Three complete 96-cavity IPS 400 lines, expanding and strengthening Sacmi’s role as all-round partner to the converter world. Their buyer, Taiwan Hon Chuan, is the leading producer of caps and preforms in this Asian country and a long-standing customer of the Group’s Closure&Containers Division.
Sacmi, then, is taking the fight to its competitors with a preform production solution that uses injection technology which, within the scope of a long-term project (IPS, preform injection moulding), has led to the development of the IPS 400, a machine that combines the established features of ergonomics, productivity and user-friendliness with decisive innovations on the production process and flexibility fronts.
With a long history of diversifying its suppliers and attentively assessing the best technologies the market has to offer (and already a key Sacmi customer as regards closure technology and equipment), THC has, over the years, grown together with the Group. Now, the latter has perfected an innovative PET preform production solution, an offshoot of the tried and tested IPS 220 developed to meet the specific needs of the converter world.
In addition to major quality-boosting innovations - from the FIFO circuit in the plasticization unit to the new system for direct unloading of preforms in containers placed in the cooling area - the new IPS 400 offers excellent compatibility as it can be used with existing moulds, even those made by competitors. This strategic choice has allowed the Group to launch a broad-fronted market offensive by offering customers a competitive advantage when carrying out plant renewal and adaptation.
Following the signing of the supply agreement in May, the first 400 IPS will be delivered to the in Taichung plant in November 2016, while the other two systems will be supplied during 2017; this will boost the output capacity of THC which, in addition to being the unrivalled leader in Taiwan, has numerous facilities and branches throughout South-East Asia and on the Chinese mainland. For Sacmi, then this is another strategic step along the path towards further growth in the business, one that places considerable emphasis on high performance, flexibility and quality. Quality, in fact, is also guaranteed by the fact that the new IPS (at the customer’s request) can be combined with the advanced preform vision system (PVS) developed by the Automation&Service Division, a solution that ensures total, ultra-high speed quality control of preforms directly on the line.