The Italian company PrintabLED received the Gold Industry Award for its high-performance UV LED systems of the same name for coating and printing systems. The jury honored the high energy efficiency and environmental compatibility of the UV LED drying technology for curing printing inks, coatings and adhesives on metal packaging.

Stuttgart-based KBA-MetalPrint, a supplier of printing and coating lines, won the METPACK Innovation Award in Silver for its CS MetalCan development - a new generation of printing units for beverage cans with short inking unit technology.

The METPACK Innovation Award in Bronze goes to Valspar, manufacturer of coatings for metal packaging. The American company receives the industry award for its new "valPure V70 non-BPA epoxy" coating series for metal packaging.

Matriruiz S.L. received the METPACK Innovation Award in Gold for the "Spider Head Liner", a delta robot for the production of can ends that meets the expectations of industry with regard to higher flexibility in production.

KBA-MetalPrint GmbH was distinguished with the METPACK Innovation Award in Silver for its "HighEcon drying oven". This drying oven for painted, extremely thin metal sheets permits the handling of thin sheets down to 0.100 mm.

The Soudronic Group received the METPACK Innovation Award in Bronze for its Soucan 2000 series. The welding machine for the manufacture of lightweight food cans was distinguished for its ecological and high speed processing of thin metal sheets.

In 2011, the METPACK Innovation Award in gold went to Sensory Analytics, LLC. The American company won the Award for its measurement system, SpecMetrix.

The silver Award went to Soudronic AG, Switzerland, for its ring pull solutions for all kinds of peel-off ends.

Schuler Pressen GmbH & Co KG, Germany, received the bronze Award for its ICON V-Drive bodymaker.

The Swiss company Soudronic AG received the prize for its adaptive rounding system shown at METPACK 2008. This system identifies the mechanical properties of the body material in process and is able to set the rollstation of the welder according to the behaviour of the plate within 50 milliseconds. The jury saw high potential for quality improvement due to bodies with ideal geometrical forming, less downtime of the welder and a wider range with regard to the strength of the material used.

The products and processes of Martin Cairncross Engineering Ltd., Canmelt AG, Flexiline Project Group, Quality by Vision and TEC Service Engineering GmbH also received good ratings from the jury.

The Swiss company Soudronic AG has won the METPACK Award 2005 for excellent developments in the field of metal packaging. The jury selected the automatic thermo sealing machine for peel-off ends presented by Soudronic because it regarded this development as best fulfilling the criteria of reducing costs and improving quality.

Osif received an award for its "Bulge 3 D", an online 3D inspection system for the in-process detection of the very smallest local shape errors such as dents and waves with a depth from 10 µm in endless sheet metal coils.

Arplas Welding from Belgium received an award for a particularly energy-saving welding process. The welding machine SyncronAC with a pulse-controlled converter produces drums of constant quality - at higher speeds and at lower costs.

CarnaudMetalbox Engineering, which is based in England, received the prize for a new development in drawing & wall ironing technology.

The Bodymaker Hydraulic Hold Down makes the conventional system of machanical components and air bags superfluous. This development dramatically reduces the mass of the front piston assembly and the rotating mass of the crankshaft. The results are higher speed, improved machine harmonics and a simplified lubrication system.

The METPACK 99 Innovation Jury conferred no less than two Awards for excellent developments in the field of metal packaging: Bauer+Kunzi from Ditzingen near Stuttgart and Krupp Kunststofftechnik from Essen.

The company from Stuttgart received the award for a new sheet-metal printing machine, "Metalstar". William LeMaire from the Packaging Strategies sectoral service and a member of the jury said, "This technology will considerably accelerate the painting of flat sheet metal and the user can thus print a maximum of 8 colours on up to 8,000 metal sheets per hour."

The innovation of Krupp Kunststofftechnik is a food can with a vacuum sealing lid. "The consumer is able to open the can any number of times without using a can opener or a tear-off can top and can close it again without leaving any sharp edges", according to one member of the jury, Kevin Dodman of the CanTech International trade journal.

Mark Gacka, Vice President of Nordson Corporation, received the award for his company´s sytem for applying coating to the inner surface of cans. The jury presented the award for the innovation with the highest usability.

The cost reduction for the user was the decisive factor for the 360° system for applying coating powder from the welding arm onto the inner surface of the body of a can developed by Nordson, Ohio/USA. The system enables the solvent-free, FDA-approved coating of the inner surface of cans directly from the welding machine. The User can dispense with coating blanks on the inside and also covering the seam, therefore greatly reducing the cost per can.

The winner of the first ever International METPACK Innovation Award, aimed at acknowledging excellence within the can making industry, is a revolutionary new powder coating system.

The Nordson powder coating system for the internal coating of three-piece cans, launched in April, can save manufacturers up to 20 per cent of the typical curing time for liquid coating processes. Used with low frequency induction methods, it is 90 per cent energy efficient and achieves greater uniformity than when a coating is applied using an electrostatic gun.