Sector’s show-stoppers pack in the punters

The sun shone, the ticket touts were out in force and sales of beer and sausage soared. No, we’re not talking about Glastonbury, but Interpack 2008. Such were the attractions that 180,000 visitors were drawn into the halls of the Messe Düsseldorf over a week at the end of April.

The mood among the 2,744 exhibitors was generally positive, with Autobox UK saying it took orders in excess of £500,000 as a direct result of participating. However, environmental issues were somewhat marginalised, other than in the Bioplastics in Packaging area in Hall 7A. One UK-based supplier said he and his colleagues viewed it as a “demonstration that ‘this is packaging – and the environment is in a hall over there’”.

Here, Packaging News reviews the headline acts of the show, although  we’re not talking about the performances of exhibition entertainers The Drifters and Paul Young.

Gordon Carson, editor The name of Heidelberg is usually more synonymous with Drupa than with Interpack, but the German print kit giant chose Interpack to make a surprise move into packaging line decorating and personalisation. Heidelberg’s sheetfed presses are well-established in carton printing, where it sells directly to printers, but at Interpack it announced plans to target its new Linoprint technology at brand owners, including major pharmaceutical firms.
Heidelberg sees Linoprint fitting into packaging production and filling lines, where the drop-on-demand inkjet print technology will enable customers to mark and decorate blister packs and folding boxes. While Heidelberg is still the dominant force in commercial print, its experience with NexPress – it sold its 50% stake in the digital printing venture to partner Kodak for $1 in 2004 – shows it doesn’t always get things right when it moves out of its traditional domain.

Catherine Dawes, features editor The Ishida injunction against nine rival Chinese manufacturers of multihead weighers highlighted the need for OEMs to protect their technology and was a timely reminder of the dilemma facing many exhibitors: How do you show off your kit without letting the wrong people see too much?
Ilapak showed its patented VacMap flow-wrapper for the first time, but the Italian equipment manufacturer chose to place the horizontal form, fill and seal machine inside a red ‘house’ in the middle of its stand, to keep it away from prying eyes. The VacMap combines flow-wrapping, modified atmosphere packaging and vacuum packing to produce flow-wrapped packs with the same shelf-life as thermoformed packs, but at lower cost.
VacMap was initially developed for tortilla manufacturer Sonora Foods. Although Ilapak has been making it for two years, Sonora insisted it be kept secret for the first year to give the firm’s products a head start in the market.

Liz Wells, online content editor I have been to many trade shows, ranging from recruitment to logistics, but none of them came even close to matching the scale of Interpack 2008. The range of products and services on show was phenomenal – not to say exhausting.
The variety of people visiting the show stood out. I expected to see plenty of suited European men, but found the number of Asian businessmen in attendance a real surprise, as were the number of families with children wandering around the Messe – certainly a different way to spend your half term.
Rockwell Automation’s safety and information software systems were a technical highlight of the show. Its competency centre has produced systems that can analyse production lines, identify where inefficiencies lie and how to rectify them. It could save its customers thousands of pounds – surely as margins get tighter more companies will have to look into similar technology.

Jill Park, reporter Stora Enso threw us all off the scent by saying its focus at the show would be its latest development in boards. But at its press conference, the company announced the launch of the Stora Enso Gallop integrated digital printing and die-cutting line, powered by Xerox. Marking Xerox’s first strategic move into the packaging market, the line comprises a Xerox iGen3 digital press with a specially designed Kama die-cutter and a buffering stacker line.
However, this is only one of many surprising sights I saw at the show, including half-simian PR execs relaxing in the sunshine and full-size walking and talking Barbie dolls complete with scaled-up toy-store packaging.

Simeon Goldstein, reporter That a press event at 9am on a Saturday attracted a good dozen packaging journalists is proof, if proof is needed, of the growing interest in bioplastics. At Interpack, 39 firms showcased a wide range of materials and applications, and the response from visitors – including a German government minister – was deemed to be “satisfactory” by exhibitors.

That these companies were generally positive about being on the same platform is testament to the relative novelty of the products. There is, as the saying goes, strength in numbers and, given the current concerns about the materials (on the same Saturday an article in The Guardian raised the issues of using food stock and compostability) working together would seem to be a good idea.

But it remains to be seen whether, as the market grows and firms vie for sales, the camaraderie on display at Interpack will continue.

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