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 […]

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 […]

So much advice on the internet today about marketing says Ask Your Customers to get the best ideas or to build meaningful relationships. Yet most prospects don’t want to spend time with potential vendors until they have learned everything they can without direct contact.  So many mistakes could be averted if we would simply ask […]

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 […]

Flexibility to change speed or product size are the most common considerations but ability to change material should also be a consideration in purchasing a wrapping machine. When we are approached about buying a wrapping machine, often an inquiry regarding material for wrapping follows on its heels. Over the lifetime of one of our wrappers, far […]

The best approach in evaluating wrapping machinery is to look at the Total Cost of Ownership. However, some products requires specific kinds of wrap in order for issues of product preservation to be effective.  As I wrote in Deciding How to Wrap, product and marketing requirements are paramount. Beyond that, it is important to think about […]

Sometimes it helps to think about why products are wrapped in the first place. In a dynamic packaging market, this is a useful first step toward sustainability and cost reduction. Whether we are talking bananas, which come with their own built in wrapping, or a delicate piece of glass, products are wrapped for a very […]

Why Flow wrap? There are several critical reasons to flow wrap products. The product to wrap has nuts, whole grains or raisins that need to be wrapped in an airtight package so they don’t go rancid. A gas flush to remove oxygen can be used to extend the flavor and life of the product. Shelf life […]

I find the process of creating a new wrapping machine fascinating, perhaps even more because I am not an engineer. From there I wonder about how the packaging is created from a brand owner’s viewpoint. A lot of thought goes into the package appearance on the shelf, the tensile strength of the packaging materials to […]

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. […]

The mantra for packaging waste is reduce, reuse and recycle. The EPA on its web site has the following statements. “In most parts of the developed world, packaging constitutes as much as one-third of the non-industrial solid waste stream. As the developing world races to raise living standards, more countries are seeing significant growth in […]

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 […]

There has been a significant increase in demand for bundle wrapping. Half our our machine volume in the past year has been bundle wrappers, so it seems bundle wrappers are useful all of a sudden. This is because bundle wrappers improve corporate social responsibility and corporations care more and more about that. The reason for […]

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 […]

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 […]

As of January 10,2013 Package Machinery is completely moved into, if not completely organized in, its new facility in Holyoke, MA. We are still finding our way through nonessential things, extra chairs and file cabinets, to the essential ones, like our machine shop and work in process. In making our move decision, we were driven […]

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

Reminding ourselves why we package and wrap products: to make the experience of consumption better and safer for the consumer.

Last week I attended a packaging sustainability conference in Houston. One speaker was from Coca Cola and I finally learned what they mean by the Plant Bottle.  As you probably know, most soda, water and juice bottles are made from PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) – try saying that 3 times fast and you know what it […]

Clear messaging about packaging sustainability will resonate with hurried consumers, if done properly.

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 […]

Starting a food business involves finding production facilities, a business plan and fundamental packaging.

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

many views on packaging need to lead to sustainability and reduction of waste.

This is probably the second question we get asked when someone inquiries about wrappers. It comes right after “How much does a wrapper cost?” It is painful to have to ask that the inquirer back up and tell us a little about their product. What factors go into answering the question of how fast can […]

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

The color pallet for packaging design may be changing. What will be the impact on your or your customers’ products?

PacKage Machinery’s competitors are grateful for our efforts to promote sustainability in wrapping

Retailers have led the working to reduce waste in the system. Worldwide Wal-Mart has led the way by working with its vendors to find new ways to reduce packaging. For five years Wal-Mart has hosted an annual Packaging Sustainable Vendor Network and conference. This conference is designed to support Wal-Mart vendors in search of ways […]

Diefold wrap from Package Machinery enables brownie baker to move away from hand wrapping and increase production.

WalMart’s Packaging Sustainable Vendor Network conference is a chance to engage in improving packaging.

As we were reading Green Your Supply Chain: 7 Questions and 7 Tips, we were thinking about how inexpensively one can buy new packaging machinery these days. The question is what value do you get for your money? One critical point this article makes is that more durable and reliable equipment usually costs more. What makes […]

When our customers permit and it is consumer safe, we donate all our FAT products to the local Food Bank for distribution to people in need. We might not have found this perfect outlet  for product that ranges from a few cartons to a pallet load if it were not for the fact that our […]

Productivity of candy company is enhanced by new TTDF diefold machine from Package Machinery.

New inexpensive semi-automatic machine for individual candies and small items wrap that provides quality wrap with all folds on bottom.

Sometimes it is important to think about the impact that our customers’ customers have on packaging and therefore on our business. Packaging is a critical part of process of influencing consumers. An article by Kim T. Gordon, Identify New Consumer Norms notes that consumers have changed their behavior.  “Decitica has identified four distinct consumer segments: […]