Designers at System Group took on an interesting task: design a machine that will “know” how to create the perfect-sized box for a product. It’s an ideal invention for companies like Amazon that package and ship a lot of different-sized stuff.
Founded in 1970 and located in Italy, System Group first specialized in creating machinery that decorated ceramic tiles and automated end-of-line storage systems. They quickly became known for streamlining packaging processes in the logistics, electronics, photovoltaic technology and packaging sectors.
And that’s how we get to 2012 and a machine that “thinks” about how to package products efficiently – before the product even arrives at the warehouse. The Freebox™ solves the packaging hiccup and mess involved in making boxes to fit different-sized items.
Willy Wonka would definitely be jealous of the Freebox which can operate independently for hours on end without oompah-loompahs to make the magic happen. Essentially, a person inputs the size information for any product ahead of time – from tiny flower pots to large computers, and then this machine the size of a living room spits out a box perfectly sized for it.
Since there is no residual cardboard left to throw away, System Group boasts raw material savings of 40% from the Freebox.
Creating a machine with zero cardboard waste was just one of System Group’s design challenges.
They wanted to avoid exorbitant R&D costs too. In this episode of the Product Design Show, Allison and Vince show more about how System Group hurdled these and other design challenges using Creo Parametric.
