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When it comes to original equipment design, successful customisation to meet a specific requirement is often the catalyst for innovation that can be game changing for a particular sector.

The Customer Participation Award, one of the APPMA Industry Excellence Awards, recognises that, and this year Fibre King was announced the winner of the category for the development of the Oryx De Erector.

In short, 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 De Erectors 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.

Read more about it here.

Other awards recognising technology developments presented on the night included the Best New Product Award to HMPS for the Coffee Pod Case Packing system; the Export Achievement Award GP Graders for the Airjet Cherry Defect Grader; the Design Achievement Award to Machinery Automation & Robotics for Container Loading solution; and the Imported Equipment Award to AAA Packaging Supplies for the C-One Plana Pallet Wrapper.

The award-winning technology will be covered in PKN's May-June print issue.

Food & Drink Business

End-to-end winemaking services company, Hirsch Wine Group, has modernised its wine production, with the introduction of a fully automated bottling line, and expansion of its facilities to include 6000 square meters of temperature-controlled storage.

Calling on all innovators in food and drink manufacturing. We extended the deadline for The Hive Awards 2025 and the floodgates opened! Don't miss this opportunity to have your project or product on centre stage and celebrated in Australia's only awards program that encompasses the whole sector. 

The poultry company reported a 17 per cent drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to $210 million and a 19 per cent drop in net profit after tax (NPAT) to $51.5 million in 1H FY25 on the prior corresponding period (pcp).