Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Packagers Set Sights on WestPack and More

The upcoming four-day show features a new automation technology expo.

WestPack, collocated with Medical Design & Manufacturing West and other events, will span four days, bringing a wide range of conference topics and packaging options to attendees and exhibitors. More than 500 exhibitors and 13,000 packaging buyers are scheduled to attend the expo at the Anaheim Convention Center (Anaheim, CA).

The West Coast’s largest packaging show will be held from Tuesday, January 31, to Thursday, February 2. Conference sessions begin on Monday, January 30.
Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News will again sponsor the Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Packaging Pavilion in WestPack. The pavilion offers specialty equipment for the pharmaceutical industry as well as packaging for vitamins and nutritional supplements. Attendees who are interested in packaging for these industries will also find another special-focus pavilion at WestPack serving their needs, the Material Handling & Logistics Pavilion.

The MedPak Pavilion, also sponsored by PMP News, in MD&M West, brings attendees and the leading suppliers of medical packaging technology together. High-speed fillers, dispensers, sealers, thermoformers, labelers and printers, flexible pouches, and barrier films will be on display.

The Automation Technology Expo (ATX) West is a new addition to the show. ATX brings attendees displays in custom automation, robotics, vision systems, and motion control. It also features control software, sensors, assembly systems, and drives.

Two sessions at MD&M West on January 30 are particularly relevant to the medical packaging industry: Packaging Engineering, in the morning, and Packaging Validation and Compliance, in the afternoon. Douglas Stockdale, president of Stockdale Associates Inc., a consultancy for aseptic fill/finish and sterile packaging, will chair both sessions.

At the Packaging Engineering session, Curtis Larsen, package engineering consultant for Dupont Medical Packaging, will detail the past and future activities of the Institute of Packaging Professionals’ (IoPP) Technical Committee as well as what the device industry may expect from IoPP. At the same session, Anthony Bantug, senior packaging engineer at FedEx, will discuss packaging design software and how it can help reduce overall manufacturing costs.

During the Packaging Validation and Compliance session, Nick Fotis, director of the packaging technology center at Cardinal Health’s medical products and services group, will focus on the benefits of harmonization in and improvements to ISO 11607. Marci-Ann L. Ando, senior packaging engineer for Celera Diagnostics, will focus on how to perform a transport packaging validation for a product or package system using ASTM and ISTA standards.

For more information or to register for the shows, call 310/445-4200, or visit www.canontradeshows.com.

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