While Caren and I were at Pack Expo, a highlight was the Pack Challenge—a competition in which high schools develop, build, operate and market a solution to a particular packaging problem.
This year six finalists were selected and were set up to demonstrate their solutions at the entrance to the West Hall exhibits.
As is always the case at shows, we were short on time and were only able to spend time with the team from Rich Township High School – maybe because of their cool T-Rex logo 😀
The Challenge
Each team was set the task of creating a company that would market a new machine to automatically denest and orient paper coffee cups.
Our friends, the Rich Township team, designed and built a system called The Talon.
The Talon is an impressive piece of equipment and is designed to denest cups from multiple stacks at the same time.
It’s all pneumatic in operation, all controlled by a Siemens HMI and PLC.
When we visited, the team was working on the machine, so we don’t have a video, but you can see from the photo that it wouldn’t look out of place on a booth on the main show floor. Very impressive!
Marketing
Because building a business was part of the project, there is more to Equity Industries than just the engineering students.
We also spoke with students interested in business studies, communications and marketing.
This part of the team has produced a product brochure for The Talon, which also provides information on the Equity Industries brand and its aims. There is also a website that you can visit here: https://sites.google.com/view/equity-industries/home
What Did We Think?
The Pack Challenge feature is a brilliant initiative by PMMI to help young people develop skills that will help them in their future lives and careers – hopefully in the packaging industry.
On the face of it, packaging might not seem like the most sexy career choice for young people, but it involves all kinds of leading-edge technologies, just about every business function, as well as sales and marketing. I’ve been involved in the industry for a rather long time and am enjoying it more than ever.
Finally, a shout-out to the students from Rich Township High School.
The people we spoke with were exceptionally enthusiastic, knowledgeable about their project and great ambassadors for the school. I hope we see some of them in packaging in the future!
