Illig LP

One wouldn’t expect a Colombian packaging giant to come to Virginia for a cup of coffee, but that’s sort of what happened.

Continuous in-line packaging systems headed up the K 2010 thermoforming news as suppliers launched a range of roll-fed systems with greater capacity, more flexibility, and improved automation.

At K 2010, thermoformers will be greeted by numerous advances in inline machines for packaging.

When you’re a successful injection molder with more than 40 years under your belt and more than 50 presses producing 1.8 billion containers and lids for food-packaging containers annually, what do you do when you feel the time is right to expand?

There will be fewer thermoforming machines on display at NPE 2003 than at many recent NPEs.

NPE had its share of innovations in thermoforming, notably a new machine that opens the small-bottle market to thermoformers. New trim stations offer more in the way of output and versatility. And more machines are now outfitted with off-the-shelf controls to facilitate servicing. A line of formers from Australia also arrived in the U.S. (Note: additional NPE thermoforming news appeared in May and June—see Learn More box.)

For thermoforming of both heavy-gauge sheet and thin-gauge packaging, the show will present new machines with unusual flexibility, able to form a wide variety of products and materials.

A new roll-fed pressure former from Germany’s Illig Maschinenbau (U.S. office in Marietta, Ga.) is intended to compete with blow molding for food and drink bottles.

There was plenty of news in thermoforming at K 2007 as suppliers rolled out continuous roll-fed packaging systems with greater output, enhanced cooling, reduced air consumption, and more automation.

Continuous in-line packaging systems will be the main emphasis in thermoforming at K 2007.

After several fits and starts over the last decade, thermoforming IML appears ready for prime time, thanks to improvements in output and labeling technology. For now, the action is mostly in European packaging.

Like many other NPE exhibitors, thermoforming equipment suppliers are taking less machinery to this year’s Chicago event.

A twin-sheet thermoformed pallet uses PP foam as a plug assist that becomes the lightweight structural core.

Thermoforming innovations at K 2004 include several new trim-in-place units for packaging, the first in-line packaging system with an infrared scanner that automatically adjusts oven temperatures. and improved halogen heating that works better with preprinted sheet.High-speed packagingIllig of Germany will introduce the RDK 80, a high-speed automatic trim-in-place pressure former whose advanced servomotor control is said to allow very precise setting of variable platen strokes and speeds.