Pak Tech designed new handles for cans with a completely covered top to ensure a clean top. The injection-molded tops cover the cans with a thin layer of HDPE plastic. Many handle styles, including four- and six-packs, are available.
— Pak Tech, 1680 Irving Road, Eugene, Ore. 97402; 541/461-5000; www.paktech-opi.com.

RTC introduced the BevTrac Shelf Management System for cold vaults and coolers. The glide system consists of clear fronted retainers with spring-driven paddles that face the product forward. BevTrac also connects tray to tray, works on flat shelves, improves access to products and comes with a two-year warranty on the spring action. Six sizes, accommodating 8.4-ounce to 2-liter packages, will be available from RTC in February.
— RTC, 2800 Golf Road, Rolling Meadows, Ill. 60008; 847/640-2400; www.rtc.com.

Hitachi America Ltd.’s Industrial Systems Division introduced Vortex Blower Technologies to North America. Now available are the E-Series High Capacity and G-Series High Pressure Vortex Blower lines. Both have flexible applications for air discharge and suction, low sound levels, oil-less design and patented three-dimension impeller to provide high discharge pressure.
— Hitachi America Ltd., 50 Prospect Avenue, Tarrytown, N.Y. 10591; 914/524-6645; www.hitachi.us.

Wulftec released the Wring-500 automatic rotary ring wrapper. The stretchwrapper features high-speed wrapping for increased productivity, versatility with wrap patterns, film-saving one-way wrapping, banding and split-wrap capabilities. The Wring-500 also has a carbon fiber ring for lightness, more resistance and better response to speed change. Capable of 120 loads per hour, the machine also has radio frequency technology for reduced maintenance.
— Wulftec International Inc., 209 Wulftec, Ayer’s Cliff, Quebec, Canada J0B 1C0; 819/838-4232; www.wulftec.com.

National Adhesives announced its Eti-Melt 396, a new high-tack, light-color labeling adhesive suited for creating a “no-label” look on clear films. The adhesive is applicable on glass, PVC, HDPE and PET bottles with paper or poly labels in both pickup and overlap applications. The hot-melt adhesive is applicable for a variety of beverage applications, especially cold-beverage containers where clear, water-white adhesive is required. Eti-Melt is the newest addition to the company’s “quiet” adhesive line, which removes distractions from labeling operations.
— National Adhesives, 9435 Waterstone Boulevard, Suite 200, Cincinnati, Ohio 45249; 866/266-5565; www.nationalstarch.com.

R.A. Jones & Co. Inc. released the Adjustable Pouch King, a continuous-motion horizontal form/fill/seal machine. The machine uses the company’s high-speed forming and filling techniques and adds easy adjustments for quick, repeatable pouch size changes. It accommodates a variety of pouches and can operate at speeds up to 500 pouches per minute. The Adjustable Pouch King also offers a remote filling module, which provides flexibility and sanitation benefits and an all-new ergonomic machine configuration.
— R.A. Jones & Co. Inc., P.O. Box 485, Cincinnati, Ohio 45201; 859/578-4497; www.rajones.com.

A-B-C Packaging Machine Corp. launched a case packer that utilizes dynamic servo operation to ensure top precision and accuracy at speeds up to 30 cases per minute. Servo drive motors control the main case drive, infeed, down stacker and load pusher to ensure precise case and product movement as well as gentle handling. The machine can run a variety of cartons and semi-rigid containers and offers motorized size adjustments for repeatable accuracy. The case packer occupies only 15.4 linear feet and is built for performance with a tubular steel construction and polycarbonate guarding.
— A-B-C Packaging Machine Corp., 811 Live Oak Street, Tarpon Springs, Fla. 34689; 800/237-5975; www.abcpackaging.com.

Sato America announced the new S84 Series OEM print engines, a new line of 4-inch wide print engines. The series is designed to be more user friendly and flexible, and includes features such as a 32-bit micro-processor, print speeds up to 16 inches per second and 16 MB of RAM. The S84 Series features include multiple print resolutions, large LCD display and bi-directional ribbon capacity of up to 1,000 meters.
— Sato America Inc., 10350A Nations Ford Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28273; 704/644-1650; www.satoamerica.com.

Spiralveyors are not just for cartons or trays anymore. AmbaFlex introduces the SVM (MultiLane) for single row or mass flow of bottles, cans and containers. Spiralveyors save valuable floor space by improving line layout efficiency, offering high-volume throughput, great for depallitizing or vertical accumulation requirements.
— AmbaFlex, P.O. Box 2105, Bedford, Texas, 76095-7578; 877/800-1634; www.ambaflex.com.

HTS Systems Lock N Roll LLC introduced its new Hand Truck Sentry System. The system is a safe, ergonomic retaining apparatus for securing hand trucks aboard commercial delivery vehicles. The Hand Truck Sentry System incorporates a cab dash switch to release the hand truck for quick access. It also includes a warning system that indicates secured attachment before departure.
— HTS Systems Lock N Roll LLC, 5 West Olive Plaza, Scranton, Pa. 18508; 866/388-2102; www.handtrucksystems.com.

Invensys demonstrated its new InFusion Condition Manager at its customer conference. The Condition Manager is a new intelligent, real-time condition management component for the company’s InFusion enterprise control system that builds on its award-wining Avantis CM technology. It provides tools for analyzing and contextualizing data, and applies a rule set that triggers and manages the appropriate operations, engineering or maintenance actions, which helps align overall plant operations.
— Invensys Process Systems, 10900 Equity Drive, Houston, Texas 77041; 713/329-1600; www.InFusionECS.com.

Lantech announced its RS-6000 20-second stretchwrapping system and RD5000 portable RFID reader option for stretchwrappers. The RS-6000 Ring-Straddle design has a film delivery system capable of wrapping loads with 50-gauge film pre-stretched 250 percent or more without film breaks. The stretchwrapper also has a new cut-and-clamp system that combines a new heat-free Press ’n Seal film sealing system. The company also offers a Q-300 machine equipped with Symbol Technolgies’ new RD5000 portable reader for RFID tags. The wireless, battery-powered system feeds RFID tags and data is fed to the plant network through integrated wireless LAN or Bluetooth.
— Lantech.com, 11000 Bluegrass Parkway, Louisville, Ky. 40299; 800/866-0322; www.lantech.com.

FKI Logistex launched the UniSort MXT software module and patent-pending sorting subsystem that can increase sorter throughput. The technology can help distribution and manufacturing facilities ramp up demand on a daily or seasonal basis. UniSort MXT’s software uses algorithms to optimize merging, induction and sorting. Available for PCs as an upgrade or as a new system, the software achieves higher throughputs by maximizing product density without wear on the machine.
— FKI Logistex, 9301 Olive Boulevard, St. Louis, Mo. 63132; 877/935-4564; www.fkilogistex.com.

Cornerstone Automation Systems Inc. announced its ABOT-DUO programmable box opener. The Duo is an extension of the ABOT-ONE and uses two infeeds on a single machine for increased throughput. The machine automatically measures the size of each incoming case and finds the programmed cut line of three or four sides. Boxes can be fed in any order or mix via upstream conveyor or manually as ABOT is self-feeding and self- aligning.
— Cornerstone Automation Systems Inc., 1827 Wesley Drive, Prosper, Texas 75078; 800/930-3788; www.cornerstoneautosys.com/abot.

NewAge Industries Inc. released a new style of barbed connector. The Thermobarb FDA PP has a longer, more tapered lead barb for easier installation, tighter fit and reduced leakage as well as elimination of mold parting lines and flashing. The connector also has smooth surfaces for unrestricted flow, sterilization by gamma radiation or autoclave and a temperature range of 10° to 220° F. Thermobarb fittings are FDA-compliant and are well suited for sampling and filling applications.
— NewAge Industrise Inc., 145 James Way, Southampton, Pa. 18966; 800/506-9324; www.newageindustries.com.

KHS introduced its inline robot grouping for gentle handling of finished packaging. The inline robot grouping can handle shrinkwrapped plastic bottles, cans packed in trays and pouches in cartons. It conveys all packages to the Innopal RK4 four-axis robot that clamps incoming secondary packaging on the side with millimeter-precision grip and exact rotation and shifting. It also communicates with systems on the line using PC-based robot controls. In addition, the inline robot grouping can coordinate with palletizers and optional onsite programming software is available.
— KHS AG, Juchostrasse 20, 44143 Dortmund, Germany; 49-231-569-1339; www.khs.com.

PDC International Corp. introduced a heavy-duty, highly-flexible, shrink-sleeving machine that runs tamper-evident neckbands as well as shrink-sleeve labels. The R-200 Evolution Series is engineered for continuous operation at speeds between 50 and 200 cpm with precise graphic orientation and able to accommodate sleeve diameters from 38 mm. to 175 mm. The machine can handle nearly any product size and shape, empty or filled and is compatible with PVC, PETG and OPS labels. In addition, the machine can be changed over without tools in 20 minutes or less.
— PDC International, 8 Sheehan Avenue, South Norwalk, Conn. 06854; 203/853-1516; www.pdc-corp.com.