Package Machinery Company, Inc. has sold its Intellectual Property and Assets to Marden Edwards Limited (United Kingdom) who are now in the process of transferring and integrating the Intellectual Property and Assets into its Business. You can contact Marden Edwards Inc. (USA) using the following:   For new machine enquiries usmachines@mardenedwards.com   For new parts enquiries usparts@mardenedwards.com […]

Bundling Configurations There are multiple ways to bundle product  but two basic ones.  They involve creating the bundle in line, like soldiers or in layers side by side. Creating the Bundle In the first one the boxes are lined up like soldiers.  Since the most preferred method is to put the tuck and fold on […]

At a Customer Site Recently I visited with a customer who has one of our FA-ST servo overwrapping machines as well as an old FA overwrapping machine. The newer FA-ST had replaced two old FA overwrappers running at 40 per minute.  When this customer bought the overwrapping machine we promised them 70 per minute with 100 gauge […]

Huge Growth in Candy and Food Entrepreneurs There seems to be a explosion of candy and food entrepreneurs.  And it makes sense.  Not only are many consumers looking to buy more locally, they want higher quality ingredients. Major food companies are buying up successful food entrepreneurs. So a food entrepreneur can exploit his or her […]

Set Up to Fail a Factory Acceptance Test We recently had a challenging factory acceptance test. The  product was not yet on the market so the boxes were not filled to the right levels with the real product. The cartons we had to wrap were made by hand and therefore not consistently folded. They had […]

Changing the Packaging Process It is wonderful to see our customers embracing waste reduction. When they call us, it is to talk about changing the packaging process to reduce their materials consumption. Two blogs crossed my computer today and they both relate to this indirectly.   The first – Why Going Lean is the New […]

How important is registered  or printed film to your branding? If it is important, how accurate is the positioning of your printed film?   Film positioning is critically important when working with printed film. It is how the manufacturer gets to communicate with the customer about the product they are buying. All the areas of […]

Everyone is on the bandwagon about minimizing packaging materials.  And there is significant opportunity to do that with bundling. I read an article recently that discussed product and packaging shipability.  I always think about the issue from the packaging perspective but this pointed out that an investment in the product sometimes pays off in improved […]

I was reading an article on Clay Christensen’s MilkShake Marketing and applying it to what we do at Package Machinery.   It made me realize that Bundling is a job to be done by many of our customers and what we provide is a means to help them do it with our bundle wrappers. It […]

Wrapping is about branding and product protection. There are many ways to do branding and product protection and we get inquiries all the time for wrapping machines for a variety of applications. We like to think we are wrapping experts, but we also know our limitations.  So here is our little guide to what we […]

In 2014 sustainability in packaging will make serious progress. 2014 should be a fascinating year for sharing best practices in packaging with our customers and for seeing our customers share internally and externally themselves. What do  I mean by that?  Beyond simple changes in process,  I see much greater sharing of knowledge leading to improved sustainability […]

Over the past few years we have built overwrappers for both cake and bread. Wrapping cake, bread or other baked goods present their own unique challenges. What sets this overwrap process apart from a standard overwrapper is the demands of the product for a less than tight wrap.  Both cake and bread are fragile and […]

Gourmet caramels are growing in popularity. They represent a small treat that does not break the bank but gives a moment of pleasure. Over the past few years,  I have had a chance to sample some of the best as we have built  TTDF diefold wrapping machines to wrap caramels. Caramel wrapping has its peculiarities. […]

Teaching a wrapping machine involves hands on learning. It is also a two-way street. While our customer’s staff need to learn the ins and outs of our overwrapper, we need to make sure that we understand their product and how it behaves while being wrapped. There are four component to a successful transition: a machine […]

What is Packaging Waste? Packaging waste is unnecessary packaging that does not provide protection, integrity and security to products from the manufacturer to the consumer. I was just reading about food waste is approximately 30% of total food.  This is scary in a world of growing population and shrinking agricultural lands with a little global […]

If you are buying a wrapping machine, you are worrying about delivery time the same way you worry about delivering your product on time. One impacts the other. I was recently discussing a food customer who has high seasonal variability. Their solution is to hire unskilled  temporary workers to operate their machines and use trained […]

We have seen significant interest for overwrapping machines to wrap boxes of frozen vegetables over the past 18 months.  I was puzzled as to why that might be, so I did a little homework. According to Gene Lester, a plant physiologist at the USDA, quoted in Eating Well magazine, “Fruits and vegetables chosen for freezing […]

Save Money, Be More Sustainable in Secondary Packaging through Bundling At Package we have based our business on providing the best overwrap we can for consumer products.  Our overwrap is one we are proud to see on the shelves in retail stores. We have taken great pride in our material and energy efficiency and in […]

How many ways can you wrap candy? Here are various ways to wrap candy through basic automation. twist wrap – the oldest way, and it is still being done especially for saltwater taffy diefold wrap – like some Reese’s peanut butter cups or caramels tuck and fold wrap with paper sleeve – high end chocolate bars […]

Most people are surprised to know that cellophane is not commonly used, even for wrap styles called cello wrap. Cellophane has a century-long history. It comes from the words cellulose and diaphane (meaning transparent) and is a trademarked name of Innovia Films in some countries, although not in the United States. Cellophane was the original […]

When it comes to wrapping machines, there are lots of opportunities to be confused about what makes an overwrap machine more cost effective and therefore more sustainable than a shrink wrapper or flowwrapper. In this day and age of reduce, reuse and recycle, it is hard to know which factor is more important and which […]

As you know, we recently moved to Holyoke Massachusetts, one of the first planned cities in the United States and one that still gets most of its electricity from renewable sources. We are still completing the renovations of our new old building to meet our needs but work on our customers’ machine is our highest […]

From our first FA overwrapper in 1933 to our current line of servo over wrappers, the potential for upgrading the wrapping machine as your needs change has always existed. Having introduced the first servo overwrapper in 2001, Package is now using third and fourth generation controls for its servo wrappers. While controls may become dated […]

Not only do over 47% of the visits to our website come from outside the United States, but orders for wrapping machinery are following.  I wish I thought most of the visitors were truly likely to be buyers. i know that we are providing lots of valuable information to people who may never buy from […]

We agonize over the design concepts of overwrapping machines and the detailing that goes on in engineering, but the real issues often show up late in the assembly process: fine tuning the wrapping machine for the specific product and wrapping material. Sometimes it is a shim or an adjustment that is mechanical in origin. Sometimes […]

Recently USA Today ran an article entitled Made in USA Makes Comeback as Marketing Tool. This made me think about how that applies to our wrapping machinery. We offer the following five reasons as guidelines for why you should consider Package Machinery’s overwrappers. Our wrapping machinery dates back to the early 1900’s. In fact, when […]

See Package Machinery’s overwrapping, flow wrapping, and diefold wrapping machinery at Pack Expo Chicago October 28-31,2012.

Choosing wrapping material is as important as your choice of wrapping machine.

Last spring my husband decided that our big storage closet needed to be reorganized, something he is very good at. At the end he handed me a stack of boxes and said “Do something with these.” One was a mantilla my grandmother had worn to meet two Popes. Another turned out to be a flag […]

Study show food taste is influenced by the look of the packaging.

How Package Machinery works with companies for successful purchase and installation of wrapping machinery

We have noticed an increasing trend toward outsourcing manufacturing of consumer products. Major consumer products companies are increasingly viewing themselves as brand managers. They want oversight and quality control on their products but are using private label manufacturers to produce their products. Grocery stores have been stocked for years with private label or house brand […]

Engineers, manufacturers and shippers know that shrink wrapped packages use 20% more film than overwrapped packages and some of them know that switching from shrink wrap to overwrap saves them at least half their current energy costs. Consumers are becoming savvy about packaging, too. Consumers have been environmentally conscious for decades, but never has “reduce, […]

In honor of Earth Day, I was reading Anton Steeman’s blog on Earth Day and the Future of Packaging. Steeman thinks (rightly in my opinion) that Extended Producer Responsibility is coming to more countries. (it is in 30 countries now.)  EPR will make the manufacturer responsible for disposing of the leftover product and packaging. Steeman […]

A certain percent of consumers prefer to buy their frozen vegetables in boxes rather than bags. The process calls for using waxed paper to wrap the boxes. Today we did a run off for a company looking to do a classic wrap: frozen vegetables in a box wrapped in waxed paper. They plan to run […]

Calculating total cost of ownership is encouraging manufacturers to bring production back to the US. Higher productivity and increasing costs overseas are only 2 factors at work.

New wrapping projects and new wrapping machines for 2012 at Package Machinery

For a while now, we have been providing a guest post to the Foodpreneur Domenick Celentano. Food & Beverage on About.com focuses on food and beverage trends food entrepreneurs need to know plus tips and techniques for starting a food business or growing a food business. Our role is to provide advice on packaging and […]

how to calculate the ROI on overwrappers vs. alternative packaging including shrink wrappers and flow wrappers

What makes Package Machinery’s overwrappers unique?