PACK EXPO International 2026 is coming to Chicago October 18 – 21, bringing packaging and processing professionals together to see equipment, explore new technologies, and discuss applications across the production line.
Hoosier Feeder will be in Booth N-5143 with four systems running live, each demonstrating a different approach to feeding, orienting, conveying, inspecting, or presenting products for downstream packaging.
Over the past few months, we’ve been Getting Oriented for PACK EXPO by taking a closer look at several of these applications individually. Now it’s time to bring them together.
The products range from coffee pods and donuts to plastic scoops and vial inserts, but the products themselves aren’t the whole story. Each application demonstrates how the feeding approach changes based on product characteristics, required orientation, production environment, and what needs to happen next in the packaging process.
If you’re evaluating feeding or product handling automation at PACK EXPO International, here’s what to look for when you visit our booth.
PACK EXPO International 2026 – Event Details
October 18–21 | Chicago | McCormick Place
Hoosier Feeder | Booth N-5143
Complimentary Registration Code: 15Y01
COFFEE PODS
Centrifugal Bowl + Conveyor
DONUTS
Orienting Conveyor + Vision
PLASTIC SCOOPS
Vibratory Feeder Bowl
VIAL INSERTS
Mini Centrifugal Feeder
What We’re Running at PACK EXPO International 2026
Coffee Pods: Centrifugal Feeding + Alpine Conveying
Our coffee pod application begins with a centrifugal feeder system designed to singulate and orient products from bulk supply.
Once oriented, the coffee pods transfer to an alpine conveyor, demonstrating how feeding and conveying can work together to maintain controlled product flow as products move toward downstream packaging.
What to watch:
Follow a coffee pod from bulk infeed through orientation and transfer. Pay attention to how consistently the products leave the feeder and how that presentation is maintained as they move downstream.
Getting Oriented: How Coffee Pods Are Oriented for Automated Packaging
Donuts: Mechanical Orientation + Vision Final Select
The Ultimate Orienting Conveyor takes a different approach to product handling.
Donuts are singulated and mechanically oriented as they move through the conveyor. Once orientation has been established, a vision system provides the final select before confinement and discharge.
For the PACK EXPO application, vision can determine whether a donut is right side up or upside down and identify defined product characteristics, such as missing icing or the wrong icing color. Products that don’t meet the established criteria can be removed from the product flow before acceptable products continue downstream.
The system features 304 stainless steel construction and is designed for food and bakery applications requiring wipe-down or high-pressure wash-down capability.
What to Watch:
Mechanical orientation and vision are performing two different jobs. Watch where orientation occurs, then look for the final vision check and product rejection before discharge.
Getting Oriented: How Donuts Are Oriented Before Automated Packaging
Plastic Scoops: Vibratory Orientation + Controlled Release
Plastic scoops give us an opportunity to show what custom tooling inside a vibratory feeder bowl actually accomplishes.
Bulk scoops enter the bowl and are singulated and tooled into a specific orientation:
Cup up. Opening facing outward. Handle down.
Once that position has been established, confinement maintains the orientation while the inline track drives the scoops toward a part holdback and release escapement.
The finger mechanism controls the final release, allowing individual scoops to be metered into the downstream packaging process.
The system also features polished construction and fill-and-grind welds, providing a smooth, finished design for applications where equipment construction and cleanability are important considerations.
What to watch:
Don’t just watch the scoops travel around the bowl. Compare how they enter in bulk with how they’re presented at confinement. Then watch the escapement control the release of individual scoops downstream.
Getting Oriented: How Plastic Scoops Are Fed and Oriented for Automated Packaging
Vial Inserts: Compact Centrifugal Feeding
Our Mini Centrifugal Feeder will demonstrate another approach to automated part feeding by running plastic vial inserts, or plugs.
The compact centrifugal system is designed to singulate and orient smaller components while providing controlled presentation for downstream automation. Its smaller footprint also makes it useful for applications where space and integration requirements are important considerations.
What to watch:
Compare the Mini Centrifugal Feeder with the larger centrifugal system running coffee pods elsewhere in the booth. Both use centrifugal feeding technology, but the products and overall applications are different. Seeing the two systems side by side provides an opportunity to discuss how part geometry, size, required orientation, feed rate, available footprint, and downstream requirements can influence feeder selection.
Getting Oriented: How Small Plastic Parts Are Fed with a Mini Centrifugal Feeder
Four Products, Different Feeding Approaches
One reason we’re bringing these four applications to PACK EXPO International is that there isn’t a single feeding technology that makes sense for every product.
A coffee pod, donut, plastic scoop, and vial insert behave differently in bulk and require different handling strategies.
For one application, centrifugal feeding may provide the right approach to product handling and throughput. Another may call for vibratory tooling to establish a specific orientation. Food products can introduce sanitation considerations or benefit from vision inspection. The downstream packaging process may also require a particular discharge, spacing, orientation, or release method.
Those factors are why feeding systems are engineered around the product and process, rather than selecting a technology first and trying to make the application fit it.
This is also why seeing equipment running can be useful. A specification can tell you what a system is designed to do. Watching the product move through it shows how that result is achieved.
What Should You Look for When Seeing a Feeding System Run?
With thousands of exhibitors and equipment running throughout PACK EXPO International, it helps to know what to look for when evaluating a feeding system.
Feed rate is important, but it isn’t the only consideration. Watch what happens to the product throughout the complete process:
- How does the system handle the product in bulk?
- Where and how is the required orientation established?
- How is that orientation maintained after feeding?
- How consistently is the product presented at discharge?
- Does the application require inspection or verification?
- How will the feeder interface with downstream equipment?
- What sanitation, accessibility, or maintenance requirements need to be considered?
These questions can help move the conversation from “Can this product be fed?” to “How should this product be fed for the complete process?”
Bring Us Your Application
The four products running in Booth N-5143 are examples. Your application is the more important conversation.
If you’re working through a feeding, orientation, inspection, or product presentation challenge, bring the details with you. A sample part is even better when practical.
Our team can talk through your product characteristics, required orientation, production rate, packaging format, available space, sanitation requirements, inspection needs, and the equipment immediately upstream and downstream.
Seeing multiple systems running in the same booth provides a starting point for that conversation and an opportunity to compare different feeding approaches in person.
Beyond the Equipment: Supporting the PACK EXPO Community
Our involvement at PACK EXPO International 2026 extends beyond the equipment running in Booth N-5143.
Hoosier Feeder is a Bronze Sponsor of PACK gives BACK, taking place Monday, October 19, at the House of Blues Chicago. The evening includes a networking reception followed by a performance by Third Eye Blind for PACK EXPO International participants.
A portion of the proceeds from PACK gives BACK supports the PMMI Foundation, providing academic scholarships to students pursuing careers in the packaging and processing industry.
We’ll also be participating in The Amazing Packaging Race, where university engineering students move through the PACK EXPO show floor completing challenges based on real manufacturing scenarios.
Booth N-5143 will be one of the challenge stops, giving students an opportunity to apply what they’re learning while interacting directly with our team and industry technology.
We’re looking forward to supporting opportunities that connect the next generation of engineers with the packaging and processing industry.
Visit Hoosier Feeder at PACK EXPO International 2026
After months of Getting Oriented, we’re ready to put everything together on the show floor.
Visit Hoosier Feeder in Booth N-5143 at PACK EXPO International, October 18 – 21, 2026, at the McCormick in Chicago, to see all four applications running and talk with our team about what you’re trying to feed, orient, inspect, or present to downstream packaging automation.
PACK EXPO International 2026
📅 October 18 – 21, 2026
📍 McCormick Place | Chicago, IL
📍 Hoosier Feeder | Booth N-5143
🎟️ Complimentary Registration Code: 15Y01