ITCM have long experience in the field of building and designing machinery for promotional packaging and have provided a wide range of innovative packaging for various companies including a famous fast food brand that used coupons in straws for the Millennium,  Veuve Clicquot Champagne, Pyramid tea bags, and Cafusa’ single-serve coffee bags amongst others.

The importance of standing out in an advertising arena that is highly competitive has now become tantamount to marketing companies who require their brands be associated with special events, celebrity lifestyle, and current trends.

If you feel the upcoming Olympics would benefit your brand or product then now is the time to start planning your marketing strategy and presentation, and more importantly how it will be packaged.

MD’s comment…

UK manufacturing was intensely affected by the economic downturn last year, business for most was challenging and ITCM was no exception.  2010, however, started on an entirely more positive note, with enquiry levels increasing and a busy workshop, we are looking forward to strong performance and growth and to continuing to support our customers with long-term commitment and support in meeting the manufacturing challenges and opportunities they face.

With the recent elections resulting in a coalition, Government has lots of work to do to deliver policies which will aid recovery of the UK manufacturing sector, however it is welcome news to hear that the sector expanded at the same sharp pace in May as in April, with the swiftest pace of growth for 15-and-a-half years (source:  Markit and CIPS).  This has resulted in an increase in manufacturing jobs and we are also very pleased to be once more recruiting professional engineers across the disciplines.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking our customers for their continued custom and support.  We wish you the best of summers and a very successful 2010.

                                                                                                                                    Bruce Paxton

Award winning technology…

ITCM was delighted to win the prestigious Award for Innovation at the West Midlands Medical and Healthcare Business Awards 2010, organised by medical technology industry specialist MedilinkWM.  Bruce Paxton MD (pictured receiving the award from MedilinkWM’s Lucy Watkins) commented “Innovation is essential to continued growth and development. Our team of highly experienced engineers consistently enables major leaps in factory productivity that benefit the customer.”  

Time to crack open the champagne…!

ITCM delivered a ‘world’s first’ earlier this year when we successfully completed design, build and installation of a brand new, fully automated presentation packaging line for the famous champagne house Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (VCP).

The machine erects and fills VCP’s luxury ‘design box’, which comprises an inner drawer and an outer sleeve.  ITCM’s solution includes robots for fully automated handling and loading of packaging materials and also integrates a Chinook cartoner supplied by ITCM’s sister company Langenpac for assembly of the outer sleeve.

Affecting us all…a message from Donald Foulks, Control Systems Director at ITCM

The New Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC came into force at the end of 2009.  There are radical changes to some parts of the Directive and machinery builders such as ITCM have had to act quickly to address additions to the Declaration and alterations to the essential health and safety requirements (EHSRs), including where they affect control systems, in order to comply with the new regulations.  Rest assured, however, that at ITCM we are well-informed and well-prepared:  Health and safety takes top priority and all of our machinery is designed and developed in compliance with the new regulations.

1st Place!  Warwick Rescue Robot Success…

ITCM are proud to be sponsoring Warwick University’s ‘Mobile Robotics’ team, who have just won first place overall at the recent RoboCup German Open in Magdeburg.  RoboCup is an international joint project to promote advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), mobile robotics and related fields.  This year’s competition was called RoboCup Rescue, supporting development of technologies for search and rescue in large scale disasters.  See www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/meng/wmr/ for further info and videos of the winning robot!

Dates for your diary!

Mother Nature has been meddling with our exhibition plans!  We had been looking forward to exhibiting at Interphex in New York for the first time earlier in the year however UK airspace was unfortunately closed at the time of the event so we were unable to make it.  Even so, the exhibition calendar has been rather busy over the last couple of months, including exhibiting at the Tea and Coffee World Cup in Vienna, MEDTEC UK and Total Processing and Packaging in Birmingham, UK.

Please make a note in your diaries of the following important events coming up:-

MEDICA 2010:

17^th – 20^th November 2010, Düsseldorf Trade Fair Centre, Messeplatz, Düsseldorf, Germany.

ITCM is pleased to be exhibiting at MEDICA as part of the UK pavilion on the GAMBICA stand in November.  MEDICA is the world’s largest medical trade fair and has been show-casing medical technology, laboratory equipment, diagnostic technology, medical devices and much more for many years.  

ISPE UK Affiliate Annual Conference:

18^th November 2010, Park Inn Hotel, Heathrow, London, UK. 

ITCM will be exhibiting at the tabletop exhibition at this event.  The focus for the conference this year will be on “Sustainability – Application of the Principles in the Pharmaceutical Industry”.

Martin has been with ITCM since it was first established in 1985.  In his current role at ITCM, Martin is involved with the design and build of customised control systems as a key aspect of our custom machinery service. Martin’s role has also taken him to many locations both UK and worldwide over the last 25 years. 

Martin started his working life as a technician at the Met Office where he supported a group of scientists investigating the atmospheric boundary layer and the measurement of turbulence.  Following further training and support through the Met Office, Martin then went on to read Electrical Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Reading where he later graduated with a BSc.

Six years later in 1985, Martin joined a newly established company, Molins Advanced Technology Unit (now ITCM) as an Electrical Engineer where he has continued to serve for the last 25 years.  Martin has been part of many interesting projects whilst at ITCM, designing and building control systems for a vast variety of machines in a range of sectors.

To commemorate the occasion, Martin was presented with an engraved carriage clock by Electrical and Control Systems Director, Donald Foulks (pictured above). “Serving 25 years at a company shows real commitment” commented Donald Foulks, “I would like to express our sincere thanks to Martin for his support over the years”.  

Outside of his career, Martin’s interests lie in his family life, with his wife and two daughters, he also enjoys a spot of DIY and reading.

ITCM has been developing innovative packaging and processing machinery solutions for our customers since 1985. In honour of this landmark achievement a celebration was held at ITCM to commemorate the occasion. Employees joined together to remember past projects and colleagues and enjoyed a barbeque lunch together in celebration of the company’s successes.

ITCM has evolved a great deal over the years. Back in 1985 the company was established as a technical centre of excellence as part of the Molins PLC group of companies. Initially the company was created to support other divisions of Molins PLC with machinery and product development, however, it soon established itself as a leading machinery business in its own right.

Being a manufacturer of special purpose solutions, ITCM is proud to design and build machines which create milestones in packaging technology history. We have been part of some incredibly successful new product launches in the last 25 years such as the invention of the first machinery to make pyramid teabags for Unilever in 1996, a product which continues to give Unilever competitive advantage in their market place.

Today ITCM supports companies worldwide with custom machinery solutions, new product development and productivity solutions in a wide variety of sectors. Simon Strothers, Director at ITCM commented “we are delighted to have reached such an important milestone; 25 years is a real accomplishment and this achievement reflects the high level of skills and commitment of our people in creating top quality, advanced solutions for our customers”.

Paul Davis, Business Development Manager at ITCM commented “there was a high level of good quality visitors attending Total, we met many of the right sorts of people from a wide selection of companies and had some interesting conversations”.  Visitor reaction at the show seemed positive with many saying they were enjoying the exhibition and had seen some great new technology and met some interesting new companies.

The press release from Total rounding up the event reported that they had thousands of high calibre visitors many from top-name blue-chip companies and that visitors were impressed with the exhibition and many found what they were looking for from the event.

Total Processing and Packaging is an event which aims to  deliver technical solutions and innovation to cover all of your processing and packaging needs.  The exhibition covers all of the major sectors; pharmaceutical, medical devices, food and drink and house hold products.

This year, the event will have a special focus on automation with a pavilion for robotics and industrial vision featuring live displays of working robots.  This aims to showcase the benefits in efficiency and productivity that robotics and automation can bring to your business.

Along with the many exhibitors displaying innovative solutions and technology, Total Processing and Packaging will also be holding clinics and seminars exploring the latest packaging issues, challenges and trends.  Alongside this, in the Interphex area there will be seminars about the latest issues in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

To register for the show visit the Total website.

    
Tea & Coffee World Cup 2010
Reed Messe Wien, Hall C,
Vienna, Austria

Sunday 25th to Tuesday 27th April 2010
ITCM stand number: 317

http://www.tcworldcup.com/vienna/

Tea and Coffee world cup is a comprehensive three day event catering for all in the beverage sector. Vienna will showcase hundreds of leading exhibitors from machinery and equipment suppliers to roasters, packers and goods and services suppliers. Tea and Coffee World Cup is also an invaluable source of ideas in new product and packaging development. 

ITCM will be available on stand to discuss all of your new product development and packaging challenges including luxury packaging, specialist cartoning and novel tea and coffee bags.  

Unfortunately we were unable to attend the Interphex exhibition in New York as planned due to cancelled flights, however we are pleased to be off to the NEC, Birmingham for MEDTEC UK 2010.

MEDTEC UK
NEC,
Birmingham, UK

Tuesday 27^th to Wednesday 28^th April 2010
Medilink WM stand, number 2154

http://www.canontradeshows.com/expo/mdt10/index.html

ITCM is pleased to be exhibiting as part of the Medilink WM stand at the event. We will be available to discuss any production or product development challenges including powder dosing, inhaler filling and specialist blister manufacture. ITCM designs and builds customised production equipment solutions to support the total life-cycle of your product, ranging from clinical trials through to full-scale manufacture. Our machines deliver outstanding productivity and competitive advantage through technology.

The exhibition aims to address the technical sourcing needs of medical device manufacturing companies.  MEDTEC UK is an annual showcase of packaging materials, high-tech manufacturing technology, automation and design expertise in Medical device manufacturing.

We do hope to see you at either of these leading events.  If you would like to make an appointment to meet us at either of the shows at a particular time, please contact us before hand and we would be pleased to arrange this.

Anyone planning to visit our stand whilst they were at the event can contact us directly for a chat about your requirements on +44 (0)2476 421100 or through our contact form, or alternatively for those of you who are based in the UK, we will be at the MEDTEC UK event at the NEC, Birmingham on 27^th – 28^thApril 2010 on the Medilink WM stand 2154.

We have added an interesting new packaging machinery case study to the website.  The case study covers a recent machinery design and build project for luxury champagne house Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin for specialist cartoning of their champagne. ITCM created a fully automated process for the customer and the resulting machine represents a milestone in carton forming technology.

To learn more about this see the presentation packaging case study on ITCM’s website.

ITCM is always keen to spot and nurture talent at the earliest stage, offering a unique, challenging and varied engineering environment in which apprentices, undergraduates and gradates can grow their skills. Joe gained his apprenticeship via Midland Group Training Services Ltd (MGTS).  MGTS supports both young people and adults in education, training and development of all competencies associated with engineering.

ITCM welcomed Joe back in August 2006 and over his time at ITCM and with MGTS, Joe has gained a wide range of electrical engineering and machine building skills.  He has not only completed the required units to achieve an Advanced Modern Apprenticeship, but also an additional element giving Joe a qualification in Installing Equipment Engineered Systems, which is invaluable for his role at ITCM.

Leigh Turley, Electrical Engineer at ITCM and Joe’s mentor commented that “Apprenticeships are a very effective way to learn, with hands-on, practical training in a working environment, and contributing ‘from day 1’ to real projects”.

Advanced Apprenticeships usually last 3 – 4 years and successful apprentices, like Joe, gain a BTEC in Electrical Engineering, an NVQ2 in Performing Engineering Operations and an NVQ 3 in Installation and Commissioning.