SIG presents its next generation filling technology – SIG NEO, which made its debut together with the innovative combivita family-size pack.
SIG NEO is the centrepiece of SIG’s next generation platform and the world’s fastest filling machine for family-size carton packs with up to 18,000 packs per hour. SIG NEO has best-in-class sterility rates and reduced consumption of resources – all adding to improved total cost of ownership and a 25% lower carbon footprint compared to SIG’s current generation filling machines for family-size carton packs.
SIG’s latest filling technology puts the future needs of food and beverage producers at the forefront to optimise output while helping to minimise costs.
Stefan Mergel, Senior Product Manager Equipment at SIG said, “Food and beverage producers have tight deadlines, production and profitability goals, plus sustainability targets and countless KPIs to meet. To fulfil all their needs, we’ve built a world-class system that’s far more flexible and efficient than any other on the market, with industry-leading sterility rates. Driving down costs while reducing its carbon footprint, our new filling technology is better for both business and the environment – an exceptional breakthrough for aseptic filling machines.”
SIG has developed SIG NEO to deliver on 6 core areas and these include:
Profitability: with longer production runs, shorter cleaning times, exceptionally low waste rates and increased technical efficiency, SIG NEO is designed to deliver long-term savings and a highly competitive total cost of ownership.
Efficiency: highest speed and efficiency with an output of up to 18,000 packs per hour for family-size packs. 50% higher output compared to current generation machines but with same manpower. Unique 100+ hour run cycles, fully automated clean-in-place solution from magazine to discharge and quickest and world-class cleaning results.
Quality: best in class sterility rates with SIG’s innovative 360-degree sterilising solution, plus an innovative transport system (SIG ZOOMER) that stays within the aseptic chamber.
Ease of use: highly intuitive user interface and a refined User eXperience [UX] (SIG CRUISER).
Flexibility: SIG has taken flexibility a step further and SIG customers can now set up the filling speed to suit production plans: either 12,000, 16,000 or 18,000 packs per hour. Automatic volume change in less than 10 minutes to run 500ml, 750ml or 1,000ml pack sizes. Ultimate product flexibility with the capability for product changes during production runs.
Carbon footprint reduction: lower carbon footprint thanks to improved waste rates and reduced use of utilities H2O2, compressed air and water (30% lower overall utility consumption), 60% water reduction and 25% reduction in greenhouse gases from filling and packaging process per filled pack.
SIG NEO provides operator independence via automatic cleaning and a built-in smart asset management system. It is intuitive to operate and will link seamlessly into any factory set up.
Perfectly complementing SIG NEO is SIG PACER, a new fully automated sleeve magazine powered by a robotic arm that works alongside customer teams to do the heavy lifting. SIG PACER takes care of detecting, gripping and opening corrugated boxes containing customer’s carton sleeves. Feeding the sleeves into the filling machine, SIG PACER maintains one full hour of autonomous production, with a complete pallet feed. This innovation sets the pace for SIG’s next generation filling line.
Finally, SIG CRUISER completes the trio of the next generation filling technology from SIG – this new user interface (Human Machine Interface – HMI) makes the entire new filling line easy to operate. The highly intuitive SIG CRUISER enables SIG customers to easily set their complete production process and is designed to make life much easier for the operator, while reducing the need for training and experience. SIG CRUISER’s user interface operates the entire filing line end-to-end, to show KPIs in an intuitive way.
Amidst the new technology, SIG debuts its new family-size aseptic carton pack, combivita which offers on-shelf differentiation and flexibility on SIG’s next generation filling technology (SIG NEO).
Available in 3 carton sizes as mentioned earlier, combivita has a slanted top and wider opening to ensure smooth and easy pouring with SIG’s new tethered, easy open and resealable closure, truTwist, which is 32.5mm in its external diameter. combivita’s organic curve on the back not only adds to its elegance, but also makes it easier for consumers of all ages to handle.
For beverage manufacturers, the side corner panels of combivita provide additional on-pack branding opportunities, to help achieve an outstanding shelf presence. The highly robust combivita pack enables 100% pallet utilisation and also reduces secondary packaging and logistics costs, compared to existing carton formats.
Combivita carton packs are also environmentally friendly with 100% of the paperboard sourced from FSC™-certified forests.
SIG is a leading systems and solutions provider for aseptic carton packaging. Headquartered in Neuhausen, Switzerland, SIG produced 38 billion carton packs and generated €1.8 billion (US$2.03 billion) in revenue in 2020.
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SIG Combibloc Ltd
