The Cartonwrap is designed to manufacturer variable-sized cartons dynamically from a reel of corrugated cardboard, fill them with the relevant goods and seal and label them for shipping; it is aimed at the e-commerce fulfilment market.

Because the machine uses wrapping technology to construct each carton around the relevant product, it minimises the size of the carton, cuts out the use of padding materials to fill the empty space in a standard carton and negates the transport of empty space.

A size detector in the product inlet registers the size of each product and sends that data to the box forming section to define the carton size; multiple products can be placed in the same box.

The automated box forming section features a dynamic creasing and cutting system, a transversal cutting blade and hotmelt glue guns that automatically apply glue to the blank.

The products meet the semi-formed cartons in the box filling section of the machine, where product alignment and carton filling operations are performed before the upper flaps on the box are closed and the carton is finished.

It is possible to add additional documents, such as marketing materials, invoices, return instructions, through optional feeders in the machine outlet, prior to the carton closing and labelling.

The Cartonwrap has an average running speed of 10 boxes per minute. It takes 800mm or 1,200mm wide reels, with other widths available on request, and can form the following box sizes: 240x150x30mm up to 450x350x80mm or 350x350x150mm from an 800mm reel; 300x150x30mm or 240x150x200mm up to 600x350x200mm from a 1,200mm reel.

According to CMC the launch event was attended by more than 150 customers from 50 countries around the world. The machine will be available for demonstrations in CMC's factory until the end of November 2013.

CMC first announced the Cartonwrap at Post Expo in Brussels in September 2012, where it showed videos, samples and brochures, after finalising its patent on the equipment; the recent event at the company's factory was the first time the Cartonwrap has been shown 'live'.