Sidel: 40 years of PET packaging expertise

Forty years ago Sidel launched its first commercial blower to produce PET bottles for the beverage industry. The company has been supplying and pioneering innovative PET packaging solutions for beverage as well as the Food, Home and Personal Care (FHPC) markets to meet the growing and fast-changing consumer demands since then. Through its extensive PET packaging and engineering expertise, combined with unique package design and blowing process capabilities, Sidel has been strongly supporting the market in the use of PET and will continue to do so as PET is the optimal sustainable material for packaging. 

In 1980, Sidel introduced the world's first commercial production solution to package beverages in PET – the SBO blower (In French – Soufflage Bi-Orienté – meaning Bi-oriented blowing) for carbonated soft drinks (CSD). The company has driven many performance improvements in PET bottling technology that cover all beverage and FHPC categories, achieving huge advances in the productivity of complete lines ever since. 

Guillaume Rolland, Vice President for PET and Sensitive Products Portfolio at Sidel, explains the key values that underpin the development of EvoBLOW™, the latest generation blowmoulder by Sidel: “Throughout all the advances in equipment and packaging innovations, our underlying objectives are answering industry requirements in terms of best in class product integrity and superior package quality as well as providing maximum efficiency, lower total cost of ownership and sustainable competitiveness. Another key target is to ensure optimised production flexibility allowing easy handling of multiple SKUs and focusing on energy savings and the reduction of raw materials’ consumption to minimise the environmental impact.”

To make the most of the EvoBLOW, its integrated equipment intelligence and very responsive management lead to continuous production optimisation and easier maintenance services. It combines reactive automation with innovative technologies of connected machines and real-time data analytics. Unparalleled bottle quality can be reached with the patented blowing process control and self-regulation solution: IntelliBLOWER™. It automatically detects and eliminates bottle process deviations to ensure production consistency and quality. Simplified and intuitive operator interventions, smart notifications for better reactivity, and reduced maintenance time contribute to improve productivity as well.

Expanding packaging innovation and performance boundaries

PET packaging industry has been developing ever more rapidly since 1980, although the importance of innovative and durable bottle design has remained. Sidel has been instrumental in some of the most significant, attractive PET bottle designs in liquid and FHPC packaging by always focusing on innovative packaging design and recognising market trends to create original, eye-catching shapes that support producers to differentiate their products in a highly competitive and fast-paced market.

Sidel’s commitment to packaging design also includes driving initiatives in rightweighting, which have, for example, seen weight reduction for 0.5 L format PET bottle for still water by over 70% between 1985 and 2019. For instance, Sidel’s X-LITE™ bottle, introduced in 2019, has achieved a weight of just 7 grams for a 0.5 L format PET water bottle while still maintaining an excellent top load performance. This is possible due to the very wide blowing process capabilities of Sidel EvoBLOW.

Four decades of PET blowing innovations

In 2020, a Sidel EvoBLOW line produced 90,000 bottles per hour (bph) on the world's fastest production line for water; almost 25 times faster than the SBO blower from 1980, which was running at 3,600 bph. Since the introduction of the first PET bottle, Sidel has been the key driver behind numerous innovations in the packaging industry. With more than 7,000 SBO blowers running worldwide, blowing technologies by Sidel have become the standard. Affirmation for this statement may be found in the company’s long-lasting partnerships with key packaging players and the many repeated orders, which demonstrate the confidence in Sidel’s blowing expertise.