SANFORD REDMOND was peering in at his latest invention, a machine that cranks out small plastic containers, more than a thousand every minute. It was clapping, stamping and swooshing with a roar that could make a dog hide under a bed. But Mr. Redmond stood still, looking on with the placid expression of a man admiring his grandchildren.

Mr. Redmond, now 75, is best known for designing the machine that automated the production and packaging of butter pats -- those thin squares of butter sandwiched between two pieces of paper that can be found in diners and cafeterias.

That was 1959.

Now, instead of ending his career as a one-hit wonder and resting on his royalties, Mr. Redmond is back in the game with a whole new line of condiment packaging. He is negotiating with Mitsubishi International for a joint venture in the United States to license patents for the packaging worldwide. If the deal goes through, the packaging, inexpensive and extremely light in weight, could take hold at a time when pressure is growing on American manufacturers to reduce waste. Just this month, he received an American patent for some of the packages.

A few years ago, Mitsubishi bought patent rights to another package, called the dispenSRpak, designed by Mr. Redmond. The plastic pack looks like two plastic cream dispensers joined on one edge. To open the pack, you fold at the seam until it snaps, then squeeze out the contents. It can all be done with one hand without any squirting or mess. Mr. Redmond won the DuPont packaging award, a leading prize in the industry, for the design in 1986 and a place in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Mitsubishi, which fills the packs with ketchup, mayonnaise, soy sauce and soft chocolate, now produces 250 million of them for Japan each year. Other companies produce them throughout Asia and in Australia and Mexico.