You'll never know how far you can go until you try. That phrase just might sum up the nearly 200 entries to the 63rd annual National Paperboard Packaging Competition. Organized by the Paperboard Packaging Council (www.ppcnet.org), the contest was judged during January in Arlington, VA, and the winners were announced during the PPC Spring Meeting last month in Atlanta.

Pushing the boundaries of innovation was a theme demonstrated repeatedly throughout the competition. "(Innovation) is protection, convenience and appeal that drive the paperboard packaging industry to new levels of creativity and ingenuity," the PPC said. The judges noticed a growing trend towards enhancing the allure of the package, with paperboard creations sporting new shapes, textures and convenience features.

The Holiday Oval Kleenex® facial tissue carton's (A) unique shape and 3-dimensional elements blew away the competition and earned the President's Award for Kimberly-Clark Corp. The holographic material and specially placed ornamental-sphere graphics caught the eyes of the judges and brought "new life to a very traditional section of the retail shelf," they said.

Smurfit-Stone Container Co. (Chicago) created the package using 16-pt UV-coated, SBS paperboard and laminated film. The oval shape was achieved with a customized canister machine, and lidding was a multi-step process using a combination of paperboard, plastic and film to achieve a custom closure and dispenser. On the shelf, this specialized process translates into a sense of motion as the spectral colors change when the consumer passes by, and the non-traditional shape cuts through the clutter of rectangular cartons, Smurfit-Stone said.

"This is an extraordinary example of innovative manufacturing," a judge commented.

For a competition filled with inventive products, Stamford, CT-based MeadWestvaco Packaging Systems' Ice-Pak (B) froze its opponents and claimed the Innovation Award. Created for Mexico's Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma de Tecate, the Ice-Pak looks like a standard beverage-multipack but unlike conventional beverage carriers, it can hold ice, retain water for over eight hours and can be recycled after use. Testing revealed that on a hot day, the drink cans will cool down to less than 41 deg F in less than eight minutes and stay below 50 deg F for two hours.

The Ice-Pak is made from 18pt aqueous-gloss coated, natural kraft for its wet strength and ability to retain water without additional coatings. The box's bottom flap was interconnected to the side and bottom flaps to form a watertight seal. The top flaps and gussets were folded to form a "chimney" which holds the ice. The manufacturing challenge of gluing the complex folding sequence was achieved with a Jagenberg gluer and a talented operator, the converter said. Printed in four colors, the box's large opening lets consumers easily take product inventory.

Judges praised the Ice-Pak for its effective use of paperboard, complex structure and end-use characteristics.

The PPC also honored six companies with innovation gold awards. In the materials/process application category, the winners were:

• Diamond Pack DuoDozen, a 27-pt paperboard box designed to replace corrugated as a substrate for large, multiple-glass packages, for Anhesuer-Busch by MeadWestvaco Packaging Systems.
• Zip-Sert 16-pt folding carton with a printed insert applied during the gluing/folding process for Morton Grove Pharmaceutical by Colbert Packaging.
• Wild Turkey "Heritage" Single Barrel Bourbon tube of metallized-polyethylene film and 18-pt UV-coated paperboard for Pernod Ricard by TPC Printing & Packaging.

In the structural innovation category, the winners were:

• Nero 7 Ultra Edition tamper-proof software box (24-pt board outer shell and 14-pt board inner sleeve—both UV-coated) for Nero, Inc. by Warneke Paper Box Co.
• Impact Hanger shirt hanger made from heavyweight, clay-coated, recycled paperboard for Hanger Network by The Standard Group.
• Rounded-corner, automatic-bottom candy carton of 16-pt recycled paperboard for The Hershey Co. by Caraustar.

Eighteen entries also garnered gold awards, and nine entries took excellence awards. Complete details and photographs of all the winners are available at www.ppcnet.org