All of SACMI’s closure, preform, container, computer vision system and post-processing operations to come under the ‘roof’ of the newly formed Business Unit. This operation is part of a wider SACMI strategy of developing technologies and solutions for every stage of the production process, with applications ranging from every stage of post-processing to research into new materials.
A further milestone for the long-standing SACMI business that provides first-class technology for the manufacture of caps, preforms, containers, quality control and assembly.
As of today, the SACMI Rigid Packaging Technologies Business Unit brings all SACMI solutions concerning rigid packaging under one roof. The aim? To enhance the company’s numerous market-leading technological plus-points and keep pace with the industry’s accelerating focus on sustainability, versatility and performance.
“SACMI has always stood out” highlights the General Manager of the B.U., Vezio Bernardi, “on account of its ability to develop specific technologies for every single stage of rigid container manufacture, closure, assembly and quality control. We have the advantage of working alongside key international brand owners on a daily basis, a fact that sets us apart from companies that operate in just one product-area”.
The new B.U. aims to take a sector and technological trend-based approach by setting up new, even more effective internal synergies. Moreover, it aims to merge cores businesses (such as cap, preform and container-making technologies) with new ones in post-processing, an area strengthened in 2020 by the acquisition of Velomat, a specialized designer and builder of high-speed assembly machines for cap closures, micro-pumps and medical devices.
This latest addition to the Group, notes Bernardi, has been “fast and effective, allowing SACMI to expand its range towards multi-line and multi-material solutions”. Post-processing includes all technologies downstream from the manufacture of the individual product, such as cap slitting and folding which, while primarily intended for compression, can also be extended to the injection sector through integration with Velomat-supplied solutions.
Thanks to the work done by its own Lab and close collaboration with universities, certification bodies and customer-partners themselves, SACMI has been leading research efforts to find new materials for years. Such materials have evolved, especially in the plastics field, to keep pace with technological trends and comply with standards designed to ensure the industry develops sustainable packaging.
Lightweighting, tethered caps, integrated capsule-preform design, in-line computer vision systems that use predictive and A.I. algorithms: these are just some of the things the Business Unit will focus on during 2021 as it seeks to strengthen its technologies for each business area-sector. This will, of course, begin with areas in which SACMI leads the market, such as the latest generation of single and multi-layer CCM compression presses and technologies for the production of PET preforms (IPS) and PET, PP and HDPE containers (CBF, blow molding, form-fill-seal, with synergies extending to the SACMI Beverage world).
That strengthening will also involve, together with plastics, the metal packaging production/quality control sector, the search for alternative materials to plastic (such as cellulose) and other future developments the international packaging industry will need to face in the coming years.
