Swedish gingerbread biscuits have become an increasingly popular international biscuit product, especially in connection with Christmas celebrations. With its coming investment in the exhibition at the major Anuga trade fair in Cologne the Swedish company Annas Pepparkakor AB, the world's leading manufacturer, wants to show that gingerbread biscuits are a year-round product with significant potential in other situations and in the Central European market.

Novel drive shaft actuator provides precision control through a lightweight, compact design, offering a wide choice of adjustment gear ratios coupled with long life and high efficiency.

Inkjet printhead systems featuring patented piezoelectric impulse technology are now available in a broader range of sizes and resolution capabilities. By introducing the smaller MicroCoder and higher resolution PixelJet printing subsystems, Trident International, Inc., has expanded the possible uses of the technology the company originated with its UltraJet printing subsystems.

The Camfil Group introduces a new environmentally-friendly compact, space saving filter: the Airopac Green. The filter's cardboard packaging is made from recycled fibers and also is the actual frame for the filter. This product requires no separate outer shipping carton thereby reducing the volume of waste paper to be deposited in landfills. 

Compressed air is costly and often in short supply in manufacturing plants. According to US company, Spraying Systems Co., their 707 and 727 series air control nozzles can cut the annual consumption of air by up to 55%, compared with open pipes, and reduce noise levels by up to 60%, depending on the model. Applications for the nozzles include surface drying, product cooling, air knife cutting, and material cleaning and conveying, in a broad range of industrial processes.

Paper chart recorders must routinely be replenished with paper and ink, incurring significant material and labor costs. U.S. company Monarch Instrument's range of paperless recorders eliminate paper charts by displaying data on a high resolution, 127mm LCD display, and by storing the data on 89mm floppy disks or PCMCIA memory cards. The company also offers portable, contact/non-contact tachometers, portable and machine vision stroboscopes, complete with sensors. The products have CE marking.

Injecting precise volumes of liquids and chemicals is critical to many industrial processes. Haskel International's latest CIP H series chemical injection pumps are specifically designed for this application, and because they are non- electrical, function safely in hazardous environments. Nineteen models cover delivery rates from 0.05 to 341 liters per hour, for process line pressures up to 1034 bar, producing what the manufacturer claims is the broadest range of air/gas driven injection pumps in the world. 

The first aluminium-free packaging for yoghurt cups and other dairy products has been launched by Finnish Enso Paperboards. This environmentally-friendly solution has been made possible by using a new paper based lidding material, called Ensolid, which is prepared with a special barrier coating. The lid is said to have good mechanical properties and to allow for convenient peeling without tearing. The material is also reported to have excellent printability with the polymer coated construction providing an effective oxygen, water vapour and aroma barrier. Therefore, the new lidding material is also suitable for packing ice-cream, juice, soft cheese and other dairy products. Its use by dairies is said to be simple, requiring only minor machine investments.

The world's fifth largest computer company, Compaq Computer Corporation, has selected Sterling Commerce to supply an end-to-end electronic data interchange (EDI) solution for 900 distribution channel partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This large-scale implementation of EDI software and services will help the computer manufacturer enhance customer service.

Conventional product development cycles typically involve design, prototyping, testing, design modification, re-testing etc., to achieve a pre-production version. ADAMS version 9.0 software, developed by US company Mechanical Dynamics Inc., enables all these functions to be conducted in the virtual domain of the computer, significantly reducing development cost and time tomarket.