ICPF and University of Florida Officials Dedicate Kongsberg Table

April 21, 2007 . . . On April 20, 2007, representatives of the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation (ICPF) gathered with University of Florida officials and over 20 members of the student Florida Packaging Sciences Club in Gainesville to cut the ribbon on the Kongsberg CM1320 Table, valued at $100,000. The CAD table was jointly donated by ICPF and Esko. Esko provided the table at cost to ICPF.

Representing ICPF at the dedication were ICPF Chairman Michael D'Angelo, Bobst Group, ICPF CorrAlliance Chair John Kelley, Dusobox Corporation; Glynn Wilson, WORKHORSE Industries; Chuck Wolfe, York Container Corporation; ICPF President, Richard Flaherty; and ICPF Program Manager, Annie Stewart. University of Florida representatives included Dr. Jimmy Cheek, Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources; Dr. Elaine Turner, Associate Dean and Professor, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; Dr. Ken Campbell, Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering; Dr. Bruce Welt, Associate Professor and Packaging Undergraduate Coordinator; Ms. Robin Snyder, Coordinator of Information and Publications; Laura Knoll, President of the Packaging Sciences Club; and additional members of the Packaging Sciences Club.

Michael D'Angelo was the first of several addressing the gathered crowd. “Placing needed equipment at packaging programs at strategic locations throughout the nation helps to ensure that the next generation of packaging engineers has the training and experience our companies need.”

Bruce Welt reported that the University's packaging students already are gaining beneficial training from the equipment that will better enable them to enter the corrugated industry. And, during the engineering department's recent open house, the displaying of the table and its unique computer design capabilities were instrumental in attracting additional students to the University's packaging science program. It will be used at future open houses as well.

The donation and installation of the table with training and software is part of ICPF's ongoing nation-wide initiative to promote careers in corrugated to students and to assist in growing corrugated curriculums to ensure continued expansion of skilled graduates entering the corrugated industry.