PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2020

TRADE SHOW REVIEW PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 05/20 www.petpla.net 48 Side S.A. Barcelona’s Open Days Technology for meeting customer needs Spanish PET blow moulding machine manufacturer Side S.A. held a series of “Open Days” at its headquarters and main production facility in Barcelona, Spain, in early March 2020. The events were especially arranged to present the company’s next generation of PET preform blowers. Side’s Open Days offered profes- sional packaging and food & beverage manufacturers a detailed presenta- tion on the technological innovations that the company has been develop- ing in recent years. Presentations concluded with a demonstration of the new S3000 series of PET blowers, which are designed for outputs of up to 16,000 1.5 l bottles/hour. Managing Director Judit Birosta described the evolution of Side from its origins 45 years ago to its current operations and business network. The company now has a presence in over 40 different countries. Ms Birosta revealed its plans for future develop- ments and a number of Industry 4.0 projects in which it is a supplier of both software and hardware. Sales Director Josep Jiménez provided an overview and insight of the preform PET blower market. He reviewed Side’s milestone develop- ments in the market over recent years and emphasised that it is the com- pany’s intention to be recognised as an important source of technological inno- vation in meeting customers’ needs. Mr Jimenez also presented the entire current range of Side blower models, including those that have been updated in the last two years. He particularly highlighted the 2002eG-XL blower, which is capa- ble of producing up to 1,400 five gallon (20 l) bph in one-way formats, and the 5001eG-XL blower, which the company claims is the fastest in the market within its range. The 5001eG-XL preform PET blower can produce containers of up to 50 l and also has the capacity for production of returnable five gallon containers, with or without an inserted handle. Its output capacity is over 300 bph per cavity. Side says that these models’ Siemens control system’s heating enables very precise control of the lamps’ irradiation process. The new 3000 preform linear blowmoulding Series The new Series 3000 was intro- duced by Marc Montserrat, the Tech- nical Director, who gave a detailed explanation about how this new range of machines has enabled Side to access new projects it was previously unable to take on but has also been used to entirely remodel its produc- tion operations. The manufacturing system has now become a modular process, in which components from various models are fully compatible with one another. This enables enor- mous flexibility and facilitates the swift incorporation of new technologies, applications and customisations in all models. The Series 3000 is divided into four blower models. Series 3000 models with seven cavities have also been developed for outputs of up to 14,000 bph in formats up to 3 l, and is described as ideal for production of oval containers. The eight-cavity S3008e, which was showcased at the open days, can achieve produc- tion cycles equivalent to 18,000 bph. The model on display demonstrated production of 28.5 g 1.5 l blue contain- ers at a cycle rate of 1.79 s, equivalent 16,000 bph. The S3008e’s cavities are designed with sufficient space to produce containers of up to 2 l. Side claims that it is the fastest linear blower currently available, for those formats. The S3004e and S3005e models are designed for the production of containers of up to 10 l and 8 l, respec- tively. The five cavity version can achieve outputs of up to 7,000 bph for 5 l containers. Side says that these models have the highest output cur- rently available on the market by far, and offer significant advantages for bottling plants that require large outputs but need to control the level of inversion. With this new range of blowers, Side now has a total of 11 different blower models. It was announced at the Open Days event that Farmaplas, part of the Novapet Group, has already acquired the first of several new Series 3000 blowers.