When making the choice between premade pouches and form-fill-seal, OEMs should consider factors like run speed, changeovers and flexibility of package sizes handled, according to the 2019 Flexible Packaging Assessment by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies.

The packaging machinery market is seeing an uptick in demand for rental machinery. There are three key drivers of this trend: flexibility, cost and return on investment. Continuously evolving consumer demands and the explosion of SKUs means that flexibility is paramount, particularly in the food and beverage markets.

OMAC and OPC Foundation jointly released a PackML OPC UA Companion Specification in 2018 — a nearly two-year effort to standardize how PackML information should be modeled in OPC UA. Since its release, technical solution providers have started to create real implementations of the specification.

PACK EXPO Las Vegas and the co-located Healthcare Packaging EXPO, presented by PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, takes place Sept 23-25. The event will cover 900,000 net sq. ft. of exhibit space, with 2,000 exhibitors and 30,000 attendees from nearly every market.

There is always a need to increase production in automation applications. Sometimes achieving improvements requires breaking the process down to its fundamental basics.

Trends are funny. Some trends seem to quickly grab the attention of the public, only to fizzle out after the launch of the next trend. In retail, this is most notable with the latest kids’ toy — as soon as the holidays have passed so has the hype.

If you are regular reader of this column, you are likely aware of the competitive advantages provided by PackML in August’s “Get Ready for IIoT: 5 Reasons to Implement PackML Now.” Your company may even be planning to implement PackML. So where do you start?

Take a look to see how cobots are helping to create more efficient enterprises. Understand the difference between the new generations of collaborative robots and earlier industrial robots. See how robots that mimic human actions offer flexibility and easy programming.