Over 380 people were in attendance at the Crown Towers when the Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association (APPMA) announced the winners for the 2015 APPMA Industry Excellence Awards, supported by Agility, Midway Metals, PKN and SMC Australia. Award categories included Best New Product Award, APPMA Scholarship, Export Achievement Award, Design Achievement Award, Imported Equipment Award and the Customer Partnership Award.

According to Mr Mark Dingley, Chairman, APPMA, the biennial Industry Excellence Awards are designed to recognize innovative and outstanding packaging and processing solutions.

"Companies that enter these biennial awards are recognized for their contribution and outstanding achievements against their peers within the wider packaging industry and we encourage everyone to enter."

2015 Best New Product Award

The Best New Product Award is designed to recognize the most innovative product or equipment that is launched in Australia for the first time during AUSPACK 2015 in the packaging and processing and allied components industries.

The finalists were CLP Casepacker (Case Packing Systems), Skyfall conveyor system (Denipro), Coffee Pod Cartoning Machine (HMPS), HEUFT prime (Heuft SystemTechnik GMBH), Packaging Safety System (SICK), Domino A520i IP66 inkjet printer (insignia), IRB1200 Case Packing Robot (ABB Australia), A-Series Label Printer Applicator (Matthews Australasia) and Ulysses Shelf Ready Case Packer (Walls Machinery/Adaptapack).

The 2015 Best New Product Award winner is HMPS for the Coffee Pod Cartoning Machine. Two High Commendations were also awarded: HEUFT Systemtechnik GMBH for the HEUFT prime and Walls Machinery/Adaptapack for the Ulysses Shelf Ready Case Packer.

The HMPS8000 is a carton erector and robotic pick and place system for small pre-sealed product (pods), and is manufactured at HMPS in Adelaide, Australia. The major requirements of the coffee pod cartooning machine were to provide a means of conveying the coffee pods from two different types of filling machines to the HMPS8000 Carton Packing Cell, with the proviso that either system could be used with minor changes required.

The solution was designed to be highly flexible to allow for the initial rate of 120 pods per minute, and to increase to 360 pods per minute when the clients machinery was upgraded, while performing at a efficiency of 96% or higher. The HMPS8000 is a new end of line tertiary packing solution, designed to meet the growing market for packaging of drink product pods. The HMPS8000 can be adapted to other drink products such as tea and hot chocolate.

2015 APPMA Scholarship 

The seventh annual scholarship program enables one person each year to study a Diploma in Packaging Technology. Due to the quality submissions that were received this year the APPMA has agreed to provide 2 scholarships to the value of $20,000.

The winners of the 2015 APPMA Scholarship are Alysha Baggett, Packaging Technologist, Frucor Beverages and Alexandra Brayshaw, Accessibility Design Researcher, Arthritis Australia.

Alysha Baggett displayed a sound understanding of what is involved and showed great interest beyond the basics of packaging technology. She has the right credentials, knows what she wants to achieve and appears to have the drive to make it all happen. Alysha has the basic academic qualifications in place to build upon and her current workplace and general interests certainly gave her the edge over other applicants. The judges believe that she has sound inherent qualities of mind and character, a solid foundation with a good positive outlook, the will to achieve and an excellent track record in her short working career. Alysha wants to be the best in her portfolio. She is a worthy recipient and we wish her well.

Alexandra Brayshaw has displayed great tenacity over a number of years, driven by her passion and enjoyment of her work and involvement in a very interesting sector of packaging. The judges believe that she will do well in this particular field by making those contributions that they seek in their scholarship winners. It was a very tough and gruelling interviewing process this year with very little % points separating the top 4 applications, but we felt that Alexandra had the edge on the others, and something that we in packaging look forward to experiencing more from her, in the years to come.

The two other finalists were Marianna McEwan, Contract Packaging Technologist, Frucor Beverages and Mona Parnian, Quality Systems Engineer, Wellman Packaging.

2015 Export Achievement Award

The recipient of the Export Achievement Award will have made a worthwhile contribution to an existing or new export market over the last two years.

The 2015 Export Achievement Award winner is GP GRADERS for the Airjet Cherry Defect Grader and a High Commendation was awarded to HMPS for their South African Pet Food Packaging.

GP Graders is an Australian exporting success story. Now a globally renowned business and industry leader, the company is the largest supplier of turnkey fruit grading and packaging machinery in Australia, with over 875 fruit packing lines installed. This R&D has resulted in the creation of the AirJet cherry sorting technology, which is truly unique and revolutionary for the industry.

Adoption of this grading technology has resulted in customers increasing revenue by up to 25%, and reducing costs, by up to 35% per year. GP Graders' AirJet cherry defect graders are the most accurate and consistent systems with the most effective defect sorting and size grading available in the world today.

2015 Design Achievement Award

The Design Achievement Award will recognize the development of a packaging or processing line or module that results in the significant advancement of packaging and processing machinery technology by either introducing a new idea, or modifying an existing principle.

The 2015 Design Achievement Award Winner is Machinery Automation & Robotics for BladeStop. Two High Commendations were also awarded: Fibre King for Oryx De Erector and Heat and Control for the Fastback Revolution Mid-Gate.

BladeStop is an automated container loading solution primarily for chilled cartons. Although some semi-automated or load assistance devices exist for container packing of frozen cartons, MAR saw a need to develop alternative solutions where chilled meat cartons were being packed in containers for shipping. Design and technology arose from a need of a more reliable, efficient, productive and safer container loading process.

The automated container loading was developed to address the problems of manual labour handling of the packages which includes high labour costs, Reject Reduction, OH&S, Rates, Traceability, Quality and Automation. BladeStop includes a world-class vision system and quality assurance technology that is able to trace every single package and remove any damaged cartons. BladeStop highlights accuracy, efficiency, productivity and safety.

2015 Imported Equipment Award

The Imported Equipment Award is designed to recognize the efforts of a company who promotes their overseas principals equipment in the Australian market; where the equipment in itself represents a high standard of excellence in every aspect relevant to the industry it serves.

The 2015 Imported Equipment Award winner is AAA Packaging Supplies for the C-One Plana Pallet Wrapper with 2 High Commendations awarded to MPI Australia/Automated Packaging Systems for the Mail Order Fulfilment and Walls Machinery for the Toyo Jidoki Pouch Packaging Machinery.

The C-One Plana Pallet Wrapper, built with European engineering precision and state-of-the-art technology, has revolutionalised the Australian Tertiary Packaging Industry. The C-One Pallet Wrapper is fully designed and built, in Emilia Romagna, a region in Italy that is famous for its packaging know-how. C-One is a division of C&C Group, with 95% of its sales exported to other countries. Other key and unique benefits of the C-One Plana include 20% Saving in Film Usage, 50% + Saving in Film Wastage, OH&S approval that eliminates the constant risk of danger and strain that is normally endured by ‘pick and pack’ personnel – when using standard pallet wrappers with high ramps, a 270 degree access for loading pallets and through its accessibility, the machine also reduces warehouse issues.

2015 Customer Partnership Award

The Customer Partnership Award has a major emphasis on the customisation of packaging and processing machinery which is required to suit a customer's individual needs.

The 2015 Customer Participation Award winner is Fibre King.

The project reduced manual handling of RPCs for the end-user and the Proof of Concept for the Oryx De Erector created a partnership between manufacturer and end user that enabled both parties to create value through lower overall cost of use per RPC for the end-user and future demand for De Erectors and RPC Automation for Fibre King. The Oryx De Erector enabled the end-user to fully automate the De Erect Process, running random crates sizes, at the required speeds. As the end-user said:

"The Oryx De Erector is a unique machine that de-erects a multitude of crate sizes with minimal change of parts, and features our usual design prerequisite – minimal operator intervention. For this being the first system for de-erecting different types of containers Fibre King did a good job and the system is running above expectation."

Images:

• Image 1 - CLP Casepacker
• Image 2 - HEUFT prime
• Image 3 - SICK Packaging Safety System