Sacmi: RigidPackagingTechnologies B.U. established
All of Sacmi’s closure, preform, container, computer vision system and post-processing operations are being brought together in a newly formed Business Unit RigidPackagingTechnologies. This operation is part of a wider Sacmi strategy of developing technologies and solutions for every stage of the production process, with applications ranging from post-processing to research into new materials.
General Manager of the B.U. is Vezio Bernardi. The new B.U. aims to take a sector and technological trend-based approach by setting up new, even more effective internal synergies. Moreover, it aims to merge cores businesses (such as cap, preform and container-making technologies) with new ones in post-processing, an area strengthened in 2020 by the acquisition of Velomat, a specialised designer and builder of high-speed assembly machines for cap closures, micro-pumps and medical devices.
This latest addition to the Group, notes Bernardi, has been “fast and effective, allowing Sacmi to expand its range towards multi-line and multi-material solutions”. Post-processing includes all technologies downstream from the manufacture of the individual product, such as cap slitting and folding which, while primarily intended for compression, can also be extended to the injection sector through integration with Velomat-supplied solutions.
Thanks to the work done by its own Lab and close collaboration with universities, certification bodies and customer-partners themselves, Sacmi has been leading research efforts to find new materials for years. Such materials have evolved, especially in the plastics field, to keep pace with technological trends and comply with standards designed to ensure the industry develops sustainable packaging.
Lightweighting, tethered caps, integrated capsule-preform design, in-line computer vision systems that use predictive and A.I. algorithms: these are just some of the things the Business Unit will focus on during 2021 as it seeks to strengthen its technologies for each business area-sector. This will begin with areas such as the latest generation of single and multi-layer CCM compression presses and technologies for the production of PET preforms (IPS) and PET, PP and HDPE containers (CBF, blow moulding, form-fill-seal, with synergies extending to the Sacmi beverage world).
That strengthening will also involve, together with plastics, the metal packaging production/quality control sector, the search for alternative materials to plastic (such as cellulose) and other future developments the international packaging industry might need to face in the coming years.
