SMI

SMI S.p.A.
Founded	1980
Headquarters	San Giovanni Bianco (BG), Italy
Number of employees	703 (2016)
Website	www.smigroup.it

SMI is a global supplier of bottling plants and packaging machines and part of the SMI group. SMI group is composed of the subsidiary companies SMI (the first and largest business in the Group), SMIPACK, SMIMEC, SMITEC, SMILAB, SMIENERGIA, SARCO.RE and of a network of branches, providing sales and after sales support to SMI and SMIPACK clients.

SMI has its headquarters in San Giovanni Bianco BG, Italy. The company is specialized in the design, manufacturing and installation of complete lines for bottling and packaging flat and carbonated beverages and liquid products in PET containers from 0.10 to 10l and with output capacity from 3,600 to 33,600bph.

The major corporations of the food & beverage sector are among the most important customers of the SMI Group: Nestlè, Danone, Unilever, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Diageo, Heinz, Heineken, SABMiller, AB-Inbev and Carlsberg.

Products / Technology

SMI is a worldwide renowned provider of PET-bottling systems for liquid products, committed to providing the most innovative and sustainable solutions either as single machines and complete lines.

Stretch-blow moulders are available both stand-alone (EBS series) and integrated into complete stretch-blow moulding, filling and capping systems (ECOBLOC® ERGON series). The machines ensure high performances in the stretch blow-moulding of PET, PEN and PP bottles, mainly used in the “food & beverage” sector.

More in details, the range includes:

• 7 EBS ERGON - Rotary SBM models, from 4 to 16 cavities, ideal for the production of bottles up to 3l, with a maximum output of 2,100bph/cavity*;
• 3 EBS HC ERGON - Rotary SBM high capacity models, from 3 to 6 cavities, specifically designed for the production of high-capacity bottles (from 5 to 10l) with a maximum output of 1,200bph/cavity*:
• ECOBLOC ERGON VMAG/VMAS Series - Integrated systems of stretch-blow moulding, filling and capping for flat liquids for up to 3 liters containers
• ECOBLOC ERGON LG-VMAG Series - Integrated systems of stretch-blow moulding, filling and capping for carbonated liquids for up to 3 liters containers
• ECOBLOC HC ERGON VMAG/VMAS Series - Integrated systems of stretch-blow moulding, filling and capping for high capacity containers (up to 10 liters)

* according to the selected machine model and to the type of container.

Bottle design

• Advanced 3D CAD Department for the design and graphic processing of the bottles;
• Accurate analysis of the customer’s requests;
• Design of different containers, featuring various shapes, from the simplest to the most sophisticated

Mould production

• special laboratory for the production of moulds and mechanical components;
• moulds made of a special aluminium alloy;
• more than 15.000 moulds produced per year;
• a top-quality level of the moulds fabricated;
• company equipped with an FMS line consisting of 12 CNC machining centres: highly automated machines, running 7 days a week round the clock;

History

SMI’s origins date back to the mid-70s, when Luigi Nava set up the mechanical workshop bearing his name in San Pellegrino Terme (Bergamo).

Besides the founder, even his four sons joined his small-scale enterprise as soon as each one came of age. Initially, the workshop business consisted in machining for third parties but then the maintenance of machinery and systems used in beverage bottling lines was added later on. Hence the idea of entering the packaging machine production sector; in 1987 the first SMI film-packer without sealing bar saw the light(called “shrinkwrapper”) which was presented two years later to the international market at the SIMEI trade fair in Milan.

In the 90s, SMI is the main player in the rapid growth of output and sales thanks to the cutting-edge technological solutions introduced in its range of shrinkwrappers and case packers; operative flexibility, advanced automation and excellent quality/price ratio soon became the company’s trademark, renown worldwide. At the same time, SMI goes international by opening branches and representative offices in France, the UK, Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil and the United States. In 1999 SMI enters the rotary stretch blowmoulder sector for the production of PET bottles, soon ranking among the leading European manufacturers of these machines.

In 2002 the annual output of automatic packers reaches the world record of more than 300 units, ranking SMI as the leading manufacturer in this sector. In 2009 SMI launched its own range of automatic palletizers for end of line packaging and the following year it introduced ECOBLOC® integrated systems, which bring together stretch blow-moulding, filling and capping functions in a single machine. In 2011 SMI installs the first complete costsaving line for the bottling of mineral water, designed to reduce production costs and save energy. The following year, SMI celebrated its 25th year in business with the slogan “constantly innovating the packaging industry since 1987”. In 2013, at the Drinktec exhibition in Munich, SMI presents a new end-of line compact system called PACKBLOC, which gathers into a single frame the functions of secondary packaging and palletization.

In April 2014 SMI’s employees move to the new headquarters of the Group, which houses offices and manufacturing facilities on a 65,000 sqm area. The new site, resulting from the renovation of former Cartiera Cima papermill’s historical workshops, boasts modern plants generating electrical power from renewable energy sources such as water and sun. In 2015 SMI launches a new design and manufacturing plaftorm called ERGON, which allows to make the whole product range even more ergonomic and functional.

References

PETplanet Insider Articles

Issue 04 / 2016: Bottle Making: High-performance production of PET containers
Issue 03 / 2016: Market survey: Filling Equipment

External links

SMI Group Website
SMI Youtube