Sipa unveils ‘ground-breaking’ Xtreme Sincro Cube system

Sipa has unveiled its Xtreme Sincro Cube system which converts PET pellets into filled and capped bottles via “ground-breaking” Xtreme preform molding, bottle blowing and Flextronic filling.

The machine can be configured for a range of products, including: still and carbonated drinks, cold-fill and hot-fill beverages, products with and without pulp, edible oil, milk and derivates, clear juices, as well as home and personal care products.

Sipa said the solution is “compact, flexible and easy to operate”. With the additional benefit of the elimination of preform handling, total overall costs are lower, while the quality of the finished bottle is said to be better.

Xtreme Sincro Cube incorporates Sipa’s Xtreme injection-compression preform molding system, which the company says is “the world’s first totally oil-free high-output preform production system”.

The absence of intermediate handling between preform molding and stretch-blowing means preforms don’t suffer any scratching. Energy consumption is minimised since the preforms exit the Xtreme already hot and only go through minimal conditioning prior to blowing.

Sipa rotary stretch-blow molding units can produce standard containers at up to 2,250 bottles/hour/cavity (2,550 in the Xtra version) and complex custom containers such as heat-set containers for hot filling at up to 1,800 bottles/hour/cavity (2,000 with Xtra).

The direct transfer of preforms from the Xtreme to the blowing wheel is said to enable easy handling of light bottle necks at high production rates. 

With regards to filling, Sipa said its Flextronic system is a “flexible platform of electronic fillers incorporating state-of-the-art technologies”. The choice of filler depends on the type of product to be filled, with the range spanning isobaric fillers, gravity fillers and hot fillers, in mechanical level and electronic volumetric versions, including a weight-filling solution.

The Xtreme Sincro Cube system is available in four versions, with a preform production wheel holding 72 or 96 cavities, feeding a blowing unit holding 16, 20, or 24 molds, which in turn feeds a filling station with 60, 80, or 100 valves. Depending on the combination, maximum output is between 36,000 and 54,000 filled bottles per hour. All combinations are capable of producing filled bottles up to 3 litres in volume.