
CMC Cartonwrap box packing machine [video] - vinnyglennon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rP1wjEsbak
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jcrites
This appears not to be a machine made by Amazon, but rather a commercially
available machine called CartonWrap 1000 made by an Italian firm named CMC
Srl. According to news reports I found online, Amazon is piloting the machines
in its warehouses, however. (Edit: I wrote this in reply to the original
article title which described the machine as Amazon's.)

News report: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-automation-
exc...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-automation-
exclusive/exclusive-amazon-rolls-out-machines-that-pack-orders-and-replace-
jobs-idUSKCN1SJ0X1)

Product website: [https://www.cmcmachinery.com/portfolio-
item/ecommerce1-cmc-c...](https://www.cmcmachinery.com/portfolio-
item/ecommerce1-cmc-cartonwrap/)

The effect on waste should be interesting. I assume that everyone who has
ordered a product online has had the experience of receiving that product in a
box that was quite a bit larger; that happens because standard shipping
processes use a limited and pre-determined set of cardboard box sizes. If you
look on the box somewhere, you should see a label like "1A5" which is the box
size. With past technology, you had to round up to the next largest box that
fits the product, which sometimes leaves quite a bit of waste, both in
cardboard and the packing material (plastic pillows) used to fill up large
voids in the box. It looks like this machine can cut boxes exactly to the
product dimensions, which will presumably save both on box and filler material
to lower costs, and generate less waste.

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dzhiurgis
I once received 5 toothbrush heads from Amazon, package size where ~4 MBP's
would fit (~2" by 15").

The problem was huge underlying package.

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aequitas
But they can never beat HP, which will send you a single ps2 mouse strapped to
a pallet or a stack of software licence documents, each of which individually
packed in a box.
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/23/enormouse/](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/23/enormouse/)

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Spivak
So to the manufacturing engineers around here, is this actually impressive?
Because it's definitely impressive on the "this is a really cool machine"
level but I was left with a nagging feeling that it wouldn't actually be all
that useful.

The input seems to be single items that are regtangular-ish within a certain
size and don't need any wrapping, padding, or air bags. This probably
describes a lot of Amazon's products but for this use-case wouldn't a machine
that wraps the item between two sheets of plastic on rolls be easier/cheaper?

Is this a stepping stone to the machine that can handle
multiple/delicate/irregular items?

~~~
simongr3dal
I would assume that air-bags and other padding isn't needed when the box fits
this well on the products.

I'm not a manufacturing engineer, but I have watched a lot of How It's Made,
the machine doesn't seem more impressive than any of the other plethora of
automated manufacturing machines that were available then.

That's not to say it isn't a handy thing to have running, it looks like a crew
of 4-6 persons with the right setup for folding and packing boxes could
probably keep up with the machine as it is running in the video, so as all
things in business it's gonna be a cost-benefit calculation that makes the
decision.

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hhjjkkll
How do us meatbags compete with this?

~~~
throwaway180118
There's always going to be a human component to logistics. I wouldn't worry

