Thank you to all exhibitors who submitted innovative and cutting-edge products for consideration for the 2024 Technology Excellence Awards!
Food/Beverage - WINNER
Food Radar Systems is a pioneering company in the detection of foreign bodies in food production. The company, founded +10 years ago after a research project involving the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, food manufacturers and Chalmers University of Technology paved the way for the idea.
The patented Food Radar® technology was born out of a need to detect common food contaminants that could not be detected by existing technologies. Food safety must always be at the top of the industry’s agenda, and the removal of physical contamination is central to achieving that goal. Low-density foreign bodies such as soft and hard plastics, rubber, wood and pit fragments, have always caused problems for the industry. The traditional methods are simply insufficient to address this issue going forward, so the Food Radar® represents a new opportunity for the food industry.
Foreign bodies are detected by transmitting low power microwaves through the food product. The system uses a microwave sensor designed for emulsions and pumpable products and measures the dielectric properties of the food. Foreign bodies produce a deviation from the norm, activating a very fast pneumatic rejection, controlled by a proprietary automatic algorithm. The system can also detect denser foreign objects such as glass and metal but is particularly well-suited to less dense foreign objects such as wood splinters, hard and soft plastics, rubber, extraneous vegetable matter, fruit stones and starch lumps.
Now boasting a client list of major international food manufacturers, the Food Radar® technology is continuously proving its value.
General Packaging & Processing - WINNER
Fogg's PF pressure filler series is a complete rethink of filling technology engineered as a hybrid system to offer significant advantages overcurrent gravity bowl and pressure gravity filling designs. It is a technological hybrid pairing that integrates the precision and the product supply pressure of contactless electronic metering valves, with the closed loop bypass process controls and CIP/SIP cleanability in a contact filling valve.
In place of flexible hoses, this system is comprised of downward sloped stainless-steel plumbing for a more direct, and hygienic product path. This makes for a fully CIP/SIP able system that will increase speed and cleanliness in the filling process and greatly reduces the opportunity for temperature loss in hot filled products.
These stainless tubes are in a fixed position, minimizing the total moving parts on the filler. The technology is simpler to operate and maintain, with fewer parts and controls than non-contact electronic or vacuum filling solutions. Technicians can easily understand the operation without a lengthy and costly training process.
These filling systems dramatically improve the speed and effectiveness of filling in distilled spirits and hot fill beverage processes, among other food and beverage products, given creative new valve designs, valve product supply and venting systems, and precision "predictive pumping" technology.
This new filling technology exemplifies Fogg's innovative reputation in the food and beverage filling industries and represents long awaited features and benefits integrated into a single machine that were historically discrete to multiple different machine technologies.
Personal Care/Pharma - WINNER
The Omni-IR™ is the new generation of our already proven linear technology, enhancing its capabilities and reliability to meet the ever-growing needs of manufacturing environments. Employed in a wide range of industries, these unscramblers excel at efficiently unscrambling a wide range of container types including round, rectangular, square, and oval PET, HDPE, PP, PS, and PVC plastic bottles, with and without handles, as well as spiral-wound fiber containers. Capable of achieving speeds ranging from 250 to 650 bottles per minute, the Omni-IR™ series offers manufacturers of all sizes a customizable solution to meet specific production demands while adhering to budgetary constraints. These machines are most deployed in personal care, ready-to-drink beverages, bottled water, automotive, laundry, household cleaning, and container decorating.
Sustainability - WINNER
Product innovation and a culture of circularity have been core to Plastipak Packaging, Inc.'s ("Plastipak") operations since the company’s founding. As a leading producer of plastic packaging, we are driven to develop circular solutions that protect the environment and meet our customers’ exacting standards for sustainability and performance.
Plastipak, a global leader in the design, manufacture, and recycling of plastic containers is successfully producing PPKNatura, the world’s first polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin made from captured carbon emissions. Using an innovative carbon capture and transformation ("CCT") technology from LanzaTech that converts waste carbon into materials such as sustainable fuels, fabrics, packaging, and other products that people use in their daily lives. The resin is suitable for food, personal care, and pharmaceutical packaging, as well as other non-packaging applications.
PPK Natural resin reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and its production process does not require land or food resources. In addition, packaging made from this material can be fully recycled at the end of its life, keeping the carbon in a circular material cycle. Proprietary bacteria are applied to consume a variety of waste feedstocks and convert them into new chemicals, which can be turned into packaging, clothing, laundry detergent, aviation fuel, and more. The company explains that, while PET resin contains 30% monoethylene glycol (MEG) traditionally sourced from petroleum, PPK Natura utilizes LanzaTech’s carbon capture technology to produce CarbonSmart MEG.
"PPK Natura resin is one element of Plastipak’s Sustainability program, which among other initiatives, targets the extension of our product circularity with the intent of supporting customers in reducing their Scope 3 emissions. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership with LanzaTech as we work together to achieve our long-term goals.” said Pedro Martins, Executive Managing Director Europe of Plastipak.