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, which are supported by Agility, Midway Metals, PKN and SMC Australia.
The biennial Industry Excellence Awards are designed to recognise innovative and outstanding packaging and processing solutions. Awards categories include Best New Product Award, APPMA Scholarship, Export Achievement Award, Design Achievement Award, Imported Equipment Award and the Customer Participation Award.
“Companies that enter these biennial awards are recognised for their contribution and outstanding achievements against their peers within the wider packaging industry,” said MarkDingley, chairman, APPMA.
2015 Best New Product Award
The Best New Product Award is designed to recognise 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. This year it was won by HMPS for its carton erector and robotic pick and place system for small pre-sealed product (pods). Manufactured at HMPS in Adelaide, the new end of line tertiary packing solution is designed to meet the growing market for packaging of drink product pods.
Two High Commendations were awarded to HEUFT Systemtechnik GmbH for the HEUFT prime and Walls Machinery/Adaptapack for the Ulysses shelf ready case packer.
Other finalists were the CLP casepacker (Case Packing Systems), Skyfall conveyor system (Denipro), SICK packaging safety system, Domino A520i IP66 inkjet printer (insignia), IRB1200 case packing robot (ABB Australia), and the A-Series label printer applicator (Matthews Australasia).
2015 APPMA Scholarship
The annual scholarship program, now in its seventh year, allows the winner to study for a Diploma in Packaging Technology. Due to the quality submissions that were received this year the APPMA agreed to provide two scholarships to the value of $20,000.
Judges conceded it was a very tough and gruelling interviewing process with very little percentage points separatingthe top four all female applicants The winners of the 2015 APPMA Scholarship are Alysha Baggett, packaging technologist, Frucor Beverages, and Alexandra Brayshaw, accessibility design researcher, Arthritis Australia.
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 deemed to have made a worthwhile contribution to an existing or new export market over the last two years was GP Graders for the Airjet cherry defect grader.
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 unique AirJet cherry sorting technology. Adoption of this grading technology has resulted in customers increasing revenue by up to 25%, and reducing costs by up to 35% per year.
A High Commendation was awarded to HMPS for its South African pet food packaging.
2015 Design Achievement Award
The 2015 Design Achievement Award winner was Machinery Automation & Robotics for is automated container loading technology primarily for chilled cartons. The solution includes a world-class vision system and quality assurance technology that is able to trace every single package and remove any damaged cartons and highlights accuracy, efficiency, productivity and safety.
Two High Commendations were awarded: Fibre King for Oryx DeErector and Heat and Control for the Fastback Revolution Mid-Gate.
2015 Imported Equipment Award
The Imported Equipment Award is designed to recognise the efforts of a company which promotes an overseas principal’s 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.
AAA Packaging Supplies was named as the winner of the Import Equipment Award for the Italian manufactured C-One Plana pallet wrapper. 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, and a 270 degree access for loading pallets. Through its accessibility, the machine also reduces warehouse issues.
A High Commendation was awarded to MPI Australia/AutomatedPackaging Systems for mail order fulfilment.
2015 Customer Participation Award
The 2015 Customer Participation Award was won by 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 DeErectors and RPC Automation for Fibre King. The Oryx De Erector enabled the end-user to fully automate the De Erect Process, running random crate sizes at the required speeds.