Sacmi and SIPA collaborate in S.U.P.E.R. PET preform and closure project

SIPA and Sacmi, two of Italy's most innovative companies operating in the packaging sector, have combined their skills in the search for a new solution in the combination of PET preforms and closures that provides advantages for processors and end-users alike.

The collaboration, which has been given strong backing from the two companies' managements, headed by Enrico Gribaudo (SIPA) and Giuseppe Lesce (Sacmi) respectively, combines SIPA's substantial experience in the development of preforms, with that of Sacmi in caps and closures. A combined development team incorporates a level of technical competence considered unrivalled anywhere in the world.

The fruit of this collaboration is a new solution - with the acronym S.U.P.E.R. - featuring a special combination of preform neck finish and lightweighted caps that solves several key problems associated with the operation of a cap on the neck of a PET bottle, with results previously not thought possible.

S.U.P.E.R. stands for Sustainable, Unique, Productive, Easy, and Reliable - the five key benefits of this innovative solution:

• Sustainable, because the closure will be lighter than the average of alternatives on the market today, reducing the processor's consumption of raw materials and energy;

• Unique, because this is a proprietary solution, protected by patents, that will provide benefits exclusive to those who adopt it;

• Productive, because it reduces the time and cost of equipping production lines -when switching between containers for various types of products, including water, soft drinks, and aseptically filled drinks, very little modification is required to lines for either preforms or closures (the latter produced with SACMI's compression process, which already offers reduced tooling times and high production speed);

• Easy, because the solution provides the consumer with a bottle that is easy to open. The guaranteed positive LB angle - the leak angle is greater than the bridge-break angle, a feature not available on the market today with current closure solutions - gives the perception of a closure that is very easy to open;

• Reliable, because the special tamper evidence system provides an immediate breakage of the security strip, rendering the bottle secure, with no risk of blow-off. “Technical collaboration between two companies that have always made technology a key element in their competitivity was bound to produce great results,” say companies' spokesmen. “But what we have achieved has exceeded even our most optimistic expectations. We think it is the best way to differentiate our two companies from the pack, and to help us strive for excellence in a marketplace as competitive and complex as that of plastic bottles.”