The annual ARC Automation Forum isn’t supposed to be about packaging. But with automation at the very heart of improving packaging performance, this has become an increasingly important event for packagers to attend.

In a recent conversation with Doug Gray, engineering project manager at Coors, on the subject of automation technology, a number of issues and concerns about packaging machinery automation and integration surfaced.

Make2Pack, which aims to tightly integrate processing and packaging automation, gets P&G’s strong backing.

PFM Packaging Machinery (PELV booth C-826) will introduce its new Scirocco Flow Packer with Vision System Robot, configured for pharmaceutical packaging. The solution includes a cross-sealing system that increases the Scirocco’s speed to 200 ppm by optimizing sealing temperature, pressure and dwell to maximize the sealing portion of a cycle.

PFM Packaging Machinery has introduced its new Scirocco Flow Packer with Vision System Robot, configured for pharmaceutical packaging. The solution includes a cross-sealing system that increases the Scirocco’s speed to 200 ppm by optimizing sealing temperature, pressure and dwell to maximize the sealing portion of a cycle.

Skip Holmes is a corporate automation leader at Procter & Gamble. Here are his thoughts on deriving business value from technology.

Sentry’s new family of tray, pad, case packing and film overwrapping machines is the first designed in the U.S. around the OMAC Packaging Guidelines. Sentry's strategy is to leverage the latest servo technology to offer American-made Gen3 modularity, flexibility and performance that was previously available only from European OEMs.