An apparatus and method for expanding a box blank into a box, the apparatus comprising an arm assembly, a controller, a camera and a box blank conveyor. The arm assembly includes a folding arm having a position in a first direction and a rotational angle controlled by the controller based on a position of a feature of the box blank in the field of view of the camera. The camera captures images of the box blank which are used to position the arm assembly and to evaluate the need to reject a box blank.

Provided is a cardboard conversion line including a wet cyclone dust collector for removing dust laden air from the conversion line. The wet cyclone dust collector has a swirl chamber in which air containing particles swirls in a rotational direction and a plurality of circumferentially spaced nozzles located within the swirl chamber to direct a spray of fluid within the swirl chamber in the rotational direction to wet the air containing particles, and the wetted particles are separated from the air in the swirl chamber. In this way, a system may be provided to clean high volumes of air containing particles without having to provide an explosion vent and without having to provide additional fans, motors, and compressed air.

A device (10) for optically controlling a face (13) of a blank (12) has a vacuum conveyor (20) capable of transporting the blank (12) along a path of travel (15) and which includes a conveyor belt (22) having an apertured structure of which the conveying path follows the path of travel (15) of the blank (12). A suction device (40) is suitable for pressing the blank (12) against the conveyor belt (14). An inspection device (30) inspects the face (13) of the blank (12) during its conveyance by the vacuum conveyor (20). The inspection device is located on the side opposite the vacuum conveyor (20). The suction device (40) delimits three separate successive suction sections (41, 42, 43) along the path of travel (15), including a central suction section (42) that extends opposite the inspection device (30), an upstream suction section (41) and a downstream suction section (43).

A machine for forming packing templates includes a infeed system that can feed multiple feeds of sheet material into the machine without repositioning the infeed system or forming creases or bends in the sheet material. The machine also includes a separation and cutting systems with one or more cutting tables and biased knives that cut the sheet material packaging templates. The machine also includes creasing roller(s) that forms creases in the sheet material. The machine also includes a system for reducing or eliminating the impact of irregularities in the sheet material.

A machine a mandrel assembly includes a mandrel having an external shape complimentary to an internal shape of at least a portion of a container, a first lift mechanism operatively coupled to a first servomechanism to wrap a first portion of a blank about the mandrel, a second lift mechanism operatively coupled to a second servomechanism to wrap a second portion of the blank about the mandrel, and a folding arm coupled to the first lift mechanism and operatively coupled to a third servomechanism. A control system is in communication with the first servomechanism, the second servomechanism, and the third servomechanism and is configured to transmit a signal to each of the servomechanisms to independently control movement of the first lift mechanism, the second lift mechanism, and the folding arm to wrap at least the first and second portions of the blank about the mandrel to form the container.

A method for monitoring equipment and gathering consumption and diagnostic information can comprise receiving, at a server, a corrugate usage indicator. The corrugate usage indicator can comprise information relating to an amount of corrugate used by a first packaging system. The method can also comprise creating a usage profile for the first packaging system. The usage profile can comprise a corrugate usage profile. The corrugate usage profile can comprise an association between the amount of corrugate used by the first packaging system and the specifications and number of boxes created. Additionally, the method can comprise automatically generating, based upon the corrugate usage profile, a predicted time when a stock of corrugate associated with the first packaging system will be depleted.

An edge-cutting device performs edge-cutting for cutting away trimmings of a corrugated cardboard sheet toward the front and back when switching between orders is to be performed in a corrugating machine. This edge-cutting device has an edge-cutting knife provided to project from the outer circumference of a cylinder having an axis disposed in the width direction of the corrugating machine; and a control device that, when switching between orders is to be performed, controls the edge-cutting device to perform a first edge-cutting process for edge-cutting trimming of an old order at the first rotation of the edge-cutting knife and a second edge-cutting process for edge-cutting trimming of a new order at the second rotation. The control device includes a calculation device for calculating the order switching time, and a variable control device for variably controlling the time interval between the first edge-cutting process and the second edge-cutting process.

A supply apparatus that supplies corrugated cardboard sheets to a supply position in a box-making section that opens folded corrugated cardboard sheets and makes boxes. The supply apparatus comprises a conveying unit, a drive unit, and a control unit. The conveying unit conveys a plurality of the corrugated cardboard sheets to the supply position with the corrugated cardboard sheets stacked. The drive unit drives the conveying unit. A controller, serving as the control unit, estimates the total quantity of the plurality of stacked corrugated cardboard sheets on a conveying surface of the conveying unit. The controller acquires a value pertaining to the drive force of the drive unit when the drive unit drives the conveying unit, and estimates the total quantity of the plurality of stacked corrugated cardboard sheets on the basis of the acquired value.

A cutting and/or creasing rule is produced on a 3D printing machine which may be mounted on a board for use is a die for cutting and/or creasing a sheet of paperboard or other material into a blank for a carton. With the advent of additive manufacturing, i.e. 3D printing, it is now possible to eliminate traditional slotted die boards with generally rectangular steel cutting and creasing rules and replace same with surface printed boards with three-dimensional creasing and cutting rules.

In a method of aligning an upper and a lower changeable tool (2, 10, 18) in a device for processing, e.g., sheets of paper, provision is made that with the aid of at least one digital camera (50, 51), the upper changeable tool (2) is aligned with a sheet that has been moved in and the lower changeable tool (18) is aligned relative to the upper changeable tool (2) after the sheet has been moved out.