Industry professionals head to Orlando for the international forum on transport packaging.
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Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL
(Copyright 2000, THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY.) . |
Deciding which of the many packaging sessions to attend will be more difficult than deciding between wearing mouse ears or cowboy boots on the way to Dimensions.07. The forum and conference— cohosted by the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) and the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP)—will take place March 26–30 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL.
The program is jam-packed, if you’ll pardon the pun, with workshops, sessions, and events during the four and a half days of the conference. Thursday, March 29, however, seems to offer the most to packaging professionals in the medical device, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical industries. David Shires, principal consultant at Pira International, will present “Low Frequencies in Vibration Tests” on Thursday morning. The session will explore real data from two vibration systems and discuss how inaccuracies in such systems can result in table-control problems. Following that discussion, Brian Wallin, an engineer at Amgen Inc., will outline minimum requirements for developing a random vibration profile to meet qualification needs in his presentation, “Developing a Random Vibration Profile Standard.” He will also address the lack of an industry standard in vibration data collection and analysis.
Also on Thursday, “Advancements in Design and Testing of Shrink-Wrapped Tray-Based Secondary Packaging” will be presented by Dale Knochenmuss, senior associate at Stress Engineering Services. In the afternoon, Mark Escobedo, chief technologist at Westpak Inc., will compare several thermal packaging techniques, including the ISTA 5B summer and winter profiles. Thursday afternoon will also include three sessions on sustainable packaging and will conclude with a roundtable discussion on sustainability.
Because industry-approved testing profiles have yet to be developed for the cold-chain transportation environment, Ray Cowland, senior engineer, Amgen Inc., will describe how to develop heat and cold testing profiles to meet qualification needs. His presentation, “Developing ISTA Cold Chain Environmental Standards,” will take place in the morning on Friday, March 30.
The IoPP transport packaging committee meeting will be held on Tuesday evening, March 27. ISTA will host two sessions on Wednesday evening on the organization’s current projects.
ISTA will also be offering an instructional workshop course on the first day of the event, Monday, March 26, for ISTA members wishing to gain certified packaging laboratory professional (CPLP) status. The certification exam will take place on the morning of Tuesday, March 27.
For more information about this year’s forum, including the complete conference schedule and registration instructions, go to www.dimensions-info.com [3]. To learn more about the two organizations hosting the event, visit www.ista.org [4] and www.iopp.org [5].
