The capabilities of SACMI Packaging & Chocolate, which span from chocolate processing to highly automated standalone secondary packaging, are to play a central role at the show, as is our Rigid Packaging group with its outstanding new services and digital controls. SACMI Beverage, has a new facility dedicated to the American market providing complete plant engineering services.

Complete SACMI solutions for the packaging-chocolate-and beverage sector will play a pivotal role at Pack Expo Las Vegas, the international processing and packaging show held in Las Vegas from the 11th to 13th of September. Superb technology and customer service are the hallmarks of the SACMI Group, exhibiting in Las Vegas with its Packaging & Chocolate, Rigid Packaging and Beverage Business Units (stand 7427, South Upper hall).

‘Everything for chocolate, packaging for everything’ is SACMI Packaging & Chocolate’s motto. We offer the market’s most comprehensive range of integrated solutions for the chocolate industry, from processing and molding to primary and secondary packaging; not just for chocolate but with a focus on confectionery, bakery and other food and non-food products. Visitors to the SACMI stand at Pack Expo Las Vegas 2023 have a great opportunity to get a close look at the Performance S233 tri-functional cell, a robotic solution that fills and closes boxes at rates as high as 60 boxes per minute.

Automation with a smaller footprint. Consisting of a dual-head vertical former and a pocket collator to handle the product(s), the cell also features two robots that fill and close the boxes. The filling robot has a specialty grip system that can compact the products and thus make optimal use of the available box volume. All machine handling is performed by servomotor-driven shuttles, which position the boxes at the various stations.

Easy use and maintenance, optimized size changeovers. A new machine interface with standardized ESA panels optimize access to all onboard information. The configuration of the cell allows for excellent accessibility, making it easier for operators to perform cleaning and routine maintenance functions. Due to the automatic glue feed system, the number of manual loading tasks for the box forming and hot-glue closure process is minimized. With the Performance S233, size changeovers are optimized for the 4 required formats specific to this machine’s designed applications, with the number of required components reduced to a minimum.

Customized complete lines. Each packaging cell produced by SACMI Packaging & Chocolate is highly customizable and engineered to the customer's specific needs. The machine at the show, is specially configured for a major US cracker producer, also includes a VPS vertical bag forming machine with in-line weight control, an American (RSC) case former from the Multibox series, a filling cell that fills American cases (with boxes or directly with packets of crackers) and a Sigilbox closing unit.

As part of the wider transition to sustainability, SACMI offers solutions that reduce consumption of virgin resins and aid the creation of a fully circular supply chain. How? Thanks to the extensive machine, mold and hot runner expertise of our Research and Development Center and advanced ‘design to recycle’ product development services, provided by SACMI Lab and certified by major international brand owners.

New in-machine and in-cloud digital packages. With its Compression technology, SACMI leads the world in the manufacture of one-piece caps. Now, the new Smart Pack and Smart Care packages bring out the full potential of CCM (Continuous Compression Molding) by equipping it with advanced in-machine and in-cloud controls. More specifically, Smart Pack control sensors (pellet positioning, mold thermoregulation etc.) reduce the risk of error, boosting long-term machine process quality and repeatability. Similar advantages stem from CM-Flow, a new, compact extruder that ensures the highest quality/productivity: SACMI offers this as standard on new-generation CCMs (and also provides it as an upgrade to existing presses). Furthermore, with the Smart Care service, customers can share machine data with SACMI to ensure they make the best process control decisions. By basing its analysis on objective data, the SACMI team delivers high-added-value proactive problem-solving that: predicts machine behavior, predicts maintenance actions, boosts plant availability.

Quality control and Artificial Intelligence. The SACMI range is based on systems that are evolving towards predictive logic. Alongside the new service packages, SACMI offers a complete range of AI-driven Computer Vision systems that include the new PVS156, the first inspection unit on the market to be incorporated in the injection-type preform molding press (IPS 300).

Complete product development services. SACMI is about much more than technology and control. In the Rigid Packaging sector it offers comprehensive product development services that help the market transition towards new, lighter, higher-performing cap-preform standards. From this perspective, SACMI offers the market’s widest family of new caps for 26/22 mm necks, both for water and CSD (Carbonated Soft Drinks); performance remaining equal, raw material savings can be as high as 30%. To comply with the introduction of European Beverage Packaging legislation, SACMI has also developed complete, ready-to-use solutions for the manufacture of Tethered caps, solutions that have already been available to producers for some time.

Technological quality and long-term support services are rewarding SACMI Beverage products in the United States. From labelers to complete plants and BIB machines, at Pack Expo Las Vegas SACMI Beverage will illustrate all its latest innovations, designed to ensure customers respond effectively to market and consumption trends.

A sole supplier, a team always at your side. SACMI Beverage is a sole supplier, capable of overseeing every stage of production, providing unmatched technology and unfaltering customer support. With 40 years of experience and 100,000 sq feet of warehouses, the SACMI USA headquarters in Des Moines is the service hub for all American customers. In addition to fast, country-wide assistance, SACMI USA has recently added new online services such as training so that customers can quickly learn how to start up lines and operate machines.

Labelers: the challenge of returnable PET. Acclaimed on the US market, SACMI labelers offer outstanding modularity, quick set-ups and a plug&play approach: this makes them ideal for medium speeds (e.g. craft breweries, wineries, etc. with output rates of less than 300 bottles per minute) as they let producers use multiple technologies and labeling systems (hot melt, cold-glue, self-adhesive), all on a single platform and with rapid changeovers. In parallel, SACMI Beverage also provides solutions with RollFed technology, ideal for ultra-high speed production lines. Such solutions are increasingly applicable to returnable PET, a sector that’s already ‘booming’ in South America and is expected to grow in the United States too. At Las Vegas, SACMI aims to show how its international reach makes it well equipped to guide customers through this transition.

Complete lines. SACMI has more than twenty years’ experience in the Beverage industry and is a consummate plant engineering specialist with in-depth knowledge of materials and processes. Hence the ability to provide complete plants with a full complement of stretch-blowing, filling, capping and labeling solutions. Here, the success of the SACMI range stems from enormous versatility and a capacity to deliver exclusive solutions that meet every production requirement: key examples include dual-cavity technology and solutions designed to meet the needs of American customers, such as the recently released 1-gallon bottle stretch-blower. Equally distinctive is the COMBO solution. Featuring the brand new Full Electronic Capper (FEC), this can produce – with a single ultra-high-speed blowing and filling process - up to 81,000 bottles per hour.

New Packaging Center. Complete SACMI Beverage lines are complemented by comprehensive customer services for developing new products. The new Packaging Center is a case in point: it has over 1,000 bottle designs with relative caps and preforms, developed for customers all over the world and certified by the industry’s global players. Projects can, of course, be tailored to match customers’ specific needs.

Bag-In-Box opportunities. Bag-In-Box packaging production machines are a key part of the SACMI Beverage range. High filling precision (<0.3%) makes SACMI BIB ideal for premium products. Even after opening, the oxygen with which the product comes into contact is below 0.75 ppm (parts per million), also making BIB packaging suitable for delicate products like edible oils and wine. Bag-In-Box also has one of the greenest product volume/packaging quantity ratios. This simplifies logistics and reduces related costs while lowering transport-related emissions. It is, in fact, these environment-friendly packaging credentials that make it increasingly popular with American customers.