The fifty years of Simei

Facts and figures of the latest edition of Simei-Enovitis, and an initial review of the products seen at the show.

Simei-Enovitis celebrates its fiftieth birthday with an authoritative testimonial (the right honorable Paolo De Castro MEP, and President of the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development, hosted the inauguration), and confirms its placement as international event focused on winemaking and bottling.
The biennial event, organized by the Unione Italiana Vini from 12th to 16th last year in Milan-Rho, witnessed 600 exhibitors, 140 of which foreign  (70 more than in 2011). Significant and on the increase the presence of foreign operators, 70% from Europe, 11% from America, 14% from Asia, 3% from Africa and 2% from Oceania, totalling 30% of overall entries to the fair.

Worthy of note, in terms of number and depth, the training and information events fielded by the organizers and opened by the International Conference on Sustainable Viticulture (3500 the pre-registrations alone). We cite among others, the conference “sustainable packaging for quality Italian wine” organized by Comieco’s Paper and Board club, and the assignment of the “Innovation Challenge”, introduced by an impassioned speech made by Maurizio di Robilant on the technical excellence of the Italian winegrowing chain (though not accompanied by the same sophistication in its communication, the head of the wellknown brand advisory and strategic design company underlined).
Communicative indeed, however, the organizers, who fielded the innovative project Contag: from totems placed in the stands visitors could “download” all the documentation on the exhibitor’s products via a link activated by contact between the microchip inserted in the visitors’ badge holder and the exhibitors’ Smart Stations. The balance? 4,726 videos, 66,802 brochures and 88,704 business cards transferred “via” Contag.                     

Italian wine exports on the increase
The wine sector is a particularly lively and important segment of the Italian food industry, and helps ferry the Italian food industry in its entirety abroad. The export of Italian wines in fact has been constantly growing at double-digit rates over the past decade and by a good 14% in just the first seven months of 2013, reaching a value of about two billion, quantified Domenico Zonin, President of the Unione Italiana Vini, in occasion of Simei. This too with the help of European funds - said De Castro during the inauguration of the exhibition - of which a large chunk is allocated to Italy, and significantly to the promotion abroad of wine and related technologies.
Bubbly: Italy snaps up market shares The growth in bottled wines, that reaches the value of 24.9 billion dollars out of grand total of 35 billion dollars, is +5%, and +3-4% that of sparkling wine (5.8 billion the total value), especially thanks to Prosecco, that has compensated for the slack run of French Champagne.

According to the Corriere Vinicolo, if Italy were to maintain the pace of growth in the first half of the year, the country would close the 2013 budget with exports at 900 million dollars (+15%), increasing its global market share (16%) by 2 points. At the expense of France that, with an annual growth rate of 2%, would drop another point to 55%.
Bottled also doing well In the packaged wine business, Italy is expected to stand at 4.7 billion dollars (+6%), maintaining second place in the global ranking with a share of 19% and gnawing tenths of a point off the French share.

In turn the New World is going through a slack phase, with Chile, Argentina and Australia in a freeze, Spain showing a slight increase and the U.S. in good health, with its exports showing growth, now close to 5%. Among the largest non-European producers, only South Africa has surprised analysts with a sharp recovery in the sale of bottled wine (+27%), which should once again put them above 2% in the world market share ranking..

INNOVATION CHALLENGE
On 12 November, the inauguration of Simei-Enovitis also witnessed the Innovation Challenge awards ceremony, event dedicated to Lucio Mastroberardino (the UIV president who died prematurely a few months ago) and chaired by a jury of experts, consisting of university researchers and Italian and foreign winegrowing companies 23 the companies awarded, three of which received the Technological Innovation “super prize” award: FT System Srl for L. Sensor O2, Garbellotto SpA, for precision barrels and Bertolaso Group SpA for an integrated bottle management system.

Here below some products on show: G.B. Gnudi Bruno - Cames Srl - Elesa - Enoplastic - FT System - Balluff Automation - Intercool Srl - Marking Products Srl - P.E. Labellers - Sacmi - TMG - Tradex Srl - UBS - Verallia

Beverages at end of line G.B. Gnudi Bruno proposes a dedicated end of line solution for the beverage industry, developed by CAM, including a wraparound casepacker model W30 and the ZP Easy palletizer. The intermittent motion W30 casepacker positions round, oval or square bottomed bottles in cardboard boxes and is equipped with the following automatic functions: product feed via motorized belt, packaging forming, warehouse for flat cartons with suction picking, product carton insertion, closure with hot-melt adhesive, expulsion of the finished box. The machine can be equipped with numerous optionals depending on required speed and types of products to be packaged, including packaging on trays, a system of multi-layer packaging and a side flap closure device. The standard speed of both the wraparound and the palletizer is 10 cycles/min, with a maximum pallet height of 1.8 m.

Washer-dryer for full bottles Cames Srl offers a line of washer-dryers for full glass bottles, which enable the removal of any residue from the outer surface of the bottles due to filling or processing of the glass, thus preparing it for subsequent labeling. Two the main features of the WDT series: washing through motorized brushes and water at room temperature, which operate on the bottles brought into rotation by motorized plates; drying with hot air jets emitted from adjustable distributors, that act along the entire vertical surface of the bottles, made to rotate by special belts. These machines (covered by an international patent) are available in a wide range of models corresponding to the different outputs (from 500 to 30,000 b/h).

Fluid electrical level control kit Devised by Elesa the SLCK kit with HCK and HCK.GL level indicators, that as well as giving a visual control, emit an electrical signal the moment the fluid reaches the preset intervention level set in the tank assembly phase. The sensor bearing bracket, made in polyamide based technopolymer, can be positioned at the required height to the left or right along the axis of the indicator. Thanks to the airtightness of the sensor bearing bracket and the kit’s IP65 grade protection (that comprises both one or two square sensor bearing brackets, a float, 4 o-rings and two distance rings) stands up to spurts of water.

Hi-tech alternative to cork LunaPlus is a high concentration of technology contained in just 7.5 grams and promises all the guarantees and security of a perfect closure. It is made by Enoplastic (Bodio Lomnago, VA) using cutting-edge technologies and machinery that enables obtaining products with reliable physical and technical qualities. LunaPlus enables appropriate oxidation of the wine to protect and exalt its qualities without risking reduction, and can be used on both white and red wines, enabling excellent supply management.

Laser spectroscopy for oxygen in wine L.Sensor. O2, developed by FT System in collaboration with the CNR (Italian National Research Council) and the University of Padua, is the first application of gas phase laser spectroscopy in the wine sector, for the non-invasive and non-destructive measurement in glass bottles and PET, even on-line. Using a low power laser beam which crosses the head space of the bottles, the instrument is capable of measuring % of O2 in the head space, PPM of dissolved O2, total pressure, partial pressure of CO2 and g/L of dissolved CO2. Oxygen that enters during filling and capping can be monitored, allowing precise maintenance of individual nozzles and capping heads. L.Sensor.O2 does not require the opening of the bottle, it is easy to use and does not involve wearable parts; the speed of monitoring enables a significant increase in the number of controls.

Level sensors: new development At Simei, Balluff Automation gave the world debut of the design for a new level sensor, suitable for detecting liquid through the wall of a steel tank. In fact, this sensor, which uses the sound propagation principle of sonar systems, can be installed outside the tank, in direct contact with the wall of the reservoir (a stainless steel wall with 4 mm max thickness). The new Balluff sensor scans with a resolution of approximately 2 mm, in two modes: - when mounted at the base of the reservoir, it records a variable range and transmits data via an analog outlet of 0 to 10 V; - when mounted on the side of the reservoir, it behaves as a level sensor, with digital outlet. This system has numerous applications in all industrial sectors: food and beverage, machine tools, automotive, pharmaceuticals and packaging.

Hot melt closure Intercoll Srl (Trescore Balneario, BG) presents an entire end of line for hot melt closure of boxes, with manual or automatic loading, combined with palletization, and a few hot melt gun models with characteristics suited to various application requirements. In particular, the model IGP 85 is equipped with a tabletop doser for polyamide, polyurethane, wax and EVA adhesives in granules, lumps or sticks. It can be operated manually or automatically and features a 450 g tank with continuous reloading and no machine stops. The control panel enables adjusting tank temperature, pump speed and dispenser tempering

Inkjet for porous surfaces Marking Products Srl (exclusive Italian distributor of Hitachi, Matthews and Limitronic brand inkjet coders and markers) presents the new L-Pack model high resolution printer Matthews Viacode L-Series. This system, suitable for marking porous surfaces, is thus integrated with an entry level solution, complete with L-12 model head with 12.7 mm print height. Other features: LCD touch screen display with 8”, 12” and 15” diagonal; individually displayed message for each line; integration with ERP/MPR or WMS environments.

A sleever in preview At Simei, P.E. Labellers gave a first-time preview of the new linear sleever Maya, a result of its collaboration with Schneider Electric. Maya is a compact machine capable of labeling containers of any shape, size or material (including with reduced thickness), at a production speed of up to 30,000 bph. Starting with pre-sealed material in reels, using advanced automation and control techniques, the machine forms a tube which it then cuts and applies to the product, which is then heatshrunk (using hot air or steam). Maya applies full body or partial body sleeves; tamper evidence on the cap; underlap; with vertical and/or horizontal pre-cutting; with lamination for promotions (bi-pack). It is also features a non-stop mode with automatic warehouse for minimizing machine stops. Thanks to a large number of optionals, it can be adapted to the most diverse containers, empty or full, with any material, shape or size, with shrinkage rates up to 80%.

Aseptic filler for bag in box Sacmi presented at Simei the new rotary aseptic filler for bag in box packaging, characterized by a carousel that manages in six steps bag loading and unloading, hydrogen peroxide sterilization on cap and mouth, cap removal, aseptic filling and capping. It is offered as a solution suitable not only for wine products, but also soft drinks, dairy beverages, sauces, fruit syrups, etc., capable of operating with from 1,5 to 20 liter bags at a speed of over 800 pcs/h. It is also available in the “ultra clean” non aseptic version for high outputs, for example over 1200 bag-in-box/hour with 3 litre bags..

Top of the automated casepacking range Pack 16 is the automatic casepacker with two axes of movement, designed by TMG to receive and order incoming containers from the filling section, pick them up in the quantity desired, and introduce them into cartons or packing cases. Pack 16 is designed to work with different types of products in small spaces. The machine features an advanced overall design, a high degree of automation and high reliability. Thanks to the use of brushless motors in the two axes of movement of the gripping head, multi-layer and multi row formats inside the carton can be attained, thus enabling the performance of free applications.

Laser small text Tradex Srl, exclusive Italian distributor for Macsa, proposes iCON: a laser printer capable of marking two lines (lot and expiry date) at a speed of 12 m/min (40 pc/min), both on varnished cardboard and on colored PVC foil. iCON is a CO2 laser specifically designed for small text marking that is particularly cost effective. Moreover, its thermal touch screen makes it easy to install and use and makes it a practical and advantageous solution for all types of industry, food and otherwise, pharmaceuticals included.

Labeler for pallets UBS (United Barcode Systems) proposes the print & apply system APL-ELV 8000 for automatic labeling of pallets of various heights between a minimum 840 mm to a maximum 2,500 mm, as well as labeling at different heights on the same pallet. The machine can apply up to three labels per pallet, on different sides and at pre-set irregular heights, and prints them using the flexibility of the special APL-ELV column forklift. Equipped with automatic break, the system guarantees perfect positioning and enables integrating Datamax, Zebra or Sato print motors.