A new world record for industrial robot production

Via The Converting Guide, Europe announced it has a worldwide installed base of over 400,000 industrial robots, a new world record for the industry.

The recent drivers behind reaching this major milestone have been the popularity of the FANUC R-2000i Series, LR Mate series, and the CR-35iA, collaborative green robot. The FANUC R-2000i and LR Mate series are the company’s highest selling robots, while the collaborative robot has attracted new attention of customers.

Collaborative robots brought a variety of benefits to the manufacturing plant floor including improved employee welfare and increased cost savings.

At the same time, demand from manufacturers in China to transform their factories with new and emerging technologies has fueled production for industrial robots, and has played a major role in the doubling of FANUC production over the last seven years.

Head of Marketing and Sales Coordination of FANUC Europe, Konrad Grohs said: “Toda’s milestone underlines our position as the world’s leading global provider of factory automation and industrial robotics. We’re incredibly proud to have broken the world record and we believe this is testament to FANUC’s longstanding commitment to innovation, and continually pushing the boundaries of automation to increase productivity.

“Over the coming years, we will build on our rapid growth to help even more manufacturers across the world take advantage of the benefits that robotics and automation bring to their businesses. We believe that benefits of factory automation and robotisation will be better recognized also in European plants and will further increase the competitiveness of European industry.”

Original Source: Materials Handling & Logistics

Convertech President Advocates for Educational Programs, Apprenticeships for Machinists

Machinists at Convertech in Wharton, NJ.

As reported by New Jersey Business Magazine, Convertech president Larry Taitel continues to lead the charge for better educational opportunities in the area of manufacturing. Taitel, who was recently invited to join Board of Advisors for Eastwick College and the Hohokus Schools in New Jersey, delivered the keynote speech to the board. He emphasized the importance of increasing hands-on class time hours and manual machining basics for the school’s curriculum; of increasing the number of opportunities that students have in New Jersey for early manufacturing classroom experiences; and for the vital need for traditional four-year machinist apprenticeships that begin at the high school level.

Taitel’s company, which has manufactured products for the printing, labeling and packaging industry for nearly four decades, has hired a number of Eastwick graduates. “The basic skills these students acquired made all the difference in our hiring decisions,” he said. “It’s obvious how much they learned at Eastwick. But we’d like to see Eastwick offer even longer and additional programs. We believe the State has done a great disservice to young students by not even proposing machining as an option. Guidance counselors don’t even mention machining as a possibility and far too many schools have dropped their metal shops and votech programs. We see the results: It has hurt manufacturers and hurt students who, when they are not academically inclined, end up in service jobs, flipping burgers and stocking shelves, instead of acquiring skills that can serve them for life, and careers with few layoffs. It’s time to change that.”

Taitel is currently reaching out to NJ State elected officials to seek their support in bringing manufacturing curriculum back to public schools, and he urges his fellow manufacturers in New Jersey and throughout the country to do the same. “There are more than 10,000 manufacturers in the State of New Jersey alone who have been hurt by our schools dropping metal shop,” he said. “If a fraction of them would come forward and contact their elected officials, this would make a huge impact.”

Not sure who your elected officials are in New Jersey? Visit: Who is my elected official?

About Convertech: Since 1978, Convertech has designed, manufactured and delivered the industry’s highest-quality air shafts and chucks. All products are custom built at Convertech’s 40,000-sq.-ft. facility in Wharton, New Jersey where they are then quality tested before being delivered.

Plastic bottle recycling in U.S. tops 3 billion pounds

Packaging World reports that plastic bottle recycling grew 97 million pounds in 2014, increasing 3.3%, to top 3 billion pounds for the year, according to figures released jointly today by the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC). The recycling rate for plastic bottles climbed 1.0% to 31.8% for the year.

The 25th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report marks the 25th consecutive year that Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling since the survey began in 1990.

Trends highlighted in the report include: The 25th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report marks the 25th consecutive year that Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling since the survey began in 1990.

Single-stream collection of household recyclables continues to grow, resulting in higher participation rates Use of plastic bottles in packaging applications is expanding but offset by continued lightweighting and increased use of concentrates with smaller, lighter bottles Lack of access to away-from-home recycling continues to be a barrier to increased collection During 2014, the collection of high-density polyethylene (HDPE, #2) bottles—a category that includes milk jugs and bottles for household cleaners and detergents—rose to nearly 1.1 billion pounds, a gain of over 62 million pounds from 2013.The recycling rate for HDPE bottles rose to 33.6%. The 25th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report marks the 25th consecutive year that Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling since the survey began in 1990.

A higher percentage of all post-consumer plastic bottle material was processed by domestic reclaimers in 2014. Exports of all post-consumer plastic bottles rose slightly (in pounds) but fell to the lowest percentage of exports in six years (21.9%) as the amount of bottles collected increased faster than did exports, according to the report. The drop in exports may reflect the strength of the U.S. dollar and growth in domestic reclamation capacity. The 25th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report marks the 25th consecutive year that Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling since the survey began in 1990.

U.S. reclamation capacity for HDPE increased to its highest level ever in 2014. Exports of HDPE bottles rose from 15.6% to 19.7% (218 million pounds) of domestically collected material, and domestic reclaimers processed approximately 951 million pounds of HDPE bottles in 2014. The 25th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report marks the 25th consecutive year that Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling since the survey began in 1990.

“The message to American consumers is that plastic bottles are valuable resources even after they’ve been used,” says Steve Alexander, Executive Director of APR. “Americans generated an estimated $730 million in recycled plastic bottles in 2014. The simple act of recycling helps generate local revenue, supports recycling jobs, and enables us to continue to benefit from these useful resources.” The 25th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report marks the 25th consecutive year that Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling since the survey began in 1990.

Adds Steve Russell, Vice President of Plastics for the ACC, “This report clearly illustrates 25 years of year-over-year growth in recycling plastic bottles. Plastics help reduce energy use and conserve resources—and after use, these efficient products and packages are increasingly valued as recycled materials. We’re confident that plastics recycling will continue to grow, and we will continue working to accelerate that growth.” The 25th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report marks the 25th consecutive year that Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling since the survey began in 1990.

This year’s survey also found that the collection of polypropylene (PP, #5) bottles jumped 28.3% for the year to reach 79.5 million pounds, as the collection rate sprang to 44.9%. Domestic processing of post-consumer PP bottles grew to 65.3 million pounds.PP bottles deliberately recycled as PP (instead of blended with HDPE) rose from 44.2 million pounds in 2013 to 45.6 million pounds in 2014.

Why Do You Need a Dancer Controller with Tension Indication?

Courtesy of Montalvo:

Processes that require rapid acceleration and/or deceleration, or processes that may deal with out of round rolls, all benefit from utilizing a dancer due to their web storage capabilities. A well designed dancer system with a quality dancer controller is an excellent method of managing web tension.

However, no dancer system can tell you what your actual web tension is. The tension can be inferred, but without load cells providing direct web tension measurement from your material, actual tension will not be known. For some processes this is perfectly ok, as the dancer and dancer controller will provide sufficient tension control. But for processes requiring even greater process consistency, whether from run to run, or shift to shift, or if a range of materials are run on this same machine with varying tension requirements, or you simply require a greater level of precision and accuracy in your control, web tension measurement utilizing load cells is the way to go.

Some tension control suppliers will say it needs to be an either or decision, load cells or a dancer, as they do not offer a dancer controller that can capitalize on and utilize load cells or vice versa. Montalvo says you should, and can, have the best of both worlds.

A dancer controller that features inputs for load cells can provide actual tension measurement indication for operators, allowing them to ensure precise tension and process consistency while still taking advantage of all the benefits a dancer system can provide.

The Z4-UI Dancer Controller with Tension Indication also opens the door for even greater process and operator flexibility, consistency and precision through the addition of an I-P Converter to manage the dancer load, which gives your dancer system setpoint control capability.

To learn more about Dancer Control with Tension Indication, please visit the Z4-UI Product Page.

Building Workers for Manufacturing Jobs

by Larry Taitel

The mounting need for workers capable of stepping into manufacturing jobs has prompted the State of NJ to get involved in an effort to benefit both manufacturers and potential employees. This has the potential for long-term benefits for all of us who depend not only upon the health of our own manufacturing businesses but also the growth of industry in New Jersey.

The New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development (LWD) and New Jersey’s Talent Networks are partnering in support of one of LWD’s highest priority projects: creation of a statewide Demand Credential List (DCL). Toward that end, I recently attended a “Credentials Roundtable meeting” where employers watched a presentation and then participated in discussions with regard to employee credentials for advanced manufacturing. It’s hoped that the feedback from these discussions will help the Labor Market Analysts design questions for a broader online survey that will further prompt numerous other companies in our state to provide additional input.

At the meeting, one of my colleagues who was presenting opined that most companies which are seeking candidates for manufacturing jobs are less focused on credentials than on attitude and competence. He stressed that most of us are looking for good and reliable people who can be trained in our respective companies’ specific processes. For the most part, I concur.

At Convertech, with more than three decades in manufacturing for the converting, printing and packaging industries, we have learned that the best machinists begin with basic skills. The other two main criteria are a desire to learn and reliability (as Woody Allan once observed, 80% of life is just showing up). Of course, job compatibility and actual job expectations must be measured in, too, but these factors should begin, for potential employees, at the education level.

There’s a clear need for manual experience before individuals can begin moving on to automated machinery. Despite the fact that we’ve entered the Computer Age, where CAD and programming have hastened and refined manual processes, manufacturing requires workers to walk before they can run. In short, we need to develop basics skills training in the area of machinists, tool and die, metal lathe, and so forth. These are the fundamentals that manufacturers require. Further, we need to develop training of core competencies and credentials.

One program that I believe would be enormously beneficial is a four-year apprenticeship program. This should start as early as 10th grade and conclude at the State College or County College level. Such a program would allow actual employers to offer genuine hands-on training to potential employees. Imagine what a serious win-win this could be for everyone involved as we begin to build workers for manufacturing jobs!

Can apprenticeship programs be enacted with college credits earned so parents can see an actual educational path (read: college path) for their children? Yes.

I, for one, don’t believe college is appropriate for everyone. But to satisfy the ingrained notions many hold that college is indeed mandatory in this day and age, adding real-world skills to early academic training might prove eye-opening to both parents and students alike. Indeed, it may signal to many young people that a potential career in manufacturing—where jobs are currently a plenty—may hold superior and more desirable prospects than that desired career in another industry where jobs are few and, quite possibly, less satisfying.

Larry Taitel is president of Convertech Inc. (Convertech.com)

Grateful acknowledgements to Mark Spaulding at Converting Quarterly for originally printing this op-ed.

Bioplastics Market Growing at 14.8%

The global market for bioplastics will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 14.8% to become a $30.8 billion market by 2020, according to a new report, “World Bioplastics Market Opportunities and Forecast, 2014-2020,” from market intelligence company Allied Market Research.

According to the report, among the key factors propelling this growth are the rising environmental awareness among consumers and what it describes as the “substantial curiosity of packaging industries towards biodegradability,” which is responsible for the increasing adoption of bioplastics in rigid packaging applications. In fact, rigid plastic packaging applications are forecast to account for more than 40% of the market revenue by 2020.

Bioplastics are plastics derived from biomass: renewable feedstocks, such as corn, sugarcane and cellulose to name but a few. Not only is there a wide availability of renewable feedstocks, part of what is boosting the market across the globe is the fact that biobased plastics feature a smaller carbon footprint compared to fossil-based materials, allowing users to meet their sustainability goals more easily. On the negative side are the high production costs of bioplastics, which make them more costly to use. This so-called ‘green premium’ may well dampen market growth during the forecast period.

The consumption of “drop-in” bioplastics (Bio-PE, Bio-PET 30, Bio-PA) and others, says the report, will continue to dominate the overall bioplastics market through 2020. Drop-in bioplastics are non-biodegradable materials, derived from renewable raw materials offering identical technical properties to their fossil counterparts (PE, PET and PA, among others).

According to this study, Bio-PET 30 will be the fastest growing segment in the non-biodegradable drop-in market, as it delivers same performance as conventional PET with regard to re-sealability, versatility, durability, appearance, weight and recyclability.

Asia Pacific is predicted to become the fastest growing consumer during the forecast period. In terms of revenue and volume, polylactic acid (PLA) is projected to be the fastest growing segment in the overall biodegradable plastics market.

Supply Chain Outlook: Where Will 2016 Take Us?

Here's a good piece via Modern Material Handling by Bob Trebilcock:

Last week, I spent Monday and Tuesday at the Rosemont Hilton in Chicago with 100 or so senior supply chain executives, presenters and exhibitors at the first Supply Chain Outlook Summit. As a rule, I write a column with takeaways from each event I attend. What makes this one a little different is that, well, I hosted the event for Peerless Media and Supply Chain Management Review. I promise I won’t brag about how good the moderator was – after all, you may have attended and have seen me in action. 

The theme for the conference was The Future Of Supply Chain Management: What You Need To Know For 2016 And Beyond. We represented each of the functional areas of the supply chain, from procurement to final goods distribution, along with a look at the economy, technology, sustainability, and culture. Each of the presenters gave an overview of where they think their slice of the supply chain is headed next year. I don’t have room to write about them all here, but I think there were several key takeaways.

One is that the US economy is in better shape than we might think. That was the message from Brian Beaulieu, an economist and the CEO of ITR Economics. While it’s true that the economy is hardly ablaze, Beaulieu expects slow but continued growth for the next several years; more importantly, he sees the US leading the world economy. As to the next recession, expect it to be short-lived and mild. Which isn’t to say that Beaulieu sees Blue Skies into infinity: He expects significant issues late in the next decade as the country deals with the full impact of the baby boomers on Social Security and Medicare. One message he drove home that caught my attention is that for all the emphasis we place on China, the US still commands 22.5% of the world’s GDP, compared to 13.4% for China. That’s a lead Beaulieu does not foresee dramatically changing in the near future. 

Much has been written about the impact of e-commerce and the driver shortage on transportation costs. While those are true, Chainalytics’ Kevin Zweier reminded us that this is an age-old story. He shared a quote from the 2011 CSCMP State of Logistics Report: “Practically every truck manufacturer and nearly all employers complain of the great difficulty of securing drivers who are competent and who will work handling freight …” The twist? It was originally published in the publication Traffic World in 1916. So, while there may be nothing new under the sun, shippers will still face challenges next year, including rate increases from 3% for truckload and less-than-truckload shipments to 5% for parcel shipments. Expect continued downward pressure on ocean freight rates due to over-capacity.

Similarly, much has been written about the reshoring of manufacturing from low-cost countries like China back to Mexico and North America. The phenomenon is real, Rosemary Coates, executive director of the Reshoring Institute, told us. At the same time, Coates offered several pieces of sobering advice. For one, leaving China is not as simple as packing up your equipment and turning out the lights. You may have to buy out employee contracts; leave equipment, technology, molds, and other IP behind that will probably be used to compete against you; and once you set up shop in North America, you may find that your supply base is still off-shore, along with the skilled workers you need to operate your new plant. 

My last takeaway was how well many of the points made by presenters aligned with the challenges being faced by a panel of three Chicagoland supply chain executives. The roundtable was led by John Caltagirone, executive director of the Supply and Value Chain Center and Loyola University Chicago, and featured Tim Engstrom, VP Supply Chain Operations for Walgreen’s; Craig Espevik, Vice President, Operations for Yaskawa America, Inc.; and Fabio Pettenati, Vice President Supply Chain for Barilla America Inc. 

Each was grappling with different challenges – Engstrom discussed Walgreen’s approach to finding and developing new talent for its warehouses along with efforts to reduce packaging; Espevik explained how Yaskawa is managing manufacturing operations on a global basis; and Pettenati described what its like for a food producer dealing with volatile commodity prices. More importantly, each illustrated the importance that supply chain management is playing in the strategies their companies are undertaking to continue to lead in their industries. 

I, for one, left with a sense that it’s an exciting time to be in our industry. I’m looking forward to the future of supply chain management in 2016 and beyond.

Wanted: Manufacturing Machine Operator / Manual Lathe Machinist

Job Description: Convertech, a leading manufacturer of expanding shafts and chucks, is looking for experienced Manufacturing Machine Operators. Your experience running a manual lathe will make you a perfect fit for this Manual Lathe Machinist role. At Convertech, we produce a very custom product with very short lead teams and run a clean modern shop. If you are looking for an opportunity where you can grow your career with a dynamic company with great hours and low turnover rates, we want to talk to you!

Job Responsibilities: In the Manufacturing Machine Operator role, as a Manual Lathe Machinist, you will be responsible for setting up and operating a variety of manufacturing machine tools to produce precision parts and instruments. Additional responsibilities of the Manufacturing Machine Operator role include: • Setting up and operating manufacturing machines, such as lathes, cutters, shears, millers, presses, drills, etc., to make metallic and plastic work pieces

• Reading blueprints or job orders to determine product specifications and tooling instructions

• Measuring dimensions of finished work pieces to ensure conformance to specifications, using precision measuring instruments, templates, and fixtures

Job Requirements: Successful candidates for the Manufacturing Machine Operator must have manual lathe experience in a manufacturing environment. Someone with a strong attention to detail, a good attitude, and an eagerness to learn and grow would be a good fit for this role. Additional requirements of this Manufacturing Machine Operator role include:

• 7 – 10 years’ experience in a fast-paced manufacturing environment, running a manual lathe

Benefits: At Convertech, we are always looking for experienced people to join our dedicated team. We encourage a strong team environment and friendly atmosphere with great working hours! As a Manufacturing Machine Operator, you will work from 7:00 AM – 3:30 PM and will be eligible to receive a benefits package, including:

• Health insurance

• 401(k) retirement plan

• Profit Sharing

• Pension

• Generous vacation and sick time

Contact: admin@convertech.com

Recycling Reconsidered

Here's an interesting article from Eco-Insights blogger Robert Lilienfeld:

Recycling is not a new phenomenon. From the Sumerians who built the first-ever cities 4,000 years ago to modern Europe and America, virtually every civilization that has ever existed has tried recycling as a way to save its resources, and ultimately itself, from disappearing.

But it hasn’t worked once. Perversely, the reason is not because people didn’t try hard enough. The fact is, they tried too hard! By focusing so heavily on recycling and not on the primary reasons that resource availability and environmental problems arose in the first place, societies have consistently missed the real opportunities to sustain natural resources and thus their own human and financial resources.

So, let’s be honest. Recycling, for all its benefits, will never by itself prevent or remediate major environmental concerns such as climate change, habitat destruction, and loss of biodiversity. It is simply the icing on a very large, very thick, and very heavy, cake.

By the way, both the EPA through its Sustainable Materials Management program, and the G-7 in its latest Leadership Recommendations, all agree with this assessment.

What we really need to see is political dialogue relating to population growth and the concurrent increase and changes in consumption patterns. Thus, those of us in the packaging value chain must work harder to reverse the popular notion that a better environment starts with less packaging waste.

We also need to demonstrate that packaging’s critical role is to prevent waste of the far greater resources used to produce, transport and store the food and other goods contained within.

Again, recycling the packaging is merely the icing on the resource conservation/waste prevention cake.

Develop Custom Robotic Picking Applications

MotoPick™ is a user-friendly, highly advanced software package that allows for the development of machine vision-based, high-speed picking solutions. This powerful software can synchronize multiple robots equipped with vision to pick fast moving product off a conveyor and place it on an outfeed device, tray or box in an organized arrangement. MotoPick provides building blocks to create optimal solutions for up to ten robots and eleven conveyors. It also offers pattern-based distribution of product and dynamic load balancing among multiple robots.

MotoPick provides precise control and coordination of infeed and outfeed conveyors. If the advancement of either the infeed or outfeed conveyor falls behind, the speed of the opposite conveyor can be automatically decreased and even stopped until the operation is equalized.

Multiple cameras are available based on conveyor width, workpiece size, target accuracy, production volume and conveyor speed. MotoPick is designed to function with minimal additional hardware requirements.

Dog food packaging gets more personable

Here's an interesting article by Rick Lingle from Packaging Design:

Just Right by Purina’s custom dog food blend launched last year enhances the label on the bag packaging to make it even more personal—and more fetching for pet owners.

The pet food market is trotting along at a 3% CAGR for the period 2014-2019, according to a new report, which also points out that “the increase in pet humanization has led to growth in premium products, and clients are asking for customized and premium packaging solutions from vendors, which is positively affecting the sales in the market.”

Perfectly reflecting that trend is Just Right by Purina dog food that was launched last year (see Dog food gets personal with custom packaging published last October). As a pet listens to its owner’s voice, Purina listened to dog owners who wanted to make the packaging even more focused on the owner’s beloved pet. In doing so, the company expects the enhanced presentation will make the custom products even more fetching for consumers.

I virtually borrowed a friend’s dog, a 6-year old golden retriever named Riley, for which Just Right created custom artwork for this article that appears above. The bag copy reads: “This blend has been crafted to provide Riley with the complete, balanced nutrition he needs as a 6 year old golden retriever. Formulated by Rick and Purina in November 2015, it includes lamb as the primary protein source. This blend is a mix of high quality ingredients that promotes healthy skin and coat, promotes an active lifestyle and supports joint health and mobility.”

We reconnected with Brian Lester, director of marketing for Just Right by Purina, who discloses the reasoning and reality behind the refresh.

What’s changed from before and why?

Lester: Just Right’s recent packaging updates bring an increased focus to what matters to our consumers most—their dog. By listening to detailed consumer feedback, we discovered that we had the opportunity to further exceed their expectations for a personalized experience by emphasizing their unique dog on our packaging, and that’s exactly what we did. Our previous labels contained a 195x200 pixel image of the dog on the left side of the front label. Now, the image is 560x410 pixels and is centered across the full-width of the label, taking up nearly half of the label’s real estate.

To support this enhancement and provide a better personalization experience for our consumers, we also updated the photo upload process on our site. We’ve implemented Filepicker, which now allows consumers to upload photos directly from platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr, as well as from native files on their computer or mobile device. The tool also allows consumers increased ability to zoom, crop, and rotate their images directly on our site.

The revised labels also continue to include our existing personalization techniques, including dog’s name, owner’s name, unique blend name, product features/claims, and personalized feeding instructions.

What will be most obvious to customers about what’s new?

Lester: The greater emphasis on their dog’s photo should be incredibly apparent to existing consumers who are accustomed to the first generation of our label design. For new consumers, we believe that the increased focus on the unique dog photo will further convey our belief that every dog is unique and deserving of a personalized feeding experience. We’re giving our consumers’ dogs the same amount of prominence and real estate that most dog foods give to one “model” dog, demonstrating our commitment to each unique pet.

While our recent label revisions focused on enhancing the photo presence on the front of the package, we also want to emphasize that the label on the back of the packaging is just as personal as what is on the front. This back label details the personalized benefits of each dog’s blend and includes feeding instructions tailored to that individual dog. While the back label is remaining consistent in these revisions, we know that the information it contains is just as important to our community of highly involved dog owners as it is to us.

10 Ways Smart Packaging Extends Your Brand

Here's a good post from John Van Ankkeren:

What can hardware manufacturers learn from cream cheese? In this example, brand owners can increase brand loyalty and gain powerful revenue with packaging that is smart.

In 2014, Kraft changed both the recipe and tub design of its iconic Philadelphia Cream Cheese brand. Gone were the familiar circular vessels. In their place, redesigned oblong containers that stop products from shifting on store shelves and keep labels facing forward, so consumers can easily spot their favorite flavors.

With its new stackable design, Kraft can stock an additional row of products on a grocery store shelf. Meanwhile, the addition of high-quality, in-mold label graphics show appealing images of whole fruits and vegetables. The result: Philadelphia Cream Cheese stands out in a sea of sameness on store shelves and retains its long-standing reign as America’s best-selling cream cheese.

What’s so smart about that? How about increased brand loyalty and powerful revenue gains? Sounds pretty smart to me.

Alas, changing the shape of a container or packaging label isn’t often viewed as smart packaging. We beg to differ. In its purest form, smart packaging is a way to differentiate products and elevate brands. It may ignite a conversation among people, package, brand and objects in a connected world. Or, it may serve as a platform for sensory experiences, added functionality and improved performance. And, all together, smart packaging is experiencing massive growth; the sector is expected to reach $39.7 billion by 2020.

Smarter packages that provide better safety, wellness, convenience, value and gratification will increase brand loyalty because these factors drive most purchasing decisions and behavior.

So, whether you make cream cheese, computers or consumer electronics, consider these top 10 ways that smart packaging can illuminate your brand:

1. Go beyond conventional packaging to take advantage of hybrid approaches that integrate both rigid and flexible materials to attain better shelf life while improving sustainability and customer interfaces.

2. Use smart codes to embed more information onto your package. Standard codes have been around since the 1960s, but new advancements are making it easier to link products to machines, databases or multimedia experiences. Heinz tomato ketchup was among the first consumer packaged goods companies to use a mobile augmented reality app to turn a ketchup bottle into a fully interactive recipe book viewable on a shopper’s iPhone or Android device.

3. Deliver extended protection and more functionality through new engineered materials and substrates on labels that change when exposed to certain variables. Interactive food labels that communicate a product’s state of freshness or temperature are gaining momentum while advances in anti-theft tag sensors continue to reduce shrinkage.

4. Add intelligent functions through the integration of different manufacturing components to connect, capture, analyze and provide business intelligence. Connect packages to smartphones and cloud services in ways not available previously so you can monitor conditions and behaviors contextually, track supply chains and foster interaction between other things and objects.

5. Follow advancements in printed electronics on flexible films and miniaturized components, which are finding their way into packaging concepts today. The flexible structure of the circuits make it possible to integrate this added intelligence into existing package molding and labeling processes.

6. Enrich “lock and key” brand protection while ensuring a rich consumer experience. Such is the case with HP Instant Ink, which includes microchips in inkjet refills so the printer automatically buys ink for the customer when its supply runs low.

7. Create and nurture immersive sensory experiences when the package is opened or activated. Perhaps the brand mark becomes illuminated when the package is opened. Equally interesting could be an “under the hood” in-store tracking capability that alerts retailers if the package is opened before it’s purchased.

8. Turn your package into a billboard promoting other offerings and dynamic displays of user ratings while giving consumers multiple ways to connect with your brand.

9. Measure packaging performance for greater sustainability: Reduce, reuse and recycle. There are far-reaching benefits from following the performance of your package through its entire lifecycle to modify, improve and eliminate waste. Keurig’s decision to make all K-Cups recyclable by 2020 has boosted the brand following controversy over the environmental impact of its original multi-layer plastic K-Cup designs.

10. Leverage social networks to connect physical objects to social platforms. Enabling the connected conversation creates endless opportunities to foster integrated marketing, social campaigns and peer recommendations.

What connects all these different kinds and levels of smart packaging is the opportunity to add value to a package that either you couldn’t or didn’t do before. This not only gives you greater control and management over your supply chain, it lets you gather more customer intelligence so you can analyze vital data about your customers and how they use your product. Most important, you can build brand brilliance by enhancing user experiences while increasing product usefulness, revenue and return on investment (ROI). Read more about Smart Packaging in this 5-page research brief “Smart Packaging and the Future of Brands.”

Rising Drug Costs Trouble White House

The president's administration is getting in on the recently hot topic of lowering drug prices by calling for a forum later this month aims to address the issue.

According to The New York Times, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, will host a day-long conference, "to consider ways of speeding up the discovery of innovative drug treatments while making them more affordable."

Patients’ advocates, doctors and hospital executives, insurance carriers, state officials and pharmaceutical executives were invited.

The news outlet reported that the event's invitation doesn't specifically mention price controls, but the first panel at the forum is scheduled to be talking about, "the impact of rising pharmaceutical costs."

A Guide to O-Ring Materials

Courtesy of Gallagher Fluid Seals, here’s a guide to O-Ring materials, how they are used, and when to avoid using them:

Nitrile (Buna, HBR): A widely used, economical material that has strong wear resistance and mechanical properties. Temperature: -55 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Petroleum based oils and fuels, dynamic applications Avoid: Break fluids and ozone Hydrogenated Nitrile (HNBR): Nitrile base with added chemical strength and resistance following hydrogenation.

Temperature: -50 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Water and steam up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, fuel systems, oil resistant and high abrasion applications Avoid: Strong acids and polar solvents such as ethers and ketones Polyacrylate (ACM): Widely used by auto makers in power steering and transmission systems.

Temperature: -15 to 350 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Mineral oil, engines, gear boxes, power steering, transmissions Avoid: Cold temperatures, hot water, steam Ethylene-Propylene (EPDM): Strong ozone and chemical resistance

Temperature: -55 to 275 degrees Fahrenheit, 300 degrees Fahrenheit when used with peroxide curing agents Applications: Brake systems, glycol-based fluids, H20 steam Avoid: Mineral oil products and hydrocarbon fluids Chloroprene (Neoprene, CR): The first commercial synthetic rubber developed, chloroprene has good mechanical properties over a wide range of temperatures.

Temperature: -40 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Refrigeration, due to its excellent ozone resistance, low-temp H20 Avoid: Esters, ketones and aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons. Butyl: An all-petroleum compound, butyl has low gas permeability and good resistance to sun exposure and ozone.

Temperature: -70 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Life science and medical devices, FDA applications, numerous specialized compounds for specific material certifications Avoid: Highly abrasive applications and water and steam over 250 degrees Fahrenheit Fluorosilicone (FVMQ): Broad temperature performance and strong fuel and solvent resistance, but weak abrasion resistance due to high friction.

Temperature: -75 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Aerospace, fuel and mineral oil Avoid: High temperature air, dynamic applications Flurocarbon (Vikton, FKM): The high fluorine levels in fluorocarbon rings give them excellent swelling and permeability resistance. They also feature high temperature and chemical resistance.

Temperature: -15 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Broad chemical resistance, transmission and blended gasoline Avoid: Low temperatures, ketones and amines Tetrafluoroethylene-Propylene (AFLAS): Excellent chemical and temperature performance.

Temperature: 15 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Aerospace, steam, hot water, oil fields Avoid: Chlorinated hydrocarbons, ketones, acetic acid Perfluoelastomer (FFKM): Of all elastomers, this one has the highest performing temperature and chemical properties, as well as low out-gassing and extractable properties.

Temperature: -15 to 600 degrees Fahrenheit Applications: Semiconductors, chemical processing, vacuum applications Avoid: Fluorinated solvents and perfluorinated lubricants If you have questions about O-Ring materials, contact Gallagher Fluid Seals, Inc. Our experts can answer any questions you might have about these small, yet crucial, sealing products.

Managerial Tweaks That Make a Difference

Stuart Margolis, a financial expert in the printing industry, has a worthwhile piece in Printing News where he notes that, inherently, owners learn to watch out for signs of trouble before that can impact business and many times the school of hard knocks actually pays off.

Constant control to correct financial trouble spots before they turn into a big mess is a common denominator. Keys to success seem to be: keeping an objective viewpoint, understanding the key indicators that trouble could be on the way, surrounding yourself with a loyal team that isn’t afraid to tell you the truth (good or bad), and having a commitment to accept the challenge to deal with the sea of changes to operations, technology and customers that are in front of you.

As a successful leader you understand that when everything’s going great you must keep up the momentum and optimism but don’t let rose colored glasses blind you. To have success after weathering storms of recessions, technological overhauls, and resignation of key staff members is a great achievement. You believe in your product and so do your customers. Your business model is sound. You’re convinced that your business will succeed. You also realize that it’s important to regularly step back and take an objective look at how your business is doing financially.

Otherwise, why would you keep trying so hard? Most successful business owners measure their accomplishments based on beating the competition by earning higher profits. It’s not that their money grubbers, it’s because their competitive and they want to win the race.

We recommend taking a big picture strategic view quarterly. Successful owners follow suit by looking at performance, weaknesses and trouble areas as well as potential financial challenges. Look at your financial standing compared to previous quarters, for the same time frame year-to-year, to the profit leaders in the industry, and most importantly to your budget and expectation. Paying attention to how your sales, profit margins, growth and cost structure changed in those time frames will tell you a lot about where your business is headed financially.

View your business as it is. Then, plan or reinvent it for what you want it to be. Don’t ignore the small stuff. Little “glitches” like exceeding costs on the cost sheet a few times, reducing customer markups, letting accounts slip in the aging cycle can all work against you to put you in a real jam. They add up. Be honest among your management team and hold each other collectively and individually accountable.

Once you’ve finished your next plan, focus on accomplishing your goals and implementing the changes needed. Even little improvements like cleaning the floors, or contacting a certain customer that we’re waiting for their approval, staying on top of a customer accounts receivable balance and calling key customers to “check in” all add up to keeping your success alive and well.

Read more here.

Candy Packages for Halloween Get Spooky

Clever graphics on stand-up pouches—along with traditional characters and color schemes—are helping to sell Halloween candy to a most-receptive audience. Americans are expected to spend a whopping $2.6 billion (with a B!) on candy for this year’s holiday, according to the National Confectioners Assn.

A recent visit to a local Walmart superstore unearthed a bevy of bags and boxes—adorned with witches, zombies and monsters, oh my!—that are a real treat for the gremlins ringing doorbells on Saturday.

Among the notable Halloween candy packaging trends:

• The majority of secondary packages are flexible bags or pouches—with more stand-up pouches than I ever remember seeing before (gotta love that vertical display!). There were only a couple cartons and other rigid packages in an entire aisle of offerings. (As you may know, flexible packaging can be difficult to photograph sometimes. My apologies if the images aren’t the best.)
• A lot of clear windows show the inner beauty of the primary packs, many of which have matching or complementary graphics.
• Faces looking at you make you look at them. Eyes, in particular, draw consumers’ attention to many of these products.
• Traditional orange and black colors are prevalent—making these packages fade a bit in a sea of sameness.
• A handful of products created “fall” graphics rather than Halloween-specific images, perhaps to help extend the selling period past Oct. 31.
• All of the Halloween candy in the aisle at this Walmart store was shipped in retail-ready displays (see below). This makes the shelves easy to stock and presents an organized look, but the edges and bottoms of the cases hid a bit too much of the bags, pouches and cartons—taking away from their shelf impact. Also, removing the package wasn’t always easy.

Want to see more? Have a look.

College Transforms Facilities, Reduces Energy Costs by 42%

Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and automation, announced the installation of a campus-wide energy efficiency initiative at Salem Community College in Carneys Point, N.J. that will reduce the college’s annual energy costs by 42 percent or $296,000. The $5.3 million project is funded via New Jersey’s Energy Savings Improvement Program (ESIP) and marks the first higher education institution in the state to complete an ESIP project.

Salem Community College faced a number of challenges including outdated mechanical systems and lack of a strategic maintenance program. The college also needed to provide backup power to keep its public safety, IT and campus operations running during power outages. This partnership approaches energy management holistically, addressing both the supply side of energy through a solar power purchase agreement and natural gas procurement, as well as improving the demand side of energy through more than a dozen energy conservation measures.

“We are deeply committed to providing the best educational environment for our students, and this includes the quality of our facilities,” said Dr. Michael Gorman, President of Salem Community College. “This project will improve indoor air quality and temperature control, provide new virtual computer labs and advance our goal of approaching net-zero energy status. By partnering with Schneider Electric, we can achieve all this with no impact on taxpayers.”

The ESIP project incorporates a variety of upgrades to enhance comfort across seven facilities while reducing energy consumption including:

• Mechanical upgrades
• Lighting retrofits and upgrades
• Intelligent building automation system
• Water conservation measures
• Window tinting
• Building weatherization
• Plug load control
• IT upgrades
• Solar power purchase agreement
• Natural gas procurement

An O-Ring Primer

Technology is always moving forward, but some things stand the test of time. One of those things is the O-ring, which was first patented in 1896.

What is an O-ring?

A O-ring is a doughnut-shaped loop designed to prevent the passage of liquids or gases. It’s one of the simplest precision mechanical pieces ever produced, and continue to be one of the most widely-utilized sealing products.

O-rings can be made from plastic or metal, but for the purposes of our blog, we’ll focus solely on rubber – or elastomeric — O-ring design.

An O-ring, also known as a “torus,” works in tandem with the glands in which they are installed. The gland is normally cut from the metallic hardware, and works with the O-ring to seal. The gland and the O-ring must be designed together to insure top performance.

How does an O-ring seal?

Seals prevent fluids from escaping through the gaps in mating pieces of hardware. The O-ring sits in the middle of a gland when it’s at rest, but as pressure begins to rise in the sealing system, the O-ring shifts to the opposite side of the pressure.

Because the material is soft, the O-ring is mechanically squeezed to plug the hole between the two mating hardware pieces.

Limitations of O-ring use

“Although it has been stated that O-rings offer a reasonable approach to the ideal hydraulic seal, they should not be considered an immediate solution to all sealing problems.”

That was D.R. Pearl of the United Aircraft Corp. in 1947, in a paper presented at the S.A.E. annual meeting. Pearl wrote those words almost 70 years ago, but distinct limitations remain for using O-rings as a primary seal. These limitations include:\
Rotary speeds above 1,500 feet per minute
Improper mating hardware design
Incompatible temperature, pressure and fluid chemical compatibility

source: http://www.gallagherseals.com/

China robot sales to triple by 2018

Reuters reports that China is trying to modernize its industrial production and has identified robotics as a major area for growth amid labor shortages and fast-rising wages.

The world's second-largest economy still has far lower robot penetration than other big industrialized economies - just 36 per 10,000 manufacturing workers versus 478 in South Korea, 315 in Japan, 292 in Germany and 164 in the United States.

Frankfurt-based IFR said in a statement that annual robot sales to China would jump to 150,000 by 2018, up from 57,000 in 2014. "The robotics industry is exhibiting rapid growth – completely unperturbed by the current economic fallow period experienced by other areas of Chinese industry," China Robot Industry Alliance Secretary General Song Xiaogang said in IFR's statement.

China's robot market is still dominated by foreign players like ABB, Kuka and Yaskawa but China is encouraging its own robot makers with subsidies and the number of Chinese robotics firms is growing fast. Few of them have their own technology and struggle to compete on price alone, but in the long run the domestic robot industry is expected to become a leading force.

More Robots Means More Jobs

Packaging World reports that data contained in a new white paper from The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) argues with the perception that increasing the use of robots causes higher rates of unemployment in the U.S.

The white paper, “Robots Fuel the Next Wave of U.S. Productivity and Job Growth,” uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a wide range of manufacturing firms to document how and why increasing the use of robots is associated with increased employment.

Key statistics from the A3 white paper show that during the non-recessionary periods—1996-2000, 2002-2007, and 2010-2014—general employment and robot shipments both increased. Since 2010, the robotics industry in the U.S. has grown substantially. Even during this period of record-breaking robot sales, U.S. employment increased.

“We are seeing concrete shifts in the factors that resulted in cuts to the U.S. manufacturing workforce over the past few decades,” says Jeff Burnstein, President of A3. “Manufacturing automation increasingly provides the flexibility in the variety of tasks robots perform to drive improvements in overall product quality and time to market.

“One of the biggest challenges we now face is closing the skills gap to fill jobs. Robots are optimizing production more than ever, increasing global competitiveness and performing dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks that enable companies to create higher-skilled, better-paying, and safer jobs where people use their brains, not their brawn.”

Notes the paper, as companies seek to bring manufacturing operations stateside while remaining cost-competitive, they continue to turn to automation to help lead the new wave of productivity and job growth in the U.S.

Says Geoff Escalette, CEO of faucet-maker RSS Manufacturing & Phylrich, “The whole premise for our company is to bring manufacturing back to this country, and our new robot fits perfectly with that master plan. Our robot not only makes it possible to increase production speed without buying additional CNC machines, but also helped us open up 30 percent more capacity on existing machinery.”

96% of Manufacturers Expect Their Products "Connected” by 2018

According to IDC Manufacturing Insights, connected products are not only top of mind but proliferating across manufacturing segments.

As manufacturers move down the path toward creating products that have inherent connectivity to support added functionality, they also open up the possibility for many new types of aftermarket opportunities, what IDC refers to as connected services.

The report, IDC PeerScape: Manufacturing Practices to Launch a Successful Connected Service Initiatives, presents five best practices culled from research and conversations with manufacturers in the past year. It indicates manufacturers are increasingly turning to services as a means to improve profits, increase customer satisfaction, and differentiate from competitors. Connected services leverage connected products to unlock the data-captured insights coming off the products.

According to the new report:
- By 2020, onboard service revenue will grow at double the pace of product-related revenue.
- It is no longer a question of whether manufacturers need to offer connected services but what services they should offer and how quickly they can launch them.
- Connected services will redefine the manufacturer’s role and cumulative value throughout the customer life cycle.

According to the report, to date, many of the plans for connected service are in the ideation/development phase because of the significant amount of change required in processes, functional alignment, and technology to support a comprehensive connected service operation. Early adopters have been successful in launching some of the less disruptive connected services such as product monitoring and are using these as test beds for more complex initiatives.

Today, November 12, is the Deadline for FPA Awards

You have the chance to show your company’s converting skills by entering the Flexible Packaging Association’s annual Packaging Achievement Awards Competition.

Submissions can be submitted online.

source: http://www.convertingguide.com/november-12-deadline-for-fpa-awards/

Federal Grant to Help Farmers Accurately Predict Crop Yield, Manage Resources

The National Grape & Wine Initiative (NGWI) announced today it helped secure $6 million over four years in federal funding for research to develop and apply new technologies to transform the way grapes are grown throughout the United States.

Funding comes from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), which just released the first continuation grant installment of $2,357,674.

Led by award-winning scientists Drs. Terry Bates of Cornell University and Stephen Nuske of Carnegie Mellon University, the research project will focus on using technology to create digital maps that will allow farmers to zero in on the conditions within their vineyards and significantly enhance their ability to predict crop size, according to Jean-Mari Peltier, president of NGWI.

This project will build on the work of an industry funded pilot project that demonstrated tremendous promise in developing tools for precision vineyard management,” Peltier said. “We believe it will lead to the commercialization of hardware and software that will benefit growers of wine, juice, raisin and table grapes, nationwide.”

Employing both novel and off-the-shelf sensor technologies, the industry pilot project has resulted in the ability to create digital management maps of soil, canopy and the crop. Of particular note is the new prototype crop estimation tool, which can be attached to common vineyard equipment and takes thousands of images per minute, providing a far more accurate view of grape clusters.

“It is impossible to overstate the value this technology will provide in improving grape farmers’ ability to apply the right management practices at the right time and right place in their vineyards,” said Peltier. “Our goal is to increase vineyard production by 20 percent and decrease vineyard variability by 30 percent.”

The combined data holds the promise of providing a wealth of information to farmers, including data about crop yield, soil conditions, irrigation and fertilization needs; canopy growth and the color and maturity of grapes. Additionally, digital mapping can help farmers balance quality and quantity of their crops; manage and direct harvesting operations; and help them pinpoint the varying soil conditions and needs throughout their vineyards. “This project exemplifies what the specialty crop industry has been looking for from SCRI,” said John Aguirre, President of the California Association of Winegrape Growers, and Chairman of the NGWI Board. “Because of grower involvement from day one, it reflects an industry-driven research agenda to ensure the outcome will be relevant and valuable to the nation’s grape growers and ultimately American consumers.”

The End of Open Heart Surgery?

I just read about a new specialized catheter that can fix holes in the heart using a biodegradable adhesive and patch, eliminating the need for open heart surgery in animal studies.

Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Karp Lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital jointly worked on the project and recently published their findings in the Science Translational Medicine.

Although the patch was created last winter, researchers wanted a way to deliver the patch without open heart surgery. That's when the catheter was created.

The catheter device utilizes UV light technology and can be used to place the patch in a beating heart.

According to a press release, the catheter is inserted through a vein in the neck or groin and directed to the defect within the heart. Once the catheter is in place, the clinician opens two positioning balloons: one around the front end of the catheter, passing through the hole, and one on the other side of the heart wall.

The clinician then deploys the patch and turns on the catheter's UV light. The light reflects off of the balloon's shiny interior and activates the patch's adhesive coating. As the glue cures, pressure from the positioning balloons on either side of the patch help secure it in place.

Finally, both balloons are deflated and the catheter is withdrawn. Over time, normal tissue growth resumes and heart tissue grows over the patch. The patch itself dissolves when it is no longer needed.

Pepsi's New Package Nods to Back to the Future Fans

Speaking of packaging, Pepsi has officially confirmed the long-awaited creation of Pepsi Perfect - the soda Marty McFly orders in the second installment of one of the most beloved trilogies in motion-picture history. The fantastical cola, made famous by the film, will officially be available on October 21, 2015, paying homage to the date Marty McFly travels to in the future.

"Pepsi fans asked and we heard them loud and clear," says Lou Arbetter, senior director of marketing, PepsiCo. "The Back to the Future trilogy was as big a moment in pop culture history then as it is now, 30 years later. We are excited to be part of this moment and to bring fans something only Pepsi could deliver – and there's no need to wait – the future is now!"

Pepsi will make the future a reality on October 21, 2015 and unlock limited quantities of Pepsi Perfect, available for purchase online while supplies last. Fans located in the U.S. can get their hands on 1 of 6,500 Pepsi Perfect bottles, each outfitted in a special collectible case. The 16.9 oz. bottles will contain Pepsi Made with Real Sugar and will sell for $20.15.

While the clock counts down to October 21, New York Comic Con ticket holders will step into a Pepsi Perfect world as they enter the Javits Center on Thursday, October 8. From sponsoring a Back to the Future focused panel to creating a Café 80's inspired booth featuring a DeLorean and Wild Gunman arcade game, Pepsi Perfect will bring to life the magical world created by Back to the Future Part II.

Opportunity Knocking: Nearly 1MM Truckers Needed Over Next Decade

The trucking industry will need to hire 890,000 drivers in the next decade to replace retirees and meet rising demand, and companies are already pushing up pay to avoid falling short, according to a new study by the American Trucking Associations.

The industry group estimates that trucking companies will have to bring on an additional 47,500 drivers this year to smoothly handle customers’ orders, a figure that would grow to 73,500 next year if the economy picks up speed. The labor crunch is likely to worsen in coming years because drivers tend to be older—an average age of 49, compared with 42 in the wider workforce—and the industry will see more retirements.

Shippers could count on plenty of trucks to move their cargo in the years after the recession, when demand plunged and unemployment spiked, leaving a surplus of drivers available to haul freight. But an expanding U.S. economy since then and a steady increase in imports has soaked up much of that excess capacity.

Get the latest logistics and supply chain news and analysis via an email newsletter. Sign up here. Shipping costs are rising as companies raise driver pay and take other steps to make sure they have enough trucks available, though delays caused by a lack of capacity are still rare. The ATA warned of more severe problems if trucking companies aren’t able to recruit more drivers.

“If the trend stays on course, there will likely be severe supply chain disruptions resulting in significant shipping delays, higher inventory carrying costs, and perhaps shortages at stores,” the report said.

Trucking companies have raised pay sharply since the economic recovery gathered speed in 2011, with particularly large increases in the last two years. About half of for-hire truckload carriers—companies that fill a single truck with shipments from one customer for long-distance transport, typically to distribution centers or factories—offered sign-on bonuses averaging $1,500 each in 2014, the ATA said.

‘If the trend stays on course, there will likely be severe supply chain disruptions resulting in significant shipping delays.’ —American Trucking Associations Those measures helped bring down driver turnover in that wing of the trucking industry from nearly 100% in 2012 to just over 90% last year, though that means a typical company still needs to replace nearly all of its drivers on a regular basis.

There are about 1.6 million tractor-trailers on the road today driven by professional drivers, according to the ATA. Of the 890,000 new hires needed by 2024, 45% would replace retiring drivers and about a third will be needed to handle growing demand, the report said, with the rest necessary to replace workers who leave the business for other reasons.

Covenant Transport, a truckload carrier based in Chattanooga, Tenn., needs to hire about 3,000 drivers a year, said Robert Hatchett, vice president of recruiting. The company began offering a guaranteed minimum salary to some drivers this summer, a bid to increase the appeal of jobs where income is often based on the number of miles driven.

Mr. Hatchett said Covenant also is considering installing satellite televisions and enabling wireless Internet in truck cabins.

“We know an even greater capacity crunch is coming, and we’ve got to make being a professional truck driver as attractive as possible,” he said.

source: Wall Street Journal

Can India's Drugs Meet International Standards?

After years of quality issues and export bans, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is set to draft an amendment to existing pharmaceutical manufacturing laws to raise drug manufacturing quality to meet international standards.

Within the next six months, the DCGI will push a proposal before the government to amend the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules of 1945.

The goal, according to the drug controller of India, is to revisit present laws and bridge the gap between Indian manufacturing practices and the established WHO good manufacturing practices.

The DCGI plans to evaluate current regulations and GMPs in the US, Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia as part of the process. Last year, India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization issued new guidelines for state inspectors on how to prepare for and conduct GMP inspections of drug manufacturing facilities. The Indian pharmaceutical industry--which has the the largest number of FDA-approved manufacturing facilities outside the U.S--has been plagued with import alerts and quality issues from prominent manufacturers such as Wockhardt, Sun and Ranbaxy.

Clean Water Reporting Gets...Cleaner

Nixon supported the Clean Water Bill's aims but objected to its pricetag

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule to modernize Clean Water Act reporting for municipalities, industries, and other facilities. The final rule will require regulated entities and state and federal regulators to use existing, available information technology to electronically report data required by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program instead of filing written paper reports.

EPA estimates that, once the rule is fully implemented, the 46 states and the Virgin Islands Territory that are authorized to administer the NPDES program will collectively save approximately $22.6 million each year as a result of switching from paper to electronic reporting. The final rule will make facility-specific information, such as inspection and enforcement history, pollutant monitoring results, and other data required by NPDES permits accessible to the public through EPA’s website.

“Electronic reporting will give the public full transparency into water pollution sources, save millions of dollars, and lead to better water quality in American communities,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “This rule will significantly reduce the burden and costs of paperwork, freeing up limited resources for states and other regulatory authorities to focus on the most serious water quality problems. After more than two years of working closely with states and a range of stakeholders, today we take a critical step to bring clean water protection into the modern age.”

“ECOS is pleased to see a rule move ahead that modernizes how businesses, states, and the federal government interface and share information in the clean water program,” said Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, Executive Director and General Counsel of the Environmental Council of the States. “Our focus going forward with EPA and the impacted regulated community will be on smooth implementation of this rule, and on developing flexible approaches when needed.”

The Clean Water Act requires that municipal, industrial or commercial facilities that discharge wastewater directly into waters of the United States obtain a permit. The NPDES program requires that permitted facilities monitor and report data on pollutant discharges and take other actions to ensure discharges do not affect human health or the environment. Currently, some facilities subject to these reporting requirements submit data in paper form to states and other regulatory authorities, where the information must be manually entered into data systems. Through the e-reporting rule, these facilities will electronically report data directly to the appropriate regulatory authority.

EPA proposed the e-reporting rule in July of 2013 with a public comment period. Since then, EPA has held over more than 70 technical and individual meetings with states to review the electronic reporting provisions and to identify any issues requiring resolution. In addition, EPA held over 50 webinars and meetings with over 1,200 stakeholders to discuss the rulemaking. EPA will continue collaborating with states as they enhance their electronic reporting capabilities to support the rule’s implementation. Over the next few months, EPA will schedule trainings and outreach webinar sessions for states and regulated entities to provide an overview of the final rule, and the next steps for implementing electronic reporting.

In response to state feedback, the final rule provides authorized NPDES programs with more flexibility for implementation, providing more time for the transition from paper to electronic reporting and more flexibility in how they can grant electronic reporting waivers to facilities. Most facilities subject to effluent monitoring reporting requirements will be required to start submitting data electronically one year following the effective date of the final rule. A second phase will incorporate electronic reporting for other Clean Water Act reports such as performance status reports for municipal urban stormwater programs, controls on industrial discharges to local sewage treatment plants, and sewer overflows. Also in response to comments and suggestions from states, EPA is providing states with more time to electronically collect, manage, and share this data – up to five years instead of two years as initially proposed.

This rulemaking is part of EPA’s Next Generation Compliance strategy, as well as the E-Enterprise for the Environment strategy with states and tribes, to take advantage of new tools and innovative approaches to increase compliance and reduce pollution. The shift toward electronic reporting in the NPDES program and others will help make environmental reporting more accurate, complete, and efficient. It will also help EPA and co-regulators better manage information, and improve effectiveness and transparency.

EPA expects to publish the final rule in the Federal Register in October, 2015. The final rule will be effective 60 days following this publication.

View the final rule here.

How Big is the Market for Kitchen and Bathroom Linen?

The worldwide market for kitchen and bathroom linen registered an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 3.7% during 2008-2014. Till 2019-end, the market is forecast to grow at an average rate of 1.0% per year.

Currently, kitchen and toilet linen of cotton terry towelling capture сlose to 83.5% of the total demand, whereas the remaining share is distributed amid other kitchen and toilet linen of cotton (8.8%), kitchen and toilet linen of man-made fibers (just over 6%) and kitchen and toilet linen of other materials (1.7%).

China, Turkey, Japan, the UK and the US are the dominant kitchen and toilet linen markets, whilst such nations as Poland, the Philippines, Bolivia, Jordan and Morocco are expected to post the highest growth at 10.3%, 9.5%, 8.3%, 5.5% and 5.5% per annum, respectively, over the forecasted period.

source: Global Research and Data Services

Don't Drink the Water (without Treatment!)

Propelled by continuous growth in industrialization, especially in developing economies, increasing water contamination and increasing awareness about the importance of clean drinking water is expected to drive the water treatment systems market at a compound annual growth rate of 8.52% from 2015 to 2020.

The market in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to register the highest growth by 2020 owing to significant investment in point-of-entry technologies, as well as its growing economy. The growth of this region is supplemented by the rising demand for clean drinking water in developing economies such as India and China. The main key players in this market are The DOW Chemical Company, Honeywell International Inc., 3M Company , Danaher Corporation, Pentair PLC , Best Water Technology (BWT) AG , Calgon Carbon Corporation , Culligan International, General Electric and Watts Water Technologies Inc.

For more information visit  Water Treatment Systems Market