Choice Picks

 Never break a fingernail again
WHY did it take so long for anyone to bring out a pull-tab that saves fingernails? We don't know the answer to that one, but now that OptiLift is here, we're happy.
Using a simple but ingenious idea, the Ardagh Group placed a hollow for your finger under the pull-tab that makes for considerably improved ergonomics. The lid offers 10% saving on material over the conventional version. To the jury of the iF packaging award – an international design prize awarded at interpack – this was worth the 'iF gold award'.
Robert Zanetto, business development director – Metal-Asia for Ardagh, said development of the easy-open can end "took more than one full year to develop following strong upstream marketing survey based on customer's behaviour and expectations."
OptiLift ends are now commercially available with major customers like William Saurin, which sells canned and ready-to-serve French meals and others in Europe. ""This new end will be available in all known diameters and will contribute to sustainable packaging development as a material reduction of at least 10% can be realised," Mr Zanetto said. "They can be available in Asia upon request, but still manufactured today in our European plants."
Ardagh Group (HK Office)
T: +852 3971 9100
F: +852 2524 1428
E: robert.zanetto@ardaghgroup.com
W: www.ardaghgroup.com
FPE279

Really, really flexible format
RESEALABLE closures on flexible pouch formats have been around for some time, of course, but one look at the new Zip360 and we know that we never have to transfer contents into a separate container again or shove the half-open package in a zip-lock bag ever again.
"How many times have you done that? Then you throw away the package, and never see any of the marketing messages they worked so hard to put on it," commented Robert Hogan, director, Global Marketing at Zip-Pak.
Developed in conjunction with Triangle Package Machinery Co. and Printpack, Inc., the new pouch format is an alternative packaging to bag-in-box formats for cereal, cookies, pet food or even frozen food. "The zipper goes all around the gusset sides and you have a wide-mouth opening that allows you to scoop out the contents and reseal it," Mr Hogan explains. "There's also an optional pour-spout to enhance consumer convenience."
The new package is also more sustainable. A life cycle analysis that compared 20-oz bag-in-box formats to 21-oz resealable flexible pouches, conducted by Franklin Associates, Inc., confirmed that the 'resealables' offer superior product-to-package ratio, lower energy footprint, lower solid waste footprint and lower greenhouse gas emissions throughout their life-cycle.
Zip-Pak Manteno
T: +1 815 468 6500
F: +1 815 468 6550
E: Robert.Hogan@zippak.com
W: www.zippak.com
FPE219

Bottles thermoformed from a plastic sheet
AS we were on our way to check out the Roll N Blow system, we overheard someone say, "If you had to choose only one thing to see, it would have to be the roll-and-blow. It's the talk of interpack." We had no way of confirming that, but we indeed think that this technology is unique and probably even revolutionary.
Although tube-fed construction of packages is not new, this is the first time that the concept is being used to thermoform bottles from a single roll of plastic sheetiNike