In June, the Swiss engineering company Sigpack Systems AG, part of the Bosch Group, has celebrated its centenary. The company was founded in 1906 under the name of Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG). In the early days, it manufactured the first automated packaging machines on behalf of an external patentee who was the co-founder of Sapal S.A. in Ecublens. These modest table-mounted machines were driven by hand. However, they already replaced numerous and complicated manual processing steps during the folding of the wrapping material and thereby simplified the packing of chocolate and soup cubes.
In 1921, SIG began to develop and construct its own packaging machines, which were also used for other foods such as biscuits and butter. By 1938, the company was producing 26 different types of machines, with this number rising to 60 models by 1981. When automated packaging boomed in the fifties, SIG caused a stir with its first continuous horizontal flowwrapping machine, which was launched in 1956. And the company managed to develop equally successful products time and time again. In 2005, these included the HCM, a compact system platform for pillow packs, the integrated TTL-i top loader, the new WTI tray loader as well as the stick pack machine RA/KG4. Whereas the initial packaging machines by SIG were mainly delivered to Swiss chocolate manufacturers, today the company exports 97 percent of its products. When SIG extended its manufacturing capacities in 1964, the company left its traditional headquarters in Neuhausen in Switzerland and built a new factory in the neighbouring Beringen. In 1999, Sigpack Systems became an independent strategic business unit within a SIG division.
When Sigpack Systems was taken over by Bosch Packaging Technology on 1 July 2004, Sigpack Systems became a part of the world’s No. 1 company for packaging technology. Sigpack Systems AG with its approximately 600 employees supplements and supports the market leadership of Bosch with its innovative packaging machines and systems.
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