SACMI’s goal: to provide customers with profitable ‘green transition’ solutions, such as the ready-to-market products and technologies on show in Düsseldorf. That means solutions for tethered caps, yet also new internationally certified lightweight neck standards and excellent opportunities on the PET ‘circularity’ front.  

New tethered standards, lightweighting and recycling will be SACMI’s focal points at Interpack (Düsseldorf trade fair 4-10 May 2023), with one clear goal: to provide customers with immediate, tangible benefits by seizing green transition opportunities. 

How we achieve that 

SACMI is the only company in the world to provide solutions for every stage of rigid packaging production, from cap to preform, from stretch-blow molding to complete bottling lines. 

On the cap manufacturing front, SACMI has already implemented the EU Directive that requires the adoption of the new tethered standard from 2024 onwards. 

With a complete range of caps and profitable methods – such as post-process slitting and integrated quality control – SACMI is ready to respond to market requirements and guide the transition. 

New ultra-light standards 

In recent years, few industries have focused as sharply on sustainability as packaging has. As the data clearly shows, container and cap weights have fallen by 50 percent or more since 2010. 

The latest developments in this area include the 26/22 mm (with the 25/22 variant) and the new lightened 29/25 mm necks, a set of standards on which the SACMI Laboratory has developed ready-to-market solutions that can cut neck+cap plastic consumption by 30 percent or more. 

There are, of course, challenges, such as successfully making this switch while continuing to ensure an optimal consumer experience. Some examples? The new ‘tethered-friendly’ caps for GME 30.40 necks and the 26/22 caps for water, which combine increased height with considerable raw material savings. 

The circularity challenge 

From a 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) perspective, the PET supply chain is best suited to a circular economy approach, from resin recycling to finished containers for food use. That’s why SACMI has long since ensured its preform injection presses could process up to 50 percent PET in recycled flake form, a figure that can rise to 75 percent with the latest developments being introduced.  

The outcome: the ability to offer customers an adequate technological response in markets where the ecological transition is a must, at a time when the tools to achieve it – and the existence of a complete recycling chain – are still in the making. 

Customer service 

Europe may lead the global rigid packaging industry’s drive toward sustainability. Yet, producers are nevertheless forced to operate in a ‘VUCA’ (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment that places them between strict regulatory frameworks and the need to remain, in any case, competitive on global markets. 

The SACMI response is not just technological. Above all, it’s about effective customer assistance and support: from the product ‘idea’ to the technologies needed to make it, from the revamping/efficiency enhancement of existing solutions to the implementation of new production standards, processes, and raw materials. In short, SACMI delivers complete solutions so producers can tackle the transition with the right tools, such as next-gen vision systems where AI unlocks enormous plant control potential while enhancing user-friendliness. 

All the latest from SACMI Packaging & Chocolate 

Solutions exhibited at the fair will also include the SACMI Packaging & Chocolate range of machines and plants for processing and packaging chocolate and other food/non-food products. At the SACMI Packaging & Chocolate stand, visitors to Interpack can look forward to ‘experiential tours’ that focus on specific aspects of the industry: chocolate processing and molding, chocolate packaging, and rigid packaging for other sectors. 

SACMI Packaging & Chocolate is renowned for high levels of automation, outstanding versatility, and unmatched productivity, which is hardly surprising, as its brands have led European and international markets for over 110 years. Electronically controlled drive systems, low maintenance, fast machine set-ups, and a multi-style, multi-format approach are some of the plus points of today’s SACMI Packaging & Chocolate range: a range designed to meet the burgeoning demand for versatile chocolate processing and traditional/flowpack secondary packaging solutions.  

See you at the stand Hall 4 / F06!