Cartons in (literally) Minutes

Conventional carton manufacture is a time consuming and expensive process. The people and steps involved can add up to days, weeks, even months  of work, creating unnecessary costs and delays.

The major culprit behind all this expense is the die. The design and creation of the die is only a part of the cost. If the design changes the die has to be remade. The same applies if it wears out.

Dies have to be stored in case of repeat orders. That requires making an inventory and finding the space for storage – we know of one packaging converter who has a whole warehouse full of nothing but dies. This all takes time, it all costs money.

Continuous digital process

Our product partners, LasX, now offer a die-free, laser led digital alternative. One that takes raw materials to finished cartons in minutes. It’s called, not surprisingly, CartonsInMinutes®.

CartonsInMinutes® gives users the flexibility to make only what is needed.

The digital process starts with the paper. Either roll fed or sheet fed formats are supported.

However, it is worth saying  that the cost savings of roll feeding are so considerable that it’s quite possible to gain a return on investment within a year!

Instant design changes

• A digital printer manages carton artwork.
• Sheets are produced with printed registration information and bar codes in a continuous stream.
• The barcode refers to a file  created from a PDF and defines cut and score information for the laser system. It can also be used to trigger instant job changes at production speed.

Infinite converting combinations

The laser system instructs a robot what operations to perform such as shingle, stack or rotate. The entire process is carried out  in a continuous flow through an intelligent high speed laser beam and Vision Trax dual-camera registration for print-to-cut accuracy.

In the final stages of the process, the cartons are separated from the waste by the robot and the waste placed in a designated waste area.

Cartons then stacked or shingled by the robot onto the desired conveyor line. The conveyor line  leads directly to the converting system which offers an infinite number of converting combinations.

The LasX CartonsInMinutes® laser system also provides a range of options  including custom folding or gluing finisher and custom conveyor output configurations. For details of these  and further information on this time and cost saving system, please contact sales@tlm-laser.com

See more flexible packaging solutions from Lasx.