NEWS
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DuPont (Wilmington, DE) announced that its DuPont Awards competition, now in its 20th year, will adopt a new focus on sustainability. DuPont Packaging vice president William F. Weber unveiled the change September 26 at the Sustainable Packaging Forum in Pittsburgh. Entries must be received by January 31, 2008. An international jury panel will judge them based on innovation, enhanced performance, responsible sourcing, clean production, and sound recovery. Visit www2.dupont.com/Packaging/en_US/news_events/20th_awards_call_for_entries.html
KMA Global Solutions International Inc. (Mississauga, ON, Canada) announced plans to create an RFID development center, which follows the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s approval of KMA’s patent for its DUALTag product. The center will focus on development of product designs and production methods needed to integrate RFID capability with Electronic Article Surveillance–enabled source-tagging products that KMA already sells. The patenting of DUALTag, KMA’s principal packaged-goods source tag, was a stumbling block for the company to jump-start its RFID development in anticipation of future market demand for RFIDs on the product unit level.
In its annual Top 10 Medical Innovations list, the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland) reviewed 10 emerging healthcare technologies that will shape 2008. The breakthroughs, which were selected by a panel of Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists, include a live attenuated influenza vaccine for children as young as 6 months old that uses nasal drops instead of a needle, and RNA-based therapeutics designed to treat patients with high cholesterol. Through subsidiary CCF Innovations, Cleveland Clinic helps these fledgling inventions progress to commercial viability.
Chesapeake Corp. (Richmond, VA) dedicated its new pharmaceutical paperboard plant in Kunshan, China, on October 18. The new plant will provide Chesapeake with design services and house equipment for digital plate making, digital label printing, high-gloss varnishing, foil stamping, and laminating. The facility’s 36,000-sq-ft floor plan adds to Chesapeake’s existing plant in Kunshan, which manufactures plastic bottles for the pharmaceutical market, by adding the production of paper-based packaging for domestic and multinational customers.
With Delaware governor Ruth Ann Minner in attendance, INEOS Films Group (Hampshire, UK) held the ribbon cutting for its Delaware City, DE, production facility on November 8. The site was purchased in 2004 to house INEOS’s North American headquarters; renovations began in May 2005, finishing in phases. Its adjoining rigid-films plant has begun production. Costing more than $30 million, the facility will employ more than 100 people.
