2015 APPMA Industry Excellence Awards winners announced

The winners of the 2015 APPMA Industry Excellence Awards were announced to a crowd of 380 at the Crown Towers on 25 March. The biennial awards are designed to recognise innovative and outstanding packaging and processing solutions.

“Companies that enter these biennial awards are recognised for their contribution and outstanding achievements against their peers within the wider packaging industry and we encourage everyone to enter,” said Mark Dingley, chairman of the Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association (APPMA).

2015 Best New Product Award

HMPS took out this award for its Coffee Pod Cartoning Machine. The HMPS8000 is a carton erector and robotic pick-and-place system for small pre-sealed product (pods) and is manufactured by HMPS in Adelaide.

The award is designed to recognise the most innovative product or equipment that is launched in Australia for the first time during AUSPACK in the packaging and processing and allied components industries.

Two High Commendations were awarded for this category, to HEUFT Systemtechnik GMBH for the HEUFT prime and Walls Machinery/Adaptapack for the Ulysses Shelf Ready Case Packer.

2015 APPMA Scholarship

This year’s scholarship was presented to two finalists: Alysha Baggett, a Packaging Technologist with Frucor Beverages, and Alexandra Brayshaw, an Accessibility Design Researcher with 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

GP Graders won this award for its Airjet Cherry Defect Grader. The company is the largest supplier of turnkey fruit grading and packaging machinery in Australia, with more than 875 fruit packing lines installed. The company’s Airjet cherry sorting technology has helped its customers increase revenue by up to 25% and reduce costs by up to 35% each year.

A High Commendation was awarded to HMPS for its South African Pet Food Packaging.

The Export Achievement Award is presented to a company that has made a worthwhile contribution to an existing or new export market over the last two years.

2015 Design Achievement Award

Machinery Automation & Robotics’ (MAR’s) Container Loading solution secured it the 2015 Design Achievement Award. The company developed an automated container loading solution primarily for chilled cartons. Although some semiautomated 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.

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 for this category: one to Fibre King for its Oryx De Erector and another to Heat and Control for its Fastback Revolution Mid-Gate.

This award recognises 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.

2015 Imported Equipment Award

The 2015 Imported Equipment Award winner is AAA Packaging Supplies for the C-One Plana Pallet Wrapper. The wrapper has reportedly revolutionised the Australian tertiary packaging industry. It reduces film usage by 20%, reduces film wastage by more than 50% and eliminates the risk of danger and strain endured by pick-and-pack personnel.

MPI Australia/Automated Packaging Systems received a High Commendation for its Mail Order Fulfilment solution.

The Imported Equipment Award is designed to recognise the efforts of a company that promotes its 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.

Customer Participation Award

Fibre King took out this award for a project that reduced manual handling of RPCs for the end user and enabled both parties to create value through lower overall cost of use per RPC for the end user. The Oryx De Erector enables the end user to fully automate the de-erect process, running random crate sizes at the required speeds.

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