PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2021

PACKAGING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 06/21 www.petpla.net 36 The sustainable package With the purpose of contributing to a circular economy, Sacmi’s intention is to meet the challenge of generating sustainable innovations every day. In doing so it draws on a broad yet in-depth understanding of materials and processes to develop solutions that reduce raw material and energy consumption and create new technologies and prototypes. The driving force behind Sacmi’s Rigid Packaging Technology Business Unit is research and development to provide lighter packaging solutions made of new, increasingly high perfor- mance materials. R&D lab: research and innovation For over 15 years, the Business Unit’s R&D facility has been developing cap and neck combinations that maximise performance and minimise weight across the full range of beverage indus- try applications. By the early 2000s Sacmi was already thinking – even though it did not yet have a preform production plant solution in its portfolio – in terms of ‘pack- age development’: that is, the highest-performing combina- tions in terms of both seal and correct, easy breakage of the anti-tamper band during opening (e.g. development of the ML27 neck). Moreover Sacmi has been working for years actively alongside Cetie (Interna- tional Technical Centre for Bottling), the body that regulates and defines PET and glass packaging standards and guide- lines. Many of the solutions that are cur- rently found in the most popular necks that are available on the market were conceived and designed in the Sacmi laboratory, as the company says. Solution for PET preforms This segment has grown considerably over the last 10 years, gradually evolving to form Sacmi’s PET preform injection proposal, the IPS (Injection Preform System) range. Progress in this area has boosted Sacmi’s ability to design solutions that take a ‘capsule-preform package’ approach right from the design stage. In addition to cap and preform solutions with ever- lighter caps, suitable for all standard necks and a wide range of applications, Sacmi has also developed a series of lightweight necks which, together with dedicated cap solutions (again character- ised by lightweighting), aim to reduce the overall package weight, making the industrial-scale solution more sustainable. This strategy has been successful, especially on emerg- ing markets, and has allowed Sacmi to establish itself as a key preform player, the company states. Injection press range The range of platforms includes three models (220 t, 300 t and 400 t). These feature moulds with up to 144 cavities and offer multiple combina- tions of hot runners in order to create combinations that match required product volumes and geometries per- fectly. All these platforms have been designed with focus on performance, reliability, flexibility and user-friendli- ness. Combining these four charac- teristics was a complex, demanding exercise, Sacmi says. Yet, the IPS is achieving Sacmi’s goal of providing the market a reliable solution. Compression moulding On the closures front, the CCM platform has been the leading flat- top cap technology for many years. Although proponents of injection try to link compression to heavier capsules (typical in the CSD world), the real- ity is that CCM machines have also achieved good results in the mineral water sector, providing cycle times of 1.44 s on the lightest capsules thanks to Sacmi’s Cool+ technology and