A very special Open House was held from 4 to 6 September at the SIPA headquarters in Vittorio Veneto, Italy, where the unique direct processing of washed PET flakes to make food contact grade preforms was demonstrated live on the world's first PET Inline Preform system. The system will be in industrial operation next year.

Ansfelden, 15 September 2017 – Numerous representatives from the beverage industry and well-known brands attended the three-day Open House held by SIPA and EREMA and saw a compelling live production performance of the world's first PET Inline Preform system. SIPA, the leading manufacturer of PET packaging solutions from Italy, and EREMA, specialists in the manufacturing of plastic recycling systems, have together developed a unique, flexible, direct processing solution to make food contact compliant inline preforms from PET flakes in a single step. The pivotal product from EREMA in the collaboration is VACUREMA technology, which is combined with SIPA's XTREME preform production system. The pioneering system offers PET processors economic and ecological benefits: energy savings, lower logistics and process costs and higher profitability thanks to the direct link of the two systems eliminating all the waste of the complete process. Another unique selling proposition over conventional injection moulding is that lightweighting up to 8% is possible with the patented XTREME preform design. "We previewed this technology at the Discovery Day 2016 and it is now ready for production. The PET Inline Preform system catches the spirit of the age and even goes one step further. There is increasing demand among customers for flexible and energy-saving processing possibilities. With this system we support them in remaining an innovative part of the ever developing plastics industry," says Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager for Bottle Applications at the EREMA Group. Trials carried out previously on the PET Inline Preform system showed that the weight consistency, viscosity and colour values of the preforms – depending on flake quality – are on a par with those of virgin material.  "We were keen to show the first PET Inline Preform System to interested Open House guests. This innovative technology makes real the dream of a circular sustainable economy with results exceeding our most optimistic expectations at the beginning of the project. The rPET preforms have quality properties and performances comparable to the injection moulded preforms made in virgin resin. We are delighted about the strong interest and so many enthusiastic participants," says Enrico Gribaudo, General Manager of SIPA.