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At last fall’s K 2019 show in Düsseldorf, SACMI of Italy presented a dramatic new capability for its continuous compression molding (CCM) system. This system, utilized up to now for high-speed production of caps and closures, is now moving farther into small containers such as single-serve coffee pods or capsules and tuna packages.

 

 

What makes this possible is new multilayer capability for these machines, designated CCMM. It involves coextruding a cylindrical “gob” with up to nine layers, which is sliced off the extrusion die, turned 90° and deposited in a compression mold on a continuously moving linear conveyor. Two machines are running coffee pods in Europe with two PP layers, one EVOH barrier layer, and two tie layers. A machine was also sold to Gateway Plastics in Mequon, Wis., for coffee pods. It has four extruders and can run up to 600 pods/min. The CCMM system is said to be capable of up to 800/min 32 cavities and accommodates products up 70 mm diam. and 50 mm high. CCM systems have been sold for monolayer coffee capsules that run at up to 1600/min. SACMI also offers a vision system for online 100% quality inspection that uses infrared light to measure layer thicknesses, especially that of the EVOH barrier.