EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 09/22 www.petpla.net 17 proportion of the company. Over the years, other activities have been added, such as motors, inverters and touchscreens, and also an in-house IoT service. And naturally, we also use this expertise in our blow moulding department.” This latter was added 28 years ago, when PET started playing an increasing role in the food and beverage industry in Europe in the early 1990s. Side’s owner at the time, Mr. Enric Birosta, decided to buy up a customer from the extrusion blow moulding machines sector and to refocus on stretch blow moulding machines. So the business unit Side SBM was founded. “This connection between business areas is now a great advantage for us. Most electronic components for our systems are available in our warehouse and we can also carry out certification ourselves. Our anticipatory stock management also avoid problems regarding availability and logistics, and we can maintain capacity of 25-30 SBM systems per year,” says Jimenez. If anything, increasing transport costs, a setback for many companies, have had rather a positive effect for Side, with bottle manufacturers preferring to open branches close to their customers to save on longer transport routes – branches that naturally need to be equipped with new Side systems. Close collaboration with the customer Side S.A.’s remote service system has also proved successful, particularly throughout the pandemic. Four employees supported customers in After Sales matters relating to the over 750 Side machines installed worldwide. Over 90% of servicing can be carried out remotely – a high proportion that also owes its acceptance to the lockdowns. “Basically, this is the normal evolution of things, but the pandemic has helped a lot to accelerate that,” says Jimenez and he adds: “We also offer our customers flexible maintenance contracts so that they don’t get into emergency situations in the first place. Via IoT, we check and optimise the system. This is a growing field that is very well accepted.” The app, too, which allows the customer operator to connect with the machine, relies on inhouse development. This not only provides all details for production but also data, for example about energy consumption. This is one of two hot topics among Side customers, and incentives to reduce energy consumption are being considered by Side in its new developments. This has resulted for example in the air recovery system, which is included as standard in the new 3000 Series and can be retrofitted for other models. Works with customers and the lab supplier regarding the oven are also targeting the reduction of energy consumption and these are reducing energy used by the oven by 20-25%. In its R&D Department, Side engineers are also implementing special bottle designs for customers, prototypes, and analysing the use of different materials. These can be organic-based plastics or different percentage levels of rPET – the second significant topic of concern for bottle producers. Besides the obvious reasons such as the circular economy or instructions from directives, Jimenez also welcomes the use of recyclates for another reason: “The use of rPET reduces the process power required. Many factors come into play here, for example the percentage proportion of recyclate or the use of additives, but at least 10% power can be saved in any case – simply because the darker colouring of the preforms better absorbs the heat of the infrared lamps.” Jimenez would view an rPET proportion of 80% as a good target and is regretful that “we are unfortunately still a long way from that.” www.sidemachines.com Assembly hall at Side’s premises near Barcelona
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