Sabri Demirel has just been appointed new managing director of Romaco North America. He succeeds Charles Ravalli, who retired in April 2019. 

EndFlex introduces its new all in one carton loading system called the Kartnr, a compact system that automatically forms, loads and closes a wide range of carton sizes at rates of up to 60 per minute.

The system, by AFA Systems, also has the option to run both glue and tape closures, offering the ultimate flexibility when responding to market demands.

The Corrugated Packaging Alliance recently released a new life cycle assessment of packaging for eight common produce commodities, which shows neither corrugated containers nor reusable plastic containers have an advantage in all environmental impact categories.

While the growth in online purchasing drives changes from product design, to package changes, picking, fulfilling and shipping, product protection stands alone as the main issue, according to the E-Commerce: Think Inside the Box report by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies.

Mpac Langen (Mpac) has launched a cartoner rental program that offers North American contract packaging companies a way to increase their productivity and agility.

Could you afford to lose 31.2 million working days? According to The Labor Force Survey, this figure illustrates the volume of unplanned worker absence due to non-fatal workplace injuries. Industry leader in apparel distribution, Ralawise, believes automation could be the solution.

Piab has introduced piLIFT SMART, a more energy-efficient, quieter, ergonomic vacuum lifter that uses the same principles of physics as all vacuum lifters and is the market’s first Industry 4.0-ready vacuum lifter. 

The ability to custom design corrugated packaging for specific use underlies its versatility and performance in a wide variety of product and distribution scenarios. To design and engineer an efficient and cost-effective package, it is important to understand the package performance requirements of the environment.

Packaging is constantly changing, and to keep up with consumer and retail/CPG demand, we have to look at the future as "now." Thinking ahead in order to make trend predictions and how machines and materials can be used is one way to help stay ahead in the ever-changing market.