Lachie McKinnon, General Manager for Nufarm Australasia, said the award recognised over four years of research and development by Nufarm Australia with key technology partner Scholle Packaging. “QuikPour is a tangible example of how Nufarm is investing in one of our key strategic objectives to innovate the business. The awards recognise the hard work, dedication and innovative thinking that went into designing the QuikPour pack,” Mr McKinnon said.

Grant Gibson, Market Development Manager for Scholle Packaging said, “This has been a very thorough and challenging development program. The collaboration with Nufarm included product stability testing, package design, packaging certifications, component and equipment qualification. The diverse range of skills and expertise brought by Scholle’s development team were instrumental in this success. We are very excited to set the mark for packaging excellence and look forward to expanding into other regions and markets.”

Products currently available in the 15-litre QuikPour packs are Agritone 750, Roundup 360, Roundup Biactive, Roundup DST, Roundup Powermax,Glyphosate CT, Kamba M, Kamba 500, Amitrole T, Arsenal Express and Weedmaster Duo.

CBST 2011 represents one of the largest gatherings of beverage industry organisations and decision makers in China. From November 6-8, exhibitors at CBST will showcase the latest innovative concepts in the beverage industry.

Scholle Packaging Suzhou PRC will highlight new bag-in-box innovations and solutions for aseptic and non-aseptic beverage applications, providing an opportunity for the industry to see how Scholle bag-in-box can offer keys to unlock potential new ways of delivering juice, tea, coffee, water, syrups and other beverages to the marketplace.

Please visit at booth F03 in Hall 1 at the Expo Theme Pavilion in Shanghai.

Brau Beviale

Brau Beviale 2011 is one of the world’s largest capital goods exhibition for the beverage industry. From November 9th-11th, the exhibition centre in Nuremberg will be packed with the latest developments and innovations related to the production and marketing of beer, water and juice.

Scholle Packaging Europe is excited to show their latest developments and meet with existing and potential customers. Scholle’s focus will be on juice, wine and water and bag-in-box solutions for those applications. Zork, the peel and reseal wine closure, will be present as well. The Scholle Packaging booth is located in hall 4A/109.

AMI’s Multilayer Packaging Films Conference is an international business and technology conference for the flexible packaging industry. This event provides a unique opportunity for users and producers of specialty film to interact, along with being able to examine new product development and asses the latest market opportunities. This conference covers a range of unique products like bag-in-box films. Attendees will be able to review new technology, hear about the latest research in materials, evaluate recent innovations and be able to keep up with industry trends.

• Simplicity of design
• Ease of operation
• Robustness of sterilization processes for the packaging material, filling environment and product contact surfaces
• Maintenance of the sterile environment 
• Cleanability in day-to-day operations
• Field service support from the manufacturer

SIMPLICITY OF DESIGN
Scholle appears to have done a good job of incorporating these elements in their new Scholle SureFill® 30 Low-Acid aseptic bag-in-box filler. This filler uses proven technology in combination with a new vapor-phase hydrogen peroxide sterilization system that can sterilize bags at high speed. This enables the filler to transition to an automatic web-feeding system that can fill up to 15 bags per minute, provided there is a 60-gallon-per-minute product supply.

The major innovation on this filler is the incorporation of a web-fed, bag indexing conveyance system which moves the container through the sterilization zone and into the filling chamber. Since operator handling of the bags is reduced, the microbiological re-contamination of the pre-sterilized bags is minimized. Once the bags are gripped by the indexing plates, contamination from external sources is prevented.

The fitment sterilization is accomplished using a proven technology developed for the pharmaceuticals industry. Peroxide residuals are not an issue since condensation does not occur on food contact surfaces of the pre-irradiated bags. The robustness of this sterilization is impressive.

ROBUST PROCESS
The sterile bag exits the tunnel into the over-pressured filling chamber where a time-proven filling system removes the cap, fills the bag and re-closes the bag. The fill accuracy is maintained at high-speed by throttling the fill valve when the mag-flow meter senses that the bag is almost full. The bag is discharged from the fill zone using gravity (which has been shown to be very reliable) and the bag is separated from the web using a cutter along the pre-perforated cut line.

MAINTENANCE
Bag-in-box fillers have traditionally been very intensive from an operational standpoint.  With the SureFill® 30 Low-Acid, life is good for the operator since most of the mechanical functions are performed by the machine. The operator now has time to step-back and pay attention to the performance of the entire line.  

CLEAN
The fit and finish of the product contact surfaces appears to be excellent. The fill system is based on prior designs that have many years of service. Anyone who has burst a bag understands that there may be areas that were not anticipated to be product contact surfaces and thus may pose some unanticipated cleaning challenges from time to time.  Cleanability should be good but only time will tell.  

FIELD SERVICE SUPPORT
With the proper field service support, the Scholle SureFill® 30 Low-Acid has the potential to become a benchmark bag-in-box filler. Starting with a well thought out design, it is possible for Scholle to make incremental improvements over time that will add sophistication to a fundamentally sound platform. The transfer of field experience to practical design improvements is the hallmark of engineering excellence.

As with a robust, young red wine, it will be fun to see this filler mature.

Charles E. Sizer, Ph.D.
President
Pilot Aseptic, LLC
http://www.pilotaseptic.com/

Learn more about the Scholle SureFill® 30 here.

How Focused Consumer Insights Lead Scholle to Equipment Design Inspiration

Rick Pindur, Director of Global Equipment Engineering, introduced the Scholle SureFill® 30 Low-Acid and gave a glimpse into Scholle’s product development process at the Aseptipak Conference held in Rosemont, IL USA in November 2010.

The introduction of the Scholle SureFill® 30 Low-Acid marks the final phase in the development of a complete aseptic packaging system. Originally, Scholle released a series of dispensing fitments called the Scholle Sentry SafeLock® that allowed processors the ability to offer safer products while eliminating production costs. In addition, these fitments were easy for food service workers to use. Concurrently, a jump in consumer demand for dairy and fruit-based drinks such as smoothies, frappes and coffee drinks presented restaurants with new menu options and processors amazing growth opportunities. With the rapid increase in demand, it quickly became obvious that the processors needed a more capable aseptic bag-in-box filling system with the speed to keep up and the versatility to handle the range of fitments.

According to Rick, successful development that begins with understanding the needs of the customer isn’t breaking news. The challenge is finding the best process to help a company define the trade-offs that it takes to create the best solution and keep everyone tuned in to customer needs throughout the development process. The Scholle team chose the well-respected and proven Quality Function Deployment tool called the House of Quality to bring together decision inputs in one place.

The House of Quality, a technique initially introduced to Scholle by the Global Operations team to implement Lean principles and thinking in manufacturing, begins with the Voice of Customer. The Voice of Customer utilizes customer interviews to clearly define their needs and ensure desired results are laid out before a project begins.

The end product of House of Quality is an interrelationship matrix that, when completed, looks like a house and defines the relationship between customer desires, over-all current technology capabilities and our own internal capabilities. The outcome is a clear definition and ranking of customer wants and technology potential that should be constantly revisited during development to keep everyone on-track.

While this rigid development focus could seem constraining, it actually helps a creative team continually center on solving the pre-scripted, but challenging problems rather than getting side-tracked. The team’s constant inspiration was to create a filling system that fulfilled the original intent—design the missing component in a broader system offering that includes a range of dispensing fitments, bag types and size which gives processors the ability to grow in this popular market.

Click here for more information about the Scholle SureFill® 30 Low-Acid filling system.

According to the QFD Institute, the official source for QFD, “Quality Function Deployment is a comprehensive quality design method that: Seeks out spoken and unspoken customer needs from fuzzy Voice of Customer verbatim; Uncovers “positive” quality that wows the customer; Translates these into designs that characteristics and deliverable actions; and Builds and delivers a quality product or service by focusing the various business functions toward achieving a common goal-customer satisfaction.
For more from the QFD Institute go to http://www.qfdi.org/ 

Click here for the full KeyKeg article on ThePerfectlyHappyMan.com.

“PHM: How would you describe the kegging industry before KeyKeg came along?

AH: I’d call it stable. Steel kegs have been the mainstay of draft beer for over 50 years. Steel kegs go to bars and liquor stores and are returned, sterilized, and filled again. Since steel kegs are expensive and scrap metal can be lucrative, deposits are needed to make sure kegs are returned to their original owners. The Wall Street Journal published an article a couple of years ago that $50 million worth of steel kegs are lost or stolen in the US each year. The number of great draft beers coming into the US from Europe was also limited by this system; conversely, the number of great draft beers going to Europe from the US is still limited.

BrewDog IPA

PHM: Stolen beer kegs? We didn’t do it! But seriously … KeyKeg is here as a legitimate solution to many of the existing problems facing the kegging industry. What’s the process once the keg itself is made?

AH: Once the KeyKeg is manufactured, it is shipped to a brewery. The brewery fills the KeyKeg with beer and sells it. The KeyKeg is sent off to serve great beer to willing drinkers, and never returns. It can be recycled, but I have seen creative people make the plastic globe into something artistic. There is no deposit needed since it does not need to be returned.

PHM: Do you think KeyKeg represents cultural values? Wait … let’s take that one further: how do you think KeyKeg is relevant to a new wave of brewers, pub owners and beer lovers?”

Click here for the full KeyKeg article on ThePerfectlyHappyMan.com.

Visit www.keykeg.com for more information on KeyKeg and all its advantages for beer and wine packaging.

Scholle Packaging was extremely happy to see that boxed wine was selected as one of ten “Design of the Decade” packages. BrandPackaging cited several reasons for choosing boxed wine. These reasons included boxed wine’s history of being lightweight, easy-to-transport and unbreakable. However in recent years, boxed wine has gained greater popularity due to the fact that wineries started placing premium wines in bag-in-box and consumers have viewed this packaging format as an eco-friendly option for wine packaging.

Cheers to boxed wine!

To read BrandPackaging’s full article, click here.

To learn more about boxed wines, please visit: www.aboutboxedwine.com

To learn more about Scholle bag-in-box packaging for wine, please visit: www.scholle.com/applications/wine-spirits/

We will be displaying our latest bag-in-box films and fitments. These products include FlexTap® for push-button dispensing of both aseptic or non-aseptic beverages and various other fitment options to be used in conjunction with dispensing technology.

Bag-in-bag packaging offers many benefits over to traditional rigid packaging formats. These benefits include:

• improved inbound and outbound logistics
• extended product shelf-life
• various dispensing options
• convenient storage and use for the end-user
• reduced environmental impacts

Scholle Packaging’s stand number is #4A-109. We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information on Brau Beviale 2010: http://www.brau-beviale.de

Is your company currently using Scholle Packaging’s 55- or 300-gallon bags? If so, Scholle Packaging would like to inform you of a recycling opportunity.

Recycle Technologies International (RTI) is interested in recycling 55 gallon to 300 gallon bags post-use, produced by Scholle Packaging. RTI is a composite railroad tie technology corporation. They exclusively manufacture and sell PermaTie™ plastic composite railroad ties.  PermaTie™ composite railroad ties are made from 100% recycled plastic.

RTI would like to secure a constant stream of post-use plastic and can recycle 50,000 – 70,000 lbs daily. There is a rather large demand for plastic railroad ties as every year, 20 million wooden ties need to be replaced in North America alone. (For more information on how RTI’s PermaTie™ technology is helping the environment, please read RTI’s research report below our blog entry.)

RTI can supply you with a Certificate of Destruction and a Certificate of Manufacture if you choose to recycle your company’s post-use bags. These certificates provide evidence that the plastic bags are not only being recycled but that the recycled plastic is the main component in the manufacture of composite plastic railroad ties.

If you are using bags manufactured by Scholle Packaging that are smaller than 55-gallon, please note that your bags can be recycled where number 7 plastics are accepted. Learn more at earth911.com.

Please contact Rex Crick at RTI if your company is interested in recycling post-use 55 gallon to 300 gallon bags. To learn more about RTI, PermaTie™ railroad ties and their environmental benefits, please visit http://www.permaties.com/

Rex Crick, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Recycle Technologies International, Inc.
email: rcrick@rti-railroad-tie.com

Carbon Credits: The Environmental Benefit of Composite Crossties

Compiled by Rex E. Crick, Ph.D. (Recycle Technologies International) from sources listed within. An average of 20 million wooden crossties are replaced in North America each year. Each standard tie is roughly 7 x 9 x 102 in (17.8 x 22.9 x 259 cm) and weighs approximately 220 lb (100 kg). To understand the real magnitude of the number of ties replaced each year, consider that 20 million standard railroad ties placed end-to-end would span a distance of nearly 32,200 miles (51,800 kilometers); a distance equivalent to 1¼ times Earth’s equatorial circumference.

The number of wooden ties used globally each year is roughly 4 times that of North America or about 80 million ties. Considering that each tie is pressure-treated with a minimum of 20 gallons of creosote or other chemicals (necessary to provide resistance against biological and chemical attack), such a quantity of ties also represents millions of gallons of potentially hazardous chemicals being introduced into the environment. New York State and the European Economic Union have banned the use of creosote from all uses except a few industrial applications such as railroad ties. Proposed EEU legislation, if enacted, will extend the ban to railroad ties and preliminary committee discussions in several US state legislatures would do the same.

The use of engineered composite plastic ties as replacements for chemically treated wood ties will divert significant amounts of recycled plastics from landfills, and prevent millions of trees from being cut down. To satisfy the demand for ties in North America, the Earth loses between 5 million and 7 million trees each year (one tree produces 3 to 4 wooden ties). Globally the loss is greater than 20 million trees each year; a growing percentage of this loss is attributable to slow growing hardwood varieties found in Africa, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, Indonesia, and South America. Avoiding the use of wooden ties also removes the possibility that the environment could be damaged by exposure to many millions of gallons of chemical treatments. The use of recycled plastic crossties provides a further environmental benefit by reducing the buildup of greenhouse gases and the related problem of global warming potential that may be underway. This is a fact that can be documented by comparing the production of composite plastic crossties with the production of wooden crossties.

It is possible to quantify the environmental effect of using recycled plastic railroad crossties as a substitute for traditional wooden crossties. The information pertaining to wooden crossties and plastic crossties given in Table 1 is based on referenced numbers from the US EPA report, Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Management of Selected Materials in Municipal Solid Waste and summarized in the joint EPA and US Army Engineer Memorandum for Record, An Estimate of the Effect on Greenhouse Gases by Using Recycled Plastic as a Substitute for Treated Wood Railroad Crossties. The information listed for the steps leading to the production of the preservative Creosote comes from the World Bank Group Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines, Coke Manufacturing. The information listed for calculations concerning the tie treatment process comes from the Canadian EPA Priority Substances List Assessment Report Creosote-impregnated Waste Materials. All calculations are to be considered as conservative estimates because each of the mentioned sources caution that specific information was difficult to constrain.

The units pertinent to these comparisons are the Metric Ton Carbon Equivalent (of gas) per short ton (2000 lb/909 kg) of (solid) material utilized, or MTCE/ton. In Table 1, the MTCE/ton “cost” of producing and using a recycled plastic railroad tie is compared with the MTCE/ton “cost” of producing and using a wooden tie. 

The difference between the total MTCE/ton for producing a wooden tie and the total MTCE/ton for producing a plastic tie (0.99 MTCE/ton) represents the amount of carbon that would NOT be released to the environment by using one ton of plastic ties (9 ties) in place of one ton of wooden ties. This credit is static if the plastic tie lasts only as long as a wooden tie. If the plastic tie outlasts the wooden tie, which it will in most cases, the benefit to the environment will be greater. Thus a composite tie lasting 50 years with a manufacturing cost of 0.28 MTCE/ton would provide 5 times the carbon credits as a wood tie lasting 10 (6.35 MTCE/ton of creosote treated wood ties – 0.28 MTCE/ton of composite ties = 6.07 MTCE/ton)

Considering that most estimates place the longevity of a plastic tie at a minimum of 50 years, Table 2 shows MTCE/ton credits gained by using a plastic tie in place of a wooden tie lasting from 50 to 3 years. The longer a wooden tie remains in service the less the MTCE/ton differential between plastic and wooden ties.

The replacement of 20 million ties in North America in 2008 is the equivalent of 2 million tons of wood at the cost to the environment of 2,540,000 MTCE/tons. Published and internet sources confirm that at least 81 million wooden ties will be replaced globally in 2008. This replacement is equivalent to assaulting the environment with 10,287,000 MTCE/tons of carbon.

Scholle’s Carefully-Designed Automotive Bag-In-Box Solution:

• Uses 89 % less plastic than comparable rigid packaging, offering a substantial decrease of land fill waste.

• Efficiently stacks with 50% more utilization of storage space and transportation.

• Allows 99.9% efficient dispensing without surging, foaming, splashing, or any product loss.

• Offers exceptional durability and speed of use, increasing efficiencies for the end-user.

Automotive Industry Facts

• The total number of automobiles in the world averages 0.17 per adult.

• The automobile is the most recycled consumer product in the world today (95 percent of retired autos are processed for recycling each year).

• The United States has the largest oil pipeline system in the world, with nearly 200,000 miles of pipeline.

• Your car actually uses six different fluids: motor oil, coolant, power steering fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluid and windshield washer fluid.

• On average, Americans drive their passenger cars and trucks just over 10,000 miles per year. That translates to nearly 900 million oil changes.

• In one year, Americans use at least 1.1 billion gallons of oil in their vehicles. Much of this oil is reused and recycled.

• The world’s largest waste oil processing plant is located in East Chicago, Indiana. The facility recycles about 75 million gallons per year of crankcase and industrial oil and 20 million gallons per year of oily wastewater.

• One gallon of used oil provides the same 2.5 quarts of high-quality lubricating oil as 42 gallons of crude oil.

Sources:
Green Design and the City by Jia Lin
eHow.com
Kate Miller Wilson: http://cars.lovetoknow.com/Fun_Facts_About_Car_Maintenance
Purdue.edu