Quality, sustainability, faster development and shorter time-to-market. Key concepts intrinsic to SACMI’s comprehensive range of moulds for the closures-beverage industry, making the company the world's only competitor capable of offering a fully integrated turnkey response for every stage of the process.
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Moulds play a pivotal role in ensuring finished products meet desired specifications and quality, and SACMI moulds are the result of an unmatched understanding of process and materials. With the development, from the mid-1990s onwards, of a new generation of cap presses based on compression technology, SACMI has taken the mould concept to new heights, making it a tool not just for the achievement of perfect process quality and repeatability but also, and above all, vital to the quest for innovative solutions in terms of materials and design.
An all-round manufacturer of machines and moulds for capsules and preforms - an area that has, since 2010, seen continuous range-expanding investment - SACMI recently combined innovation with the launch of the new GME 30.37 standard, developed for 26 mm neck finishes, which allows even greater weight reduction compared to previous standards.
This project, which goes hand in hand with the development of a dedicated cap, relies on the company's capacity (through its Closures&Containers&PET Divisions and the Beverage Division) to break through technological barriers by drawing on its in-depth knowledge of moulds, their operation and their characteristics. Every day, that capacity is seen in its approach to customers and markets, characterised by intense design consultancy work that results in the production of at least 8-9,000 stacks (cavity + punch) a year (and that’s just compression moulds for caps).
Moreover, SACMI customers can pre-test the complete bottle-cap solution inside the lab, ensuring investments yield the anticipated results. More specifically, integrating cap-mould design with machine development has proved to be a winning strategy for SACMI as it ensures moulds have the longest possible working life thanks to the carefully selected materials and linings and the exceptional mechanical precision of the various components.
Lightweighting, tethered caps and highly productive, flexible PET preform manufacturing solutions constitute just one aspect of even more challenging industry developments aimed at ever-wider use of recycled resins. In this field, the SACMI solution has three key strengths. Firstly, the advantages of compression - lower operating temperature, no gate, precision control of each cavity-mould - mean that SACMI technology provides greater versatility when handling resins of different viscosities.
On the PET front SACMI has invested heavily to allow, via IPS (injection preform moulding) technology, the production of preforms made of 100% rPET. Maximum versatility in terms of material and size management extends, downstream from the process, to the latest generation of stretch-blow moulders, characterized by market-leading compactness, quality and efficiency.
Secondly, SACMI has developed its stretch-blow moulders around the mould to deliver the market clear-cut innovation, ideal for optimising line performance and productivity according to the requested size. With the SmartBlo stretch-blower – featuring brushless motors and consuming even less energy than the previous solution – SACMI can mount single or dual cavity moulds to double productivity for small-medium sizes.
Furthermore, with regard to its container and single-dose capsule manufacturing platforms, SACMI aims to extend the advantages of unrivalled technological know-how to different fields and industries. With CBF (compression blow forming) the company has developed an innovative solution for the dairy and pharma sectors by merging aspects of alternative technologies to maximise versatility, process quality and lower running costs.
Lastly, CCMM (continuous compression moulding multilayer), the latest generation of SACMI compression presses for the manufacturer of single serve capsules (coffee, tea, etc.), has revolutionised the industry thanks to outstandingly versatile resin and layer management. Once again, the mould factor is crucial. Several units are already in production at customers' plants, confirming keen interest in a technology that, compared to traditional solutions, provides greater raw material management versatility, lower consumption, higher productivity and unique quality.
