The ninth edition of the Italian Packaging Technology Awards (IPTA) program will be launched at Pack Expo 2009 in Las Vegas.

The IPTA program awards student winners of a writing competition (on technical innovations in packaging) a trip to Italy to visit leading packaging machinery manufacturers.

The program endeavors to deepen the packaging education of students by providing them a unique opportunity to how packaging machinery is crafted. The company visits also foster discussions on current challenges and opportunities within the packaging industry.

Italy is one of the world’s main suppliers of machinery and materials for the packaging sector and provides companies around the globe with innovative packaging technologies and solutions, which have made Italian companies recognized world leaders.

This past June 2009, student winners of the IPTA 2009 program spent two weeks in Italy visiting leading packaging machinery manufacturers including CAVANNA (www.cavanna.com), CFT PACKAGING (www.cftpackaging.eu), IMA (www.ima.it), IMBALL (www.imball.it), MARCHESINI GROUP (www.marchesini.com), MG2 (www.mg2.it), SACMI IMOLA (www.sacmi.com), and SMI GROUP (www.smigroup.it).

The 2009 student winners are:

Faculty from participating Universities accompanied the students, providing them with a valuable opportunity to discover new packaging technologies and enhance their packaging programs by sharing their experiences with other students. This year’s faculty participation included Gregory Batt (Clemson University) and Melvin Pascall (Ohio State University).

The program is sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission, UCIMA (Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association), and the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP).

For more information on this program or on other Italian Trade Commission / UCIMA initiatives call 888-ITALTRADE or email info [at] italtradeusa.com.