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 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% 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% 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 the one 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 are able to process up to 50% PET in recycled flake form, a figure that can rise to 75% with the latest developments being introduced.
The outcome: the ability to offer customers an adequate technological response on 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 packaging industry’s drive towards 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.
