Celebrations to mark Sacmi’s 85th anniversary begin

A long-awaited inauguration and an open day at the plant in Via Selice: celebrations to mark Sacmi Imola’s 85th anniversary will be getting under way on 4th December with the opening of the Sacmi company museum to the public. Visitors will have the opportunity to see just how this Imola-based multinational developed and gain some insight into its future: the museum, in fact, has been designed as a place where citizens and guests can see the results - past and present - of the Group’s commitment to technology and R&D: a kind of “showcase” where visitors can also get an inkling of Sacmi’s future plans.
The Museum tour begins in 1919, when the “Imola mechanical cooperative” first began producing handmade machinery. There follows an in-depth illustration of the 1930s, a period of economic and political upheaval which saw production of the first machine to carry the Sacmi logo, a machine for the processing of oranges. The meeting with the world of ceramic – the symbol of the Group’s worldwide leadership – and the design and construction of specialised tile production machinery would not occur until after the second world war. Production of ceramic presses began in the 50s, as did a process of product diversification: it was then, in fact, that the Imola-based plant started making machines for bottle cap production lines. The 1960s saw Sacmi continue to invest in R&D and perfect new hydraulic presses with improved performance and lower running costs. In the mid-80s this strategy of diversification saw Sacmi take up another challenge: to become a supplier of machines and complete plants to the sanitaryware and tableware industries.
Fast-paced technological evolution continued throughout the 1990s, when the closures division was flanked by the plastics and packaging divisions.