When it comes to 3D printing, the sky is the limit. As 3D printing technology continues to advance, applications can be as far reaching as airplane and automobile parts to medical devices and even anatomically correct, biocompatible models. Although 3D printing technology is developing at a rapid pace, the technology itself is not new. It emerged in the 1980s as a means of creating rapid prototypes. In recent years the applications for 3D printed models have evolved with the available hardware, software, and printable materials. Evolving technology, paired with the creative and innovative minds of scientists, engineers, and physicians, has been the launching pad for developments within 3D printing technology specific to healthcare. One way 3D printing technology is poised to create better patient outcomes is in creating an anatomically and patient-specific models to aid in surgery and medical procedures. With the capability to 3D ...
Prying items out of the dreaded plastic clamshell packing involve determination and sacrifice in the form of a nail or two and a top layer of skin from your knuckles. But it looks like high petroleum prices while hurting our wallets, may have to do our hands a favor. As Stephanie Clifford reports in The New York Times, retailers are replacing expensive, petroleum-based plastic packing with cheaper substitutes, like cardboard.
Major retailers, like Target and Wal-Mart, are either replacing plastic or using less of it. It’s relatively easy for online retailers like Amazon.com to forgo the clamshell. But in physical stores, the packaging has to attract the customer and protect the merchandise from too many hands.
Packaging company MeadWestvaco has taken a new tack with packaging. It took a tamper-evident cardboard sheet it originally supplied for pharmaceutical trials, stuck on a clear laminate that prevented tearing, and glued the two sheets of the cardboard together. The company added cutout in the middle and placed a plastic bubble molded to a specific product, like a camera.
Clifford reports:
Wal-Mart began selling items in the new packaging in 2010, and though MeadWestvaco declined to release usage numbers, it says that all of the Swiss Army knives are using the new packaging, and about 85 percent of the computer memory market (like USB drives and SD cards) has switched over.MeadWestvaco says the package reduces plastic by 60 percent, on average, versus the clamshell version for a given product. It also is lighter by 30 percent, which cuts down on transportation costs and fuel use.
MeadWestvaco isn’t the only packaging supplier on the plastic-reduction trajectory. Others, like the Apex Tool Group,  are going for blister packs, the kind used to sell medicinal pills. The cost of material and labor for a blister pack is 20-30% cheaper than for a clamshell.
Because the blister pack is more compact than a clamshell, more merchandise can be stacked on a shelf. The blister packs can also be festooned with graphics and text to catch the consumer’s eye.
Blister packs can be easily tagged with hidden sensors so merchandise can’t be easily shoplifted. With clamshells, the tags were on top of the packaging, making them easy to peel off and throw away by thieves. The blister packs are also resistant to being ripped open by bare hands, so theft is less of a problem.
But these blister packs perhaps indicate that our hands aren’t so safe, after all.
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