A better appreciation of IMA's R&D commitment may be had when one considers that over 600,000 hours are annually given over to finding new packaging and processing solutions. Over 1,000 patents filed worldwide and over thirty new machine models launched in the last three years also amply witness to this commitment.R&D is as much aimed at offering customer's an ever wider range of advanced products and services as at turning out truly revolutionary solutions, often in collaboration with academic institutions and in a co-makership spirit with customers themselves. Indeed, IMA's hard-gained, long-standing experience and know-how is always available to its customers to help them in launching new products with original and distinctive packaging for maximum market impact and appeal.