soft drink suppliers, purchased a new facility in Bruchsal, 20 kms North of Karlsruhe. Sidel handled the new plant’s lines design and equipment supply providing a customized, highly innovative proposal that met the customer’s high standards for quality, efficiency and flexibility.

Since February 2008 Yücel Kulu (34) is responsible for the region South Eastern Europe and Turkey at HSM GmbH + Co. KG, German producer of office and environmental products based on the Lake of Constance.

Thor pots from RPC Containers Blackburn are contributing to the premium image of a pioneering new range of fresh chilled convenience foods recently launched in Germany by a new company, Yes Please Foods GmbH.

Exact knowledge of a product’s properties is a prerequisite for offering the customer the most optimum machine with a satisfactory packing speed. Every day the experts of the Haver & Boecker Research & Development Center use various test instruments to acquire fundamental knowledge of a product’s properties, or the product packaging to be used. The HAVER Bulk Density Tester is such an instrument.

Many German businesses that relocated to Eastern Europe are returning to Germany. In particular, small and medium-sized companies have realised that profits were not as high as expected and are finding the German business environment more attractive. The increase in German companies staying at home is adding to the flourishing of the business environment.

Rhodia Acetow, based in Freiburg, Germany, was awarded a WorldStar 2007 in November by the World Packaging Organisation for its product TOWCUBE®. This is an innovative vacuum film developed specially for packing bales of cellulose acetate, which is used in the manufacture of cigarette filters. Before receiving this accolade, TOWCUBE® had already won the German Packing Award (“Deutscher Verpackungspreis) – see www.verpackung.org – during the FachPack 2007 trade fair. This is also a cause for celebration for Kobusch-Sengewald, the packaging specialist that makes the new film exclusively for Rhodia.

During a ceremonious event in Oelde on December 18, 2007, the 5000th Haver & Boecker MEC III electronic weigher system was delivered to Dyckerhoff Cement GmbH. This jubilee electronic weigher system is part of a 2-spout INTEGRAÒ packing machine. The machine will go into operation in Neuwied, Germany and will be used for filling special binders for worldwide application in drilling technology.

‘We chose Frövi White for the print quality,’ says H&M packaging buyer Viveca Kleebinder. ‘The material’s properties enabled us to reduce grammage compared with FBB, which we have used in previous years. With this graphic design, we’re trying to communicate a feeling of luxury and flair, so print quality is essential. The whiter the cartonboard, the better the results.’

Haver & Boecker, Oelde/Germany,has won a large order from Senegal.

The German office and environmental equipment manufacturer HSM will be hosting the "HSM Europe 07" international partner conference in Athens, supported by Greek sales partners Mecanografic (office equipment) and Riak (environmental equipment). From the 14th to the 16th of November 2006, the HSM sales team and HSM's top management met over 60 partners from the European region. According to the annual rotation, which previously took the regional participants to Bangkok, Lisbon and Cairo it was now the turn of the capital of Greece. The focus was on presenting new products, new distribution and marketing strategies and swapping opinions and pooling experience.

A rail strike and snow storms marked the start of BRAU Beviale 2007 in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg (14-16 November), but this did not deter the 34,456* trade visitors (2006: 36,260*) at this year’s most important capital goods exhibition for the beverage industry. The share of international visitors rose in both percentage and absolute terms. 28 % came mainly from Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Italy and other growth markets in Central Eastern and Eastern Europe to source information about beverage raw materials, technologies, logistics and marketing from the 1,416* exhibitors (2006: 1,437*) – almost 40 % of them international.

There still are new machines that are not controlled electronically. But they are getting fewer and fewer. This is because the advantages of machines or tools operating under the mechatronical interplay of mechanics, electronics, and software are undisputed. But one thing is clear : It is just as undisputed that both the functional and organizational complexity ­ during development and implementation is increasing as well. As a member of the research project BESTVOR, Optima contributes its knowledge and expertise to improve organizational processes.

Salem – HSM GmbH + Co. KG is one of the 100 most innovative small and mediumsized companies (SMEs) in Germany according to this year's nationwide Top 100 corporate bench-marking competition. Now in its 15th year, the aim of this competition is to seek out outstanding examples of innovation management in Germany's SME sector. Lothar Späth, former state premier of Baden-Württemberg, awarded this prestigious seal of approval to HSM at an official ceremony at the Phönixhalle in Stuttgart.

From 1st December 2007, Hendrik Matischak will take over the responsibility as “Strategic Business Development Manager, International Sales” at HSM and will report directly to the Managing Director, Irene Dengler.

The German Packaging Institute (dvi), as representative for Germany in the World Packaging Organisation, can again this year convey excellent results. As Winfried Batzke, the director of the dvi, who took part in the jury meeting on October 24th 2007 in Athens, reports, a total of 13 out of the 16 German entries were awarded the WorldStar 2007.

For the first time in the company’s history, workers at Rasselstein GmbH have produced 1,500,000 tons of tinplate within a year. Only a few days before the end of the fiscal year, the final 9-ton coil taking the total over the one-and-a-half million mark left the coating line and was packaged in the new finished-parts store ready for shipment to Impress, Erftstadt.

Herrmann Ultraschalltechnik GmbH & Co. KG. has begun an extension of its headquarters in Karlsbad. This strategic investment signals the company’s clear commitment to Germany as a business location.

The central association of German packaging manufacturers (GADV) reports that 2006 was an encouraging year. Packaging production increased again considerably last year, with produc-tion volume five per cent higher at 17.6 million tonnes. Production value was up as much as almost nine per cent over the previous year at EUR 27.6 billion.

Increased safety – and in addition increased economy through the entire process chain: with these qualities an innovative closure system for pharmaceutical products totally convinced the jury for the 2007 German Packaging Award. This internationally prestigious prize was awarded to the new type of desiccant closures for tablet containers which Gerresheimer has developed under the Duma® trademark. It is the first company in the world to produce the multi-function plastic products completely in one connected process – together with the integrated desiccant elements. The result is regarded as a pioneering innovation: for the pharma industry it also facilitates fulfilment of the prescribed registration requirements.

15 years of German Federal Trainee Exchange Program: The German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) organises German-Russian Forum during the Russian Agricultural Exhibition „Golden Autumn“ in Moscow

RPC Verpackungen Kutenholz has developed a new 4 litre can for ARAL, part of the BP Group.

A recent study commissioned by the international accounting firm Ernst and Young, the "European Attractiveness Survey 2007," highlights Germany's advantages as an outstanding investment location. Investors see Germany's infrastructure, quality of research and development, workforce education, and political stability as major advantages.

The formation of the joint venture was finalised yesterday. On 20 March 2007 Gerresheimer had already announced the establishment of the joint venture with a subsidiary of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO) in the USA. The outstanding conditions, particularly approval by the antitrust authorities, have now been fulfilled.

RPC Bebo Plastik has created a bespoke multi-layer tub for a range of sausage meats from leading German meat processor Stockmeyer.

beckers bester GmbH & Co KG, Lütgenrode, Germany, now produces fruit juices and nectars in deposit-free, non-returnable PET 1-litre bottles with 38mm Plasti-Twist closure. Up to now, the familiar environmentally friendly, returnable 1-litre glass bottles were being used.

Esko, the world's leading supplier of solutions for the digital imaging of flexo plates and for pre-production workflows in the packaging industry, announces the successful implementation of a JDF-based communication solution at Leeb Folien GmbH & Co KG. Working in collaboration with Dr. Lauterbach & Partner, Esko established an online connection between Esko BackStage and the SAP ERP system. Leeb Folien has also installed Esko WebCenter, a JDF-based online approval tool. A specialist in custom film packaging based in Memmingen, Germany, Leeb Folien has been using the new communications interface since February 2007. The installation has maximized the level of automation and significantly reduced error rates in the company's prepress workflow.

Fischer & Krecke delivers their first CI flexo press designed for the WetFlex process to UV-Flex GmbH, Aichstetten, Germany. The 10-color press, a FLEXPRESS 16S model, will be commissioned in the beginning of March. WetFlex is an innovative process in which the radiation cured inks developed by Sun Chemical are applied wet-on-wet to the substrate.

The 8th Moscow International Exhibition “Pharmtech – Technologies of Pharmaceutical Industry 2006” will take place in Expocentr from the 20th to the 23rd November 2006. This is the only specialised event in Russia and CIS dedicated to pharmaceuticals production. For the first time the exhibition will be held in a new venue, modern architecture and developed infrastructure of which provide for holding events up to the highest standards.

”Intelligent and creative packaging solutions with maximum selling power” was the general consideration taken into account in judging the entries from Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart in the first German Packaging Impact Design Award (PIDA). The competition for the new generation of designers was organized by the Swedish cartonboard producer Korsnäs (earlier AssiDomän Frövi), which has supported young European designer talents for more than ten years. The winning group in PIDA Germany 2006 invented a very ingenious and innovative packaging concept for muesli named ”hängbar”, designed to fit onto a key-ring.

The 1st of October this year Hartmut F. Rößler, the sales director of Fischer & Krecke, may look back on 40 years of activity at the Bielefeld printing press manufacturer. Shortly after his entrance into the company Rößler has been charged with establishing the structure of several agency offices for Northern Germany. Later further sales areas have been added and for more than 25 years he has led the complete sales department. Rößler quickly realized the move to globalization and the associated necessity to open new markets on all continents for the company’s future security. In this process beside a strong crew in sales department a world-wide agency network, in whose development he has been considerably involved his ability to spot market trends at an early stage provided assistance in establishing corporate direction.

About 2 % of the product value in Germany is attributed to the packaging. The worldwide production volume of packaging supplies and machinery is estimated at some 400 billion EUR. Almost every third packaging machine sold comes from Germany. With a production volume of around 4.2 billion EUR, this segment of the German mechanical engineering industry occupies first place ahead of the USA, Japan and Italy. The packaging manufacturers also occupy a leading position in the world market. The industry shows the innovations that have made it the world leader at FachPack+PrintPack+LogIntern 2006 in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 26-28 September. A good 1,200 exhibitors (2004: 1,157), who expect over 30,000 visitors (2004: 29,260), will ensure a convincing show.