Packaging makes the difference between a consumer spotting your product on the shelf and passing by. Automation makes innovative packaging practical. That was the message at drinktec in Munich.

For example, servo technology is being used to orient beverage containers for uniform labeling at high speeds. The same technology can also be used to orient bottles label-forward for multipacks that stand out from the competition.

The shift to plastic bottles is driving the 6% North American growth rate in beverage packaging machinery sales. This trend is reflected in the acquisition by Angelus Sanitary Can, the world leader in can seaming, of Arol, a leading maker of advanced bottle cappers. (A PacDrive-equipped Arol Equatorque servo capper was showcased at ELAU’s drinktec booth.)

The fresh taste of aseptically packaged beverages continues to drive exceptional growth in Europe, Asia and increasingly in the Americas. For this reason, world leader Krones has already installed many PacDrive-equipped aseptic servo cappers at beverage producers.

The efficiency, changeover flexibility and reliability of all these new servo designs allow beverage producers to profitably supply the proliferation of SKU’s created by the supply chain, by product segmentation and globalization.

So perhaps without realizing it, the engineers visiting drinktec walked away with a new set of marketing tools for their companies.