Industry News Packaging Innovations Birmingham and M&S join forces


Packaging Innovations Birmingham 2020, which brings the whole packaging industry together under one roof, from design, marketing and branding, through to engineering and logistics, returns to Birmingham’s NEC on 26 & 27 February. The two-day event returns at a time when concern around climate change has piqued, with the focus shifting from plastics scrutiny to looking at overall carbon emissions. With this in mind, the show is once again searching for cutting-edge sustainable packaging solutions to take part in its hotly anticipated Ecopack Challenge, which will run in collaboration with Marks & Spencer. The competition offers companies that are creating innovative and environmentally responsible


products the chance to develop an idea with Marks & Spencer, as well as being crowned sustainable champions. The Dragons’ Den style session will see six shortlisted companies pitch their idea to an expert industry panel, as well as a voting audience. The shortlisted entries will also be assessed by the OPRL PREP tool, which analyses whether consumers can readily recycle a product.


Entry to the challenge is open to anyone in the market, and not confined to those exhibiting at the show. Sustainable products from any category are invited


to enter, from materials, software and structural design, through to logistics and more. The deadline for all Ecopack Challenge entries is Friday 31st January and submissions can be completed by filling out the online application form. All entries must be unique and have clear intellectual property rights. The design can be in the form of a concept or a prototype and should be covered by


copyright or design right as the 'pitch' to the judges will be in public forum. Packaging Innovations Birmingham 2020 takes place at the NEC, on the 26th and 27th February.


Report shows importance of sustainable packaging in tackling food waste


Closed-loop integrated motors mean faster, more reliable operations


Applied Motion Products offers StepSERVO Closed-Loop Integrated Motors that offer closed-loop servo control of position, velocity and torque resulting in higher acceleration rates and faster machine cycles in paper and converting applications. Combining a high-torque step motor with an onboard drive, encoder, controller and closed-loop servo software into a single package, the integrated motors also save on space, wiring, and cost over conventional systems comprised of separate motor and drive components. Using encoder feedback, closed-loop step motor systems automatically reduce current to the


Metsä Board has published a web-based impact report to demonstrate the importance of sustainable packaging. Metsä Board created the report with experts at AskKauko, a Finnish software start-up developing next-generation impact communications. The important role of packaging in protecting food


during transport, in stores and in homes is highlighted by the impact of food waste, a serious environmental issue that accounts for almost 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In the impact report, current statistics and information on packaging materials are supported by sliders and calculators, which encourage users to explore further how packaging material choices, for example switching from plastic to paperboard packaging, can result in positive environmental effect. Sari Pajari, SVP sales and marketing at Metsä Board said,


“We want to make sustainability topics and facts about the role of packaging more accessible to a wide audience. The report provides an interesting way to present facts.”


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motor when torque is no longer demanded by the load to consume less power than a traditional step motor system. StepSERVO Integrated Motors also operate cooler and more quietly than open- loop step motors by drawing just enough current to control the load. The ability to execute stored programs created with Applied Motion’s Q Programming language enables users to apply complicated logic and motion sequences to solve motion control challenges. For example, in a positioning application in a paper converting plant, operators can use multiple digital inputs on the integrated motor to select from a recipe of target positions stored in the motor’s non-volatile memory. The digital inputs are multiplexed to further increase the number of available recipe positions, which are automatically selected per job by the master controller of the converting line. Applied Motion offers its StepSERVO Integrated Motors in IP65 rated versions for wet and dusty environments. Units are available with industrial network communications including EtherNet/IP, Modbus and CANopen, as well as support for third-party PLCs and HMIs.


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