From their experience in designing traditional mailing machines, CMC launches an array of disruptive automated packaging machines for e-commerce.

On our way back from Città di Castello, at the end of a National Convention of the Graphics Schools, after several years we meet Giuseppe Ponti, just with the aim to meet an “old acquaintance”. He welcomes us with the same enthusiasm of those who see again old friends and has good news to share.

We immediately tour the factory, even though it’s late evening. The night shift has just started. The long envelope-inserting and film wrapping lines for direct mail marketing still exist, but this is not where our attention will focus. We are immediately captured by a monumental but light shelving where small robots move books and other items. CMC SmartStore is just one of the latest innovations addressed to online book stores and POD companies. Giuseppe Ponti and his older son Francesco want our attention to move somewhere else. We will come back here on another occasion. The pearl they want to show us is less showy, but we have simply to stop by it to be mesmerized. It’s the LaserBox, a machine which is definitely looking ahead. But first things first.

On demand packaging

It’s a fact that the more and more intelligent (and invasive) smartphones have changed the retail business, generating a proliferation of orders, shipments and packaging on demand which were unimaginable few years ago.
Giuseppe Ponti thought ahead when the mailing business dropped down “I have travelled around the world to understand where markets were moving, trying to understand the demand, not current but in a few years”.
And this is how he realised before anyone else the potentials of e-commerce. And this is when together with his younger son Lorenzo and his unique team of qualified engineers, he has invested in R&D to develop the solutions that quickly thereafter would be highly required by the market.

Green packaging

In 2013 the company established a new division “ In CMC – Francesco Ponti comments – we know how to manage variable data by tradition. We have therefore applied our know how to packaging”.

The first on demand packaging machine CMC brought to market is the CMC CartonWrap, a system that produces boxes the exact size of the items to be shipped; the CMC CartonPack then followed, offering retailers and 3PL the possibility to consolidate and pack multi line orders. The main concept that links both machines is the cardboard saving. A 3D camera reads the dimension of the order and create a box that perfectly matches that size. Hence, a box on demand with less cardboard, volumes reduction and shipping cost savings.
Production is also faster: from 500 to 1.000 boxes/hour fully automatic and with no adjustments done by the operator. Packers no longer do not need to count and pick the right box at the packing station by completely revolutionizing the way to process orders. Based on the requirements, a variety of different ancillary equipment can be integrated on the machine such as invoice and despatch notes printing, catalogue inserting and the Packvertizing technology to customise each box with full colour messages and images. The CMC’s proprietary technology can re-sized the image based on the box dimension with no impact on the machine speed.

The revolutionary LaserBox

The disruptive CMC Laserbox

Success didn’t take long. “Talking with customers – Francesco Ponti continued – we got the idea to go one step further with a really on demand solution”. And here comes the pearl we mentioned before that impressed us by its revolutionary and unique concept: CMC Laserbox. As the name says, cuts, scores and “engraves” through a laser ray rather than knives and die cuts.

Customers often need to pack different size multiple items and need a robust packaging that protect even fragile items. Lose or wrapped products are scanned by a camera and the volumes sent to a CAD software which drives the laser. All this is taking place in less than seconds, exactly like the laser ray that cuts and scores the flat blank. CMC LaserBox is ideal for startup companies that need automation and flexibility with lower investment. The throughput is 350 boxes/hour and can be used for both primary and secondary packaging. For cosmetics, fashion and confectionary, companies can use cardboard rather than corrugated and customise boxes with ink-jet printing.