Printpack, Inc., a flexible and specialty rigid packaging manufacturer and MSA Systems, Inc., a warehousing and distribution automation integrator, have announced a joint venture to integrate RFID reading and measurement equipment to the Clemson University Packaging Science Department for equipping a laboratory. Printpack donated the equipment to the lab for student training and industry research.

Dennis M. Love, Printpack President and CEO, stated, “Printpack is extremely impressed with the excellence of the undergraduate and graduate programs at Clemson. The company has benefited by the quality and knowledge from hiring its graduates and we are pleased to continue investing in its programs.”

In addition to the equipment laboratory, Printpack, supported by MSA Systems, is funding research at Clemson for defining RFID tracking systems and for printing RFID components using traditional printing methods. The first student research project will focus on a stress test for RFID tags. Both companies will support projects in the Packaging Science and the Graphics Communications departments.

Currently, Printpack is using RFID to track some work-in-process (production) inventory, and is working with suppliers such as MSA Systems on logistics applications. Their major interest in the Clemson research involves assessing the impact that different flexible packaging structures have on effective communication between tagged pallets of rollstock or individually tagged rolls and RFID reader components. Printpack and MSA Systems plan to use these findings to guide their customers in designing optimal RFID tracking systems for flexible packaging products in their production facilities.