Patent Application
20180215117
The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for creating on demand customized corrugated cardboard for forming individually designed packaging boxes in particular on the site of systems for automatically packaging items to be shipped, said corrugated cardboard having at least one corrugated layer between two flat layers. The invention also relates to a system and a method for automatically forming packaging boxes using said apparatus respectively said method.
In recent years, mail ordering has become increasingly common. In order to cope with the increased need for packaging mail ordered items, different systems and methods for automatically forming packaging boxes have been proposed.
US 2008/0020916 A1 discloses a box-making machine, which executes creasing and cutting steps to obtain a cardboard blank, which is then folded to obtain a packaging box from the blank. The invention may be advantageously used in this type and similar types of machines.
For making cardboard blanks to be used in box-making machines, usually a long web of cardboard is fed to such machine either from a roll of corrugated cardboard or from a stack, in which the web is zigzag folded into panels. Corrugated cardboard from a roll is flexible in one direction, as it comprises only one flat layer to which a corrugated layer is attached. Such type of corrugated cardboard is often called “single-faced”. Without special measures or treatment, it is not well suited for making packaging boxes.
For making packing packaging boxes, so-called “standard” corrugated cardboard, which is rather stiff as it comprises a corrugated layer sandwiched between to flat layers, is preferred. However, such cardboard cannot be stored on a roll and hence is usually provided in form of a stack of zigzag folded panels.
Zigzag folded cardboard has the disadvantage that there are transversal folds in the source material at the positions where the panels are connected. These folds are usually not at positions where folds are needed in a blank that is to be cut from the source material. This is especially the case, when the sizes of the blanks to be cut vary while the panels in a stack of cardboard have a fixed size.
Avoiding that a fold in the source material will appear in the blank limits the maximum blank size (namely to the distance between two folds), and causes an undesired amount of waste material. When such folds are present in a blank that is used to fold a packaging such as a box, there is a risk that the blank will not be folded at the intended crease lines, but at the folds that are already present in the source material. This may cause undesired effects during or after the fold process and may cause crashes and/or damage to the packaging and/or articles being packed or result in an undesired appearance of the packaging and/or insufficient protection of the articles inside the packaging.
WO 2014/188010 A1 proposes an apparatus and a method that allow rigidifying cardboard having at least one fold and obtaining packaging material with increased stiffness from a cardboard stack that is formed by zigzag folding a cardboard web into panels connected via transverse folds, by applying creasing means to form in particular line-shaped indentations on at least one side of said cardboard, wherein at least some of said indentations intersect said at least one fold. This apparatus and method advantageously improve the production of cardboard boxes using cardboard from a stack of a zigzag folded cardboard web with transverse folds in respect of preciseness and/or stability of the cardboard boxes.
However, while the apparatus and method disclosed in WO 2014/188010 A1 work perfectly well in many cases, just forming indentions that intersect the unwanted folds may not in all cases lead to sufficient stiffness, in particular when rather thin material is used and/or the formed boxes are rather big and/or items to be packaged in said boxes are rather heavy.
WO 2014 119439 A1 discloses different methods for creating said standard corrugated cardboard (cardboard having at least one corrugated layer sandwiched between two flat layers) on the site of a system for automatically forming packaging boxes. According to one of the methods, single-faced corrugated cardboard from a roll is provided and a second flat layer is glued to it. Another method comprises forming a corrugated layer on-site and gluing two flat layers onto opposite sides of the thus created corrugated layer. However, it has turned out in practice that the gluing unit needed for applying glue to the respective layers on-site is rather complex, costly and requires a lot of maintenance.
WO 2014 119439 A1 also discloses a method of forming so-called “double corrugated” cardboard, in which the corrugated sides of two single-faced corrugated cardboards are brought into engagement with each other with little or no glue. However, it has turned out that without glue the cohesion between the two single-faced cardboards is not sufficient. Moreover, double-corrugated cardboard with two corrugated layers means using a lot of material, which not only increases costs and weight of the packaging boxes formed therefrom, but also increases waste.
In order to advantageously allow creating cardboard on the site, where the cardboard is needed, in particular on the site of a system for automatically forming packaging boxes, EP 3 050 809 A1, the disclosure of which is fully incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method and an apparatus, in which a corrugated layer attached to a first flat layer and a second flat layer are attached to each other such that the corrugated layer is sandwiched between the first and the second flat layers. Creation of the cardboard can advantageously be done directly on the site of a system for automatically forming packaging boxes from the cardboard created, allowing use of materials stored on rolls and avoiding unwanted folds in the cardboard.
In order to allow further customization of the cardboard, EP 3 050 809 A1 allows the operator to choose between different second flat layers with different printings on it. This can advantageously be used in so-called “drop shipment”, in which the operator of a warehouse sends out packages in the name of different customers, the packages created on-site with the second layer bearing for example the name or logo of the respective customer.
US 2013 0 029 825 A1 discloses a system and a method for customizing cardboard by printing different designs onto it.
While the method and the apparatus disclosed in EP 3 050 809 A1 work perfectly well for numerous cases, the design of the cardboard is still limited, as only a limited number of different second flat layers could reasonably be held ready for creating cardboard on-site. Moreover, even keeping two or three rolls of different second flat layers ready on-site of an apparatus for creating cardboard increases the complexity and dimensions of the apparatus noticeably. As the second flat layers are pre-designed, additional logistic effort and advance-planning is needed, as on one hand sufficient stock of a certain design has to be kept ready for example in case of drop-shipment, in which the customer wants boxes with his particular design, while on the other hand the number of boxes to be created with a particular design may vary a lot over the year depending on the nature of the business of the respective customer. Hence, there is a need for allowing creation of individually designed corrugated cardboard on demand, avoiding the necessity to keep pre-designed layers on stock, and it is an object of the invention to disclose an apparatus and a method that allow creating cardboard that is customized in its design for creating an individual box.
The object is achieved by a method according to claim 1 respectively by an apparatus according to claim 10. Advantageous embodiments and implementations are subject to the respective dependent claims. Independent claim 12 is directed to a system for automatically forming packaging boxes comprising an apparatus according to the invention for creating customized cardboard. Such system will typically comprise numerous stations like a station for cutting out blanks, which may be customized individually, a station for providing a blank with crease lines and a station for folding a box from said blank. Independent claim 13 is directed to a method for automatically forming packaging boxes from cardboard comprising the acts of a method for creating customized cardboard according to the invention.
Further objects, features and advantages of the various embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the following non-limiting description of preferred embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
In
Each apparatus comprises means for supplying single-faced corrugated cardboard, i.e., a corrugated layer 10 attached to a first flat layer 12, from a roll 14, which is shown only partially, to a joining station 16, where a second flat layer 18 is attached to the corrugated layer 10 to form standard corrugated cardboard 20 having a corrugated layer sandwiched between two flat layers. This cardboard can then be fed into a machine for automatically forming packaging boxes. Arrow 22 indicates the direction, in which the cardboard moves through the apparatus. For sake of clarity and in order to avoid overloading the drawings, the respective components are not in all drawings provided with respective reference numbers.
As will be described later, joining station 16 may comprise one or more pressing and transporting rollers 34, 36 and one or more transporting rollers 24 and other units for attaching the second flat layer 18 to the corrugated layer 10. The second flat layer 18 is supplied from a roll 26 to the joining station 16 with the aid of corresponding supply structure (e.g., driven and un-driven rollers).
The embodiment according to
In the embodiment shown in
While
Various embodiments are provided with a printing unit (i.e., printer, print head with or without a print platen) 40, which in the shown examples is adapted for printing on the side of the second flat layer 18 that is opposite to the side that will be brought into contact with the corrugated layer 10. It is obvious for an expert in the art that likewise a printing unit for printing on the side of the first flat layer 12, which is not in contact with the corrugated layer 10, can be provided.
The apparatus according to the various embodiments of the invention further comprises a control system (not shown) adapted for controlling the apparatus, as will be described later. The control system can comprise one or more controllers, for example one or more micro-controllers, microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, and, or programmable logic controllers. The control system can comprise one or more nontransitory storage mediums, for example one or more volatile memories for instance random access memory (RAM) or registers, and, or one or more non-volatile memories for instance read only memory (ROM), FLASH memory, magnetic hard disk drives, or optical disk drives. The nontransitory storage mediums can store processor-executable instructions and, or information, executable by a processor, and which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform various methods described herein. The one or more controllers can be communicatively coupled to the one or more nontransitory storage mediums via one or more communications channels, for example one or more buses.
One particularly advantageous use of the apparatus is allowing the customer of a web shop to create his own packaging box design. In one embodiment, this can be put in practice as follows: When the customer finishes the order, he is asked if he wants to create an individually designed box. When the customer affirms this, in a first act the control system obtains information on the dimensions of a packing box necessary for packaging the item(s) ordered. It should be noted that the term “control system” as used herein has a broad meaning and is not limited to a single unit; rather, a control system in the sense of the embodiments of the invention will typically be comprised of different units such as processors and data bases at different locations that, may be communicatively coupled to one another, to perform different tasks in creating the customized box.
Obtaining information on the dimensions of a packaging box for the respective order can be done in multiple ways, for example by obtaining the dimensions of each item in the order from a data base. If the order contains multiple items, the control system may calculate different arrangements of the items which are optimized under different criteria as known in the art of creating customized boxes. For example, the items may be arranged to allow a box having minimal volume, minimal surface (hence reducing the amount of cardboard needed for creating the box), maximum protection and others. The machine used for forming the packaging box may only allow creating a certain number of different sized boxes, such as a small, a medium and a large box, may allow creating boxes that are adjustable in one or two dimensions such as height or width, or may allow creating boxes that are fully customized in all three dimensions, only limited by the width of the cardboard used and of course certain stability restrictions.
In the example described herein, it is assumed that the items ordered by the customer could be packaged either in rather flat arrangement or a more compact arrangement. As schematically depicted in
The customer may then select a design for the chosen box layout, and the control system then matches the chosen design to the box layout and produces, as schematically depicted in
Selecting a design can be done in multiple ways. For example, the control system may suggest certain box designs based on prior orders of the customers and/or on the dimensions and the layout of the box and the user may simply select one of the suggested designs. In a preferred embodiment, the process of selecting a design includes an act in which the customer can create his own individual design, for example by choosing certain design elements like pictures, patterns etc. from a database made available to him and/or by uploading his own design elements like in particular pictures, which will then be matched to the box layout and a virtual digital image showing how the box with the design would look could be presented to the customer, who may then select the design or start creating a different design. It is of course possible to allow selecting different designs for different parts of the box and to provide that for example large pictures extend over different sides of the box.
Whereas in the descripted embodiment a customer of a web shop selects the design, it is of course also possible that the control system automatically selects a certain design based on order information. For example, if the apparatus according to the invention is used in the process of drop shipment, the control system may automatically choose a specific design.
If the process of selecting a design and matching it to the box is finished, i.e. if the customer has accepted a certain design, the matched design is printed on the first or the second flat layer or on both. As schematically indicated in
As a blank, sometimes also called piano, for folding the selected box from the cardboard produced will be cut, it is also possible to arrange the printing unit downstream of such cutting stations. The inventive concept remains unchanged. In
For explanatory reasons, the three sides of the boxes shown in
The blank 54 shown in
In a further embodiment of a machine for creating customized boxes, obtaining information about the dimensions of a packaging box for the respective order may also comprise allowing a customer some freedom to enlarge the packaging box if that better suites the customer created packaging design. For example, a certain dimensional tolerance (length and/or width and/or height) could be provided which can be chosen by the customer to enlarge the dimensions of the packaging box to be created in that it better matches with the design which the customer wants to create. Such dimensional tolerances could be foreseen providing that (i) the proposed boxes still can be created by said machine for creating customized boxes, (ii) the dimensions of the proposed boxes are still within the range of boxes that can be created from the cardboard used for creating packaging boxes and (iii) the dimensions of the proposed boxes do not compromise the stability restrictions of the box. A consequence of allowing an increased size of said packaging box is that there will be more empty space in the box, which may require adding fill material to the box when it is created.
The invention advantageously allows both, the operator of a respective apparatus for creating cardboard as well as the customer of such operator, to design the cardboard on demand so that a box folded from the respective cardboard will have a certain appearance. When the customer is enabled to send his own patterns, pictures, etc. to be used in the design of the box, it could be foreseen that a copyright and/or morality check is automatically performed prior to accepting a design for printing. When the operator or the customer has chosen a certain layout for a box for a specific assembly of items, it may be foreseen that packaging instructions are produced and provided together with the cardboard to a packer arranging the items to be packaged in the box. Such instructions may for example be automatically displayed on a monitor at a station where the items are packaged in the box. Likewise, in case a box with a separate lid is used, instructions on how to arrange the lid on the box may be automatically produced and provided to a person closing the box, or an indication mark on the inside of the lid and/or the box showing how the lid has to be placed on the box may be printed on the cardboard.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 154 070.1 | Jan 2017 | EP | regional |
