Highlighting the flexibility and sustainability benefits of its automated packaging machinery, Ranpak showcased its technology at ProMat in Chicago earlier this year, including the company’s new adaptive printing solution.
The company, based in Concord Township, Ohio, demonstrated its printing, box cutting, padding, and artificial intelligence-enabled software for smarter packaging.
Ranpak’s machines are designed to work together as an integrated system or individually, depending on specific packaging needs, reinforcing the company’s mission to deliver environmentally friendly packaging solutions while improving supply chain performance.
Instant print solution
Making its debut, Ranpak’s Print’it machine provides manufacturers with the ability to print full-color customized designs on up to 15 boxes per minute.
“It produces customized printing of any image of your choice. This is a little bit of our parlor trick,” said Bryan Boatner, Ranpak’s global managing director for automation, who utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to print an image of a dog in a warehouse onto a box.
It offers companies the opportunity to enhance customer loyalty with personalized unboxing experiences as it prints pictures, texts, and PDFs. Print’it can be used to promote limited-time offers, seasonal designs, birthdays, and more.
Print’it is compatible with boxes as small as 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches or as big as 25.6 x 17.7 x 18.5 inches, with a maximum box weight of 77 pounds.
It removes the need for multiple SKUs of branded or pre-printed boxes and can serve as a standalone system or be retrofitted into existing lines.
When teamed with Ranpak’s Cut’it EVO or other lidded box systems, it can provide printed designs to packaging along a single automation line.
Minimizing space for efficient packing
Ranpak’s Cut’it EVO is an automated in-line packing machine that reduces voids before shipping, leading to lower manufacturing costs.
“The first step is, it’s going to be sensed, the height will be sensed by the sensing plate,” said Boatner. “The corners are cut, edges are creased, and then the lid is applied.”
With the next step, Ranpak’s right-size box is achieved with sustainability in mind.
“This gets folded down into itself, so you have no waste to worry about disposing of,” Boatner added.
Featuring a 12-inch human-machine interface (HMI) screen, it offers a small footprint, integrated glue storage, and sliding doors for easy maintenance. It can produce 900 boxes per hour.
Automatic pad insertion
Paired with a robotic arm to ensure precise placement, Ranpak’s Pad’it machine automates the insertion of protective paper pads.
“A SCARA robot is going to be picking the cushioning material to automatically place it into the carton, thereby reducing the required labor,” said Boatner.
Pad’it can add protective layers with up to 15 boxes per minute, keeping pace with other automation solutions on the packaging line. It features a seven-inch touchscreen HMI with a swivel arm for display on either side of the machine.
According to the company, it offers manufacturers the ability to reduce costs from labor, lower damage rates, and minimize their eco-footprint.
AI-driven 3D inspection for smarter packaging
Ranpak’s DecisionTower utilizes AI to detect out-of-scope boxes to optimize packing and prevent machine stoppage. This solution offers 2D and 3D combined computer vision for quality inspection.
“This is our vision system,” said Boatner. “It does not just do a 2D inspection of what’s in the carton but also a full point cloud analysis in 3D of the amount of void volume in the box.”
This solution can help reduce reliance on end-of-line operators by automating quality control. It also captures data to prevent future errors from faulty packaging.
“The other things that DecisionTower checks: Is the box size correct? Is it overfilled? Is there any rotation, and is anything sticking out of the box?” said Boatner. “One of the ways I like to describe this is it’s an uptime enabler for our right-sizing automation.”
DecisionTower provides data-driven insights and AI that creates machine-learning algorithms. It features a 10.5-inch HMI touchscreen and conveyors reaching speeds up to 1.2 meters per second.
It can accept boxes as small as 8 x 6 x 4 inches and as large as 30 x 20 x 20 inches, including those with vertical flaps.
Sustainable solutions
Manufacturers can benefit from the sustainable and automation features of Ranpak’s machines by lowering shipping and labor costs.
Machine builders can utilize the flexibility of Ranpak’s machines to serve as standalone units or integrate them, allowing OEMs to provide the best solutions for packaging lines based on client needs.
In addition to Ranpak’s diverse machinery solutions, the company also announced its PaperWrap to the North American market at ProMat. It’s an eco-friendly alternative to traditional single-use polyethylene stretch wrap.
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