ARTICLES BY JOHN HENRY

  • Your Carton Is Your Food Packaging’s Life!
    4/28/2016

    If your product is sold in a carton, it's one of your most important marketing tools. It is what your customer sees in the store and on the kitchen shelf. Your carton is worth its weight in gold and needs to be treated as such because a good-looking carton sells your product. A poor-looking one may deter consumers and end up being the reason they choose your competitor's product. I'll leave it up to the graphic-arts types to handle the aesthetics. In this article I will address some of the physical aspects that can detract from your carton's appearance.

  • Packaging Machine Speed Is Easy, Capacity Is Difficult, Output Is Hard
    4/4/2016

    Packaging machine speed is easy to calculate. Just count products out, divide by time, and you have instantaneous speed per minute. In theory, you should be able to multiply by 480 to get output per shift. In reality, that instantaneous speed probably doesn't match shift output. During the shift, the machine may have stopped. That may be because the operators went to lunch, because the upstream or downstream machine stopped, because it had its own problems, or a host of other reasons. What you are really interested in is output: how many pallets can you get on the truck at the end of the day? This is related to speed, but is not the same thing.

  • How Much Does That Packaging Machine Cost?
    3/14/2016

    This sounds like a simple question, no? Don't be fooled; it is actually a quite complex one and you need to know that if you don't know how much a machine costs, it is very easy to spend too much money on one.

  • What To Consider When Choosing Inline Coding And Printing Technologies For Packaging
    2/3/2016

    There are two main types of non-contact coder: Laser and ink jet. Inkjet printers work by depositing ink on the surface of the substrate. Laser coders work by removing ink from or affecting the surface of the substrate. Laser coders do not use ink or toner and should not be confused with desktop laser printers; they are a completely different technology.

  • The Role Of Inline Coding And Printing In Food Packaging
    1/6/2016

    Virtually all food products need two types of information on the packaging and occasionally on the product itself. First is fixed information which does not change from day to day. Fixed information includes product name, UPC barcode, instructions, and more. The other is variable information that changes on a day-to-day or lot-to-lot basis.

John Henry

John Henry has worked in packaging since 1976 and is known as the go-to guy for information on packaging machinery. He is the author of the “Packaging Machinery Handbook” and “Secrets of Buying Packaging Machinery” and has authored more than 60 related articles in the trade press. At his consultancy, www.changeover.com, Henry focuses on helping manufacturers reduce downtime and improve operating efficiency. Got a question, comment, or column idea? He can be reached at johnhenry@changeover.com