With over 1,000 cap types used by the global industry's major players, Sacmi is the world's number one beverage cap designer. Needless to say, the Group is set to play a pivotal role at Upakovka, Russia's biggest packaging&processing technology fair, to be held in Moscow from January 28 to 31, 2020.

Sustainability, innovation and flexibility form the bedrock of the Sacmi range and in recent months the latter has seen the addition of new solutions that pre-empt market trends and new standards in the plastics industry.

More specifically, with its complete tethered cap manufacturing solutions, Sacmi is ready, no less than four years early, to comply with the EU directive forbidding use of single-use plastics (in force from 2024). Unlike traditional caps, a tethered cap remains attached to the bottle after it has been opened.

What's more, Sacmi is working with certified international bodies on the standardisation of a new 26 mm bottle neck, lighter than the current 28 mm one. Once again, the focus is on greater environmental sustainability and savings for all beverage industry players. It's a solution of huge interest, especially to the Russian market.

Sacmi sees sustainability as pivotal to the industry's future. That's why it provides customers worldwide with close support in the form of the advanced facilities and equipment of the Closures R&D Lab - certified by international brand owners - where all solutions are thoroughly tested prior to industrialisation. From this standpoint, Sacmi fields all the intrinsic advantages of compression technology, the most versatile solution for managing different resins or resins of variable viscosity; for example, CCM machines let manufacturers compression-manufacture polyolefin (HDPE) caps with resins made from post-consumer resin (PCR).

Determined to meet the needs of Russian bottlers in what is set to be a dynamic 2020, Sacmi completes its Closures-PET range with IPS. A comprehensive PET preform production system, IPS can use not just virgin material but also - using standard machines - up to 100% rPET or recycled flakes in quantities of up to 50%: another clear indicator, then, of Sacmi's drive towards sustainability in plastics.

The world's only company capable of providing technological and plant engineering solutions for every stage of the beverage line, Sacmi has developed a steady stream of innovation for stretch-blow moulding, bottling and labelling. For example, the new Sacmi Flexi labeller range provides a response to every possible bottle or container labelling requirement.

These include Flexi Cube, characterised - thanks to a modular platform that lets manufacturers operate efficiently and in parallel across multiple labelling technologies and systems - by levels of versatility and usability unlike any other on the market. Note also that Sacmi is enjoying considerable success in spirits, wine, home&personal care, sectors where frequent format changeovers are the order of the day. Now, with the development of the Kube range, Sacmi has set a new standard for low-medium speed labellers.