Patent Application
20200307140
The application relates to a method and a system for creating custom-sized open packaging boxes and corresponding separate closing lids from cardboard that is supplied to a system comprising structure for cutting, creasing and folding the cardboard to form custom-sized boxes and corresponding closing lids. The application also relates to a method and a system for automatically packaging items of varying size and number in said custom-sized boxes.
Mail ordering has become a widely used way of buying goods. More and more companies offer virtual department stores, in which the customers can electronically put goods in a shopping cart that later will be transferred by the respective company into a dispatch order, so that in a warehouse a shipment comprising the items ordered (and sometimes additional items such as samples, vouchers, invoices, void-fill etc.) can be assembled based on the respective dispatch order.
While assembling a shipment in a warehouse of a specialized distributor is nowadays often done more or less fully automated, packaging the items to be shipped is still a challenge, in particular when a shipment comprises several items of different sizes and in different quantities. Often, the items to be packaged are provided automatically to a person packaging the items manually. Depending on the size and number of the items, the person selects a suitable box size. Generally the box is a cardboard box that upon packaging is assembled from a corresponding cardboard blank.
To automate the packaging process even in cases where the items vary in size and number, a system has been proposed in WO 2014/117817 A1 that allows—within the boundaries imposed by the material used—creating a fully custom-sized box, i.e. a box, of which width, length and height are adapted to the respective content of the box. The box is created from a roll or a stack of cardboard by cutting out and creasing a custom-sized blank from which the box including panels to form a lid is folded automatically around the item(s) to be packaged after placing the item(s) on the blank.
WO 2016/059218 A1 discloses a system and a method for automatically packaging items varying in size and number applying two separate packings, namely an inner packing surrounding the items to be packaged in a first direction, and an outer packing surrounding the inner packing in a second direction, said second direction being substantially perpendicular to the first direction such that the inner and the outer packing form a combined package enclosing the package items from all sides.
WO 2013/117852 A1 discloses a system and a method for reducing the height of a cardboard box to the apex of the highest item in the box. WO 2013/117852 A1 discloses prefolded boxes, of which also only one dimension, namely the height, can be adapted to the actual content of the box. However, if only one dimension of a box can be adapted, the finished package will often not be optimal with respect to volume, while transportation costs often depend not only on the weight, but also on the volume of a package.
FR 2 987 824 A1 discloses blanks for manually folding boxes and corresponding lids, wherein each blank comprises numerous perforated lines/indentations and cuts to facilitate folding a box and a corresponding lid having different dimensions. As a broad variety of possible boxes and lids can be formed with the blanks according to FR 2 987 824 A1, different sections formed by the perforated lines and cuts are coloured differently to allow the user to identify, which sections have to be folded in order to create a box or a lid of a certain size. Due to the high number of perforated lines and cuts, the stability of a corresponding box and a lid is not optimal. Moreover, producing such coloured blanks with numerous perforated lines and cuts is complex and hence expensive.
While the known systems and methods for automating the packaging process work well for a number of applications, and in particular the system disclosed in WO 2014/117817 A1 has proven to allow packaging items varying in size and number fully automatically, it has turned out that there is a need for optimization of the packaging process under a number of aspects. For example, the known systems for automatically creating custom-sized cardboard boxes with attached lids fold and close the box around the items that have been placed on a corresponding blank. The blank itself has a rather complex structure and accordingly the structure for cutting, creasing and folding is not simple. Moreover, as the boxes are closed by the systems, only the items that have been put on the blank can be packaged, while it is in some cases desirable to fill a box with loose fill material like expanded polystyrene peanuts. Such material would fall off easily or fly about during folding the boxes if placed together with the items on a blank. Hence, a special and complex introduction nozzle or the like would be needed to put such material in a box during the folding and closing process.
The “International Fibreboard Case Code” published by FEFCO and ESBO, 2007, 11th edition, discloses under item 0300 a box (hereinafter referred to as “type 0300” box) according to the preamble of claim 1, which is very stable and yet very easy to manufacture as the layout of the so called blank (sometimes called template or piano), which is made by cutting and creasing cardboard of a certain thickness, that can be denoted by TCBB (while as will be explained later TCBB has to be be regarded as a correction factor for taking into account differences between the inner and the outer dimensions of a box) and from which then the box is folded, is rather simple. Each box comprises a rectangular bottom panel having four edges, an inner length LBPB and an inner width WBPB, a first and a second rectangular end panel, each joined over a crease line to opposite edges of said bottom panel, each end panel having a an inner width WEPB and an inner height HEPB, a first and a second rectangular side panel, each joined over a crease line to opposite edges of said bottom panel, each side panel having an inner length LSPB and an inner height HSPB, two first and two second rectangular corner panels, the first corner panel joined over respective crease lines to opposite edges of the first end panel, and the second corner panels joined over respective crease lines to opposite edges of the second end panel, each corner panel having an inner length LCPB basically corresponding to the height HSPB of the side panels plus thickness TCBB of the cardboard the of the box and an inner height HCPB basically corresponding to the height HEPB of the end panels plus the thickness TCBB of the cardboard of the box. It should be noted that due to the thickness of the cardboard, the so-called crease line are not thin lines as for folding paper, but are rather “crease grooves”. However, following the terminology common in the art, the term crease line is used herein.
As will be explained in conjunction with the drawings, the so-called outer dimensions, which refer to the dimensions of the panels on the outside of the erected box, either correspond to the respective inner dimensions, if the respective dimension is taken between two free edges of the respective panel like the outer length of the side panels, or basically correspond to the respective inner dimensions plus the thickness TCBB of the cardboard, if the respective outer dimension is taken between a free edge of the respective panel and a panel folded by 90° from the respective panel like the outer length of the end panels, or basically correspond to the respective inner dimensions plus twice the thickness TCBB of the cardboard, if the respective outer dimension is taken between two panels folded by 90° from the respective panel like the outer length of the bottom panel. However, cardboard is to a certain extend flexible and stretchable and has a specific way of behaving upon folding, such that creasing and folding cardboard is not the same a for example mitre cutting adjacent edges of metal profiles and hence all dimensions have some material-caused tolerance. Thus, the dimensions given in the application are to be taken as is common in the art as being not exact values but rather values that allow the operator of a system to implement the invention. Systems for automatically cutting, creasing and folding take the properties of the cardboard into account and even if the dimensions of the items to be packed can be measured very precisely, the boxes are always produced with appropriate tolerance. Nevertheless, for calculating the dimensions of the panels, the following can be assumed to be roughly true: outer length of bottom panel≈LBPB plus 2 TCBB, outer width of bottom panel≈WBPB plus 2 TCBB, outer width of end panel≈WEPB plus 2 TCBB, outer height of end panel≈HBPB plus 1 TCBB, outer height of side panel≈HSPB plus 1 TC, outer length of cornel panel≈LEPB plus 1 TCBB. As the following dimensions are measured between two free edges of the respective panels, there is no difference between the inner and the outer dimensions: outer length of side panel=LSPB, outer height of corner panel=HCPB.
The boxes can be closed for example with a lid having the same structure, i.e. a lid with corner panels, or with a lid having an even simpler blank layout in which the corner panels are cut away similar to the lid shown under item 0302 in said FEFCO/ESBO publication (“type 0302” lid). Such lid comprises a rectangular top panel having four edges and an inner length LTPL and an inner width WTPL, a first and a second rectangular end panel, joined to opposite edges of said top panel, each end panel having a inner width WEPL and an inner height HEPL, a first and a second rectangular side panel joined to opposite edges of said top panel, each side panel having an inner length LSPL and an inner height HSPL. Optionally, the lid may also comprise two first and two second rectangular corner panels, the first corner panels joined to opposite edges of the first end panel and the second corner panels joined to opposite edges of the second end panel, each corner panel having an inner length LCPL and an inner height HCPL (“type 0300” lid). The lid may be created from the same cardboard as the box or from a different cardboard. Hence, for the lid a correction factor TCBL, which generally corresponds to the thickness of the cardboard of the lid, has to be taken into account and with respect to the outer dimensions of the panels of the lid, corresponding assumptions as for the box can be made.
Known systems for creating custom-sized open packaging boxes and corresponding separate closing lids from cardboard being continuously supplied to the systems in particular from stacks from zig-zag folded cardboard, can be set up to produce type 0300 boxes and corresponding lids (both having so called corner panels) or combinations of such boxes with e.g. type 0302 lids (having no corner panels). For erecting such box, the system would first fold the corner panels upwards, then the end panels upwards and thus the corner panels, which are joined to the end panels, inwards, and finally the side panels upwards.
However, although advantageous in stability and simplicity of layout design, the type 0300 box layout has two strong limitations: as the inner height of the side panels (plus the correction factor TCBB, which however generally is small compared to the dimensions of the panels) basically corresponds to the length of the corner panels (as the crease line between the corner panels and the end panels, which determines the inner length if the corner panels, is slightly shifted towards the respective end panel to allow that the corner panels and the side panels can both be erected properly), and the height of the end panels corresponds to the inner height of the side panels, the inner height of the side panels and the end panels is limited to half the inner length of the bottom panel, as otherwise the adjacent corner panels of opposite end panels could collide upon erecting the box and would also overlap in the erected state so that they would no longer lie in the same plane, making attaching the side panels difficult and leading to not only visually disadvantageous boxes. Cutting off the corner panels would make the box less stable and would also need an additional step of attaching a closing strip over the edge between adjacent side and end panels. Also, the width of the cardboard supplied limits the outer width and the outer height of a type 0300 box created from such cardboard, as the outer width of the bottom panel plus twice the outer height of the side panels, which corresponds to the outer height of the end panels, cannot be greater than the cardboard width.
Having regard to the advantages of boxes having separate closing lids and a simple yet stable design comprising a bottom panel, two end panels, two side panels and four corner panels, and being automatically created from cardboard supplied from a stack or a roll of cardboard, it is an object of the invention to disclose a method and a system for creating custom-sized boxes of said design, which overcome both restrictions, i.e. the restriction that the maximum height of the box is limited to half the length of the box, and the restriction that the box width plus twice the box height cannot be greater than the width of the cardboard supplied. Another object of the invention is to disclose a method and a system for automatically packaging items of varying size and number in such custom-sized boxes.
The objects are achieved by methods according to claims 1, 2 and 13 respectively systems according to claims 17, 24 and 25.
The invention is based on the surprising idea that by allowing, if necessary, the side panels of a box to have a height smaller than the height of end panels and by compensating the missing height of the side panels of the box by increasing the height of the side panels of the lid as necessary to avoid that the closed box would have a lateral opening, custom-sized stable boxes without the aforementioned restrictions can be formed at very high speed. For example, a typical system according to the invention allows to package about 1.000 sets of items varying in size and number per hour.
The invention allows to overcome—of course within the boundaries of the supplied material having a certain width and a certain strength—the restriction imposed on the height by the length of the box and the restriction imposed on the width and height of the box by the width of the cardboard supplied. It ensures easy erecting of the corner panels without the danger that opposite corner panels could collide, and ensures that erected opposite corner panels are in the same plane, making it easy to attach the side panels to them. Besides, providing separate boxes and lids instead of wrapping cardboard around an assembly of items to be shipped allows e.g. visual inspection of the so called shipment set (the one or more items to be shipped), makes it easy to add loose fill material and other items that originally not formed part of the shipment set like vouchers, product samples, invoices, void-fill etc., and allows that the items are manually re-arranged if wanted. It also allows that the box is produced based on a dispatch order and that the items are assembled in the box upon picking up the items in a warehouse such that they do not have to be transferred onto a cardboard blank. The invention allows creating a fully custom-sized box, i.e. a box, of which the height, length and width are adapted to the needs of a specific shipment set, and which box can be optimized under predetermined criteria like for example minimum volume or maximum stability.
It should be noted that the term “width of the bottom panel” as used herein refers to the extension of the bottom panel in the direction of the width of the cardboard supplied for making the box, and “length of the bottom panel” refers to extension in the direction of the length of the cardboard supplied, which is also the direction, in which the cardboard is transported to and in a system for creating custom-sized boxes. Seen in this transport direction, the end panels of the box are in front and behind the bottom panel, while the side panels of the box are to the left and the right of said bottom panel.
In the flat state, i.e. before erecting the respective panels, the inner height of the end panels of the box is accordingly the extension of the end panels in the length direction of the cardboard supplied between the free edges of the end panels and the crease line separating the end panels from the bottom panel, and the inner width of the end panels of the box is the extension of the end panels in the width direction of the cardboard supplied between the crease lines separating the end panels from the corner panels. The inner height of the side panels is the extension of the side panels in the width direction of the cardboard supplied between the free edges of the side panels and the crease line separating the side panels form the bottom panel, and the length of the side panels is the extension of the side panels in the length direction of the cardboard supplied between the respective two free edges of each side panel. The inner height of the corner panels is the extension of the corner panels in the length direction of the cardboard supplied between the free edges of the corner panels, and the length of the corner panels is the extension of the corner panels in the width direction of the cardboard supplied between the respective free edges and the crease lines separating the cornel panels from the end panels.
The panels and the dimensions of the lid are named after the corresponding panels and dimensions of the box, while it is possible and, as will be apparent form the following description, in certain cases advantageous, to cut out the lid such that—seen in the transport direction of the cardboard supplied for making the lid, which can be the same as the cardboard supplied for making the box, but which can also be a different cardboard—the side panels are in front and behind the top panel and the end panels are to the left and the right of the top panel. Irrespective of the transport direction, the inner height of the end panels of the lid is, in the final state where the lid is placed on the box, the extension of said end panels from the top panel towards the end panels of the box, the inner width of the end panels of the lid is the extension of said end panels in the direction of the width of the end panels of the box, the inner height of the side panels of the lid is the extension of said side panels from the top panel towards the side panels of the box, and the length of the side panels of the lid is the extension of said side panels in direction of the length of the side panels of the box. If present, the inner height of the corner panels is the extension of the corner panels from the top panel towards the bottom panel, and the inner length of the corner panels of the lid is the extension of said corner panels in the length direction of the cornel panels of the box.
The information on the desired minimum inner dimensions length LD, height HD and width WD of a box to be created can be calculated from dimensions of the items to be packaged known from a database or, in a preferred embodiment, by simply putting the items to be shipped on a conveyor belt and transporting the item(s) through a laser scanner which determines the width, height and length of the item or the arrangement of items for which a box shall be created. If (WD+2 TCBB+2HD)>(WCBB−MB), wherein MB denotes an optional minimum margin that is cut off at the sides of the cardboard supplied for creating the box, and/or if 2HD>LD, HSPB is then set to fulfil (2HSPB+2TCBB+WBPB)≤(WCBB−MB) and 2HSPB≤LD and HSPB to fulfil HSPB+HSPB≥HD. For the reasons explained above (folding behaviour of the cardboard), TCBB, which generally denotes the thickness of the cardboard, can be seen as a certain minimum value between adjacent panels and hence depending on the cardboard can be slightly bigger or smaller than the actual cardboard thickness.
In a preferred embodiment, the inner height HSPB is, if (WD+2 TCBB+2HD)>(WCBB−MB) and/or if 2HD>LD, set to fulfil—within the box related limitation 2HSPB≤LD and the typical material-caused tolerances—(2HSPB 2TCBB+WBPB)=(WCBB−MB). This means that the side panels either can have the full inner height of the box, and/or if twice the needed inner height of the box exceeds the needed length of the box, so that the corner panels would collide, are reduced in height while nevertheless no waste material other than the optional minimum margin MB that is cut off at the sides of the cardboard supplied for creating the box is produced. In this respect, it should be noted that the minimum margin MB typically has values between 0 and 80 mm, preferably between 20 and 60 mm, and depends on different factors like for example the quality of the cardboard supplied. Sometimes the edges of the cardboard are slightly damaged during transportation so that cutting of a certain margin at the edges ensures not only proper edges for handling the cardboard, but also creating boxes that are visually faultless. Likewise, it is possible to cut off an optional minimum margin ML at the sides of the cardboard supplied for creating the lid. If in that case either (LTPL+2TCBL+2HEPL)≤(WCBL−ML) or (WTPL+2TCBL+2HSPL)≤(WCBL−ML), it is possible to set HSPL and HEPL to be equal, which gives the box a symmetric and hence generally appealing look.
If both, (LTPL+2TCBL+2HEPL)≤(WCBL−ML) and (WTPL+2TCBL+2HSPL)≤(WCBL−ML), it is possible to cut the lid such that the side panels of the lid are in front and behind the top panel and the end panels of the lid are to the left and the right of the top panel seen in the transport direction of the cardboard supplied for making the lid, if (LTPL+2HEPL)>(WTPL+2HSPL), and such the end panels of the lid are in front and behind the top panel and the side panels of the lid are to the left and the right of the top panel seen in the transport direction of the cardboard supplied for making the lid if (LTPL+2HEPL)<(WTPL+2HSPL). This allows to minimize the waste material that is produced upon cutting out the lid. Depending on the general setup of a system implementing the method, if (LTPL+2HEPL)=(WTPL+2HSPL) the lid can be cut either way and the way is chosen, which optimizes the procedure of placing the lid on top of the box. For example, in certain setups the lids and the boxes are produced such that generally the length direction of the boxes is already parallel to the length direction of the lids such that the lids can easily be placed on top of the boxes. In other cases, the length directions of the boxes and the lids are orthogonal such that either the box or the lid would have to be turned by 90° in order to make it possible to place a lid on top of the box. These setups can already be taken into account when choosing the way the lid is cut out to optimize the further procedure.
The boxes and the lids can be made in series from the same cardboard and with the same structure for cutting, creasing and folding. This allows to minimize the space needed for a respective system implementing the method. However, in order to increase the speed and if space needed is not an issue, it can be advantageous to make the boxes and the lids from different cardboards using different structure for cutting, creasing and folding the lids and the boxes. This allows to produce boxes and corresponding lids in parallel. Also, it is possible to provide cardboard with different properties like width, strength and branding for for making the lids and to choose for making a specific lid the cardboard, which allows creating the least waste upon cutting out the lid.
For example, in a typical system implementing the method, the boxes are created from cardboard having a width of 1,000 mm, which is supplied from a stack of zig-zag folded cardboard having a length of e.g. 1,000 m, whereas for the lids three stacks of zig-zag folded cardboard each having a length of 1,000 m and widths of 600 mm, 800 mm and 1,000 mm are provided.
The method can be employed such that, within the typical material caused tolerances, the side panels of the lids and the side panels of the box and/or the end panels of the lid and the end panels of the box abut in the final state of the box with a lid placed on top of it, giving the box a smooth appearance. The abutment line between respective side panels and/or end panels of the box and the lid can be easily closed with an adhesive strip or the like. However, it is also possible to ensure that there is always a certain desired overlap of the side panels of the lid with the side panels of the box and/or of the end panels of the lid and the end panels of the box, which gives a very stable and secure box.
In order to facilitate opening the closed boxes, it is possible to introduce two parallel perforation lines in at least some of the panels of the lid and optionally attaching a tear strip between the parallel perforation lines, allowing a recipient of the closed box to open it easily.
A method for automatically packaging items of varying size and number in custom-sized boxes may comprise the aforementioned steps of creating a custom-sized box blank, putting the item(s) to be packaged on the bottom panel of such blank and then erecting the respective corner, side and end panels of the box and finally closing the box with a corresponding lid. In doing so, the lid can be placed directly on top of the side panels, so that the final height of the box corresponds, of course with the added thickness of the cardboard for the lid, the height of the side panels. However, it is also possible to hold the lid above the box and to attach the side panels of the lid to the side panels of the box and the end panels of the lid to the end panels of the box such that the total height of the box is larger than the height of the side panels, i.e. neither the side panels nor the end panels of the box run up to the full height of the box.
Further advantages, details and features of the invention become apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments in conjunction with the drawing, which comprises 17 figures.
As can be seen in
The second limitation of this type of box is that if the blank is cut out from cardboard having a certain width WCBB such that the side panels run parallel to the edges of the cardboard, the width of the supplied cardboard limits the height of the box in that (WBPB+2TCBB+2 HSPB)≤WCBB has to be fulfilled.
In order to overcome the aforementioned limits of the known boxes, the invention allows that the first and second side panels have a height HSPB, which is less than the height HEPB of the first and the second end panel of the box and to compensate the limited height of the side panels of the box by increasing the height of the side panels of the lid.
While
Allowing the side panels of the lid to overlap the side panels of the box has also the advantage, that there is no “hole” or “gap” between the facing edges of the side panels of the lid and the side panels of the box and the facing edges of the corner panels. In a situation like the one shown in
While in the embodiments shown in the figures the lid is generally placed on top of the end panels and the corner panels of the box, it is also possible to hold the lid above the box and to adhere the side and end panels of the lid to the respective side and end panels of the box such that the upper edges of the end panels and the corner panels of the box do not abut against the top panel of the lid, such that the total height of the box is greater than the height of the end panels of the box.
The boxes according to the invention shown in the drawings are simple and fast to be formed automatically. The dimensions of a corresponding blank can easily be calculated either from dimensions of the items to be packaged known from a database or by simply putting the items to be shipped on a conveyor belt, transporting the item(s) through a laser scanner, which determines the width, height and length respectively the arrangement of items and calculates the desired minimum dimensions of a box. These dimensions can be optimized taking into account numerous optimisation criteria like for example minimum volume of the closed box, maximum strength of the closed box, minimum waste material, position of fold lines from zig-zag folded cardboard. If the cardboard is supplied from a stack of zig-zag folded cardboard, the cardboard comprises fold lines where the cardboard is zig-zag folded. These fold lines can be adverse for folding a box or a lid when the present fold lines are close to a crease line that has to be formed for defining respective panels of the lid or the box. A control unit can easily obtain information about the position of such “unwanted crease lines” (the fold lines present due to zig-zag folding), and can adapt the dimensions of a box or a lid so that a certain minimum distance, which depends on the properties of the cardboard, is kept between unwanted and wanted crease lines.
The dimensions of the box will typically be calculated based on the desired minimum dimensions such that: the inner length of the bottom panel corresponds to the desired length plus some tolerance value, the inner width of the bottom panel corresponds to the desired width plus some tolerance, the inner height of the end panels may correspond to the desired height plus some tolerance or may, if the lid shall not abut against the end panels, may be less that the desired height. All other dimensions follow from this automatically.
A respective system for folding and cutting the cardboard to create lids and boxes comprises structure for cutting (which may also include die cutting), like rotating or reciprocating knifes, lasers, die cutters etc., structure for creasing, like crease rollers or moving stamps, and structure for folding the cardboard, like moveable grippers and flaps, and preferably structure for attaching the respective panels to each other, like a glue unit for applying hot melt glue to one or both of overlapping panels, and/or an adhesive strip application unit. In a preferred embodiment, only hot melt glue is used for attaching the panel of the box to each other and for closing the box by attaching the end and side panels of the lid to the respective panels of the box. The slots mentioned above between the corner panels and the side panels can be cut out or punched out and accordingly structure for cutting includes structure for so called die cutting i.e. punching. Likewise, the corners of the lid between adjacent side and end panels, which are generally not wanted unless the lid shall comprise corner panels as described above, can either be cut or punched away.
When the respective blank is transported from the station 124 to the station 136, it passes a glue application unit 142, which applies hot melt glue to the parts of the side panels, which are to be brought into contact with the corner panels.
To close the box, in this embodiment a lid placing station 144 is provided, which as indicated by the double-sided arrows is moveable upwards and downwards, forwards and rewards in the transport direction of the items respectively the boxes. Similar to the blanks for the box, based on the calculated dimensions a blank for the lid is produced and picked up by the lid placing station 144 for example with suction grippers that can be integrated in respective folding units 146 and 148 of the lid placing station. A gluing unit 150 applies hot-melt glue to the end panels and the side panels of the lid, which is placed on top of the box that just has been erected, upon which the end panels and the side panels of the lid are folded downwards. The thus closed boxes 152, 154 are then transported via respective conveyor belts to a label printing and application unit 156, which puts a label including for example address of the recipient and postage on the boxes, which then can be picked up and further transported. The lid can be created from the same cardboard supplied as the box, in case of which the cutting and creasing station may be set up to produce not only a blank for the box, but also a blank for the lid, which may then be transported via respective conveyor belts to the lid placing station, which picks up the lid and puts it on top of the box.
Both production lines comprise glue application units 142, 166, 168 and 170. In this embodiment, the lid placing station 144 comprises a separate glue unit 166 for applying hot-melt glue to the side panels in the transport direction of the cardboard of the lid 172 to be placed on a box, and two glue units 168 and 170 for applying holt-melt glue to the end panels of the box where the end panels of the lid have to be attached to the box.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2017 125 072.7 | Oct 2017 | DE | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2018/079514 | 10/26/2018 | WO | 00 |
