The "magic moment" of the Magic Box. Solema's automatic boxing machine turns 15

23/02/2023

The "magic moment" of the Magic Box

Solema's leading boxing machine, launched in 2008, protagonist of an astonishing 2022 with 13 machines sold worldwide. A good reason to celebrate its first 15 years


After the 40 years celebrations in 2022, there will be something to celebrate also in 2023 for Solema: it will be the round of the Magic Box, the innovative automatic packing machine launched on the market 15 years ago.

In fact, it was 2008 when Solema decided to launch on the market a new generation, fully automatic boxing machine – which to this day is still the only model of its kind on the market – which would take care of the boxing phase of books, also making automatic complex operations such as inserting up to 4 piles of books per box and adding a paperboard protective pad onto the piles.

A clearly successful bet, which peaked at the end of 2008 with the world presentation to the public at DRUPA, the most important international fair for the printing and bookbinding industry.


A unique machine born from the experience acquired in the Graphic Arts industry

Magic Box – developed thanks to the experience gained over the years in the transport and handling of graphic arts products – is the only automatic boxing machine on the Graphicart market.

It is designed to ensure the performance of a complete make ready between every production in less than 3 minutes with electronic adjustments (servomotors). It features a timing gate entrance and can also be supplied with a product rotation station at the entrance for full flexibility.

All unique features that allow the Magic Box to automatically carry out the entire book boxing process (1, 2 or 4 stacks of products): from inserting the stacks into the box to applying the adhesive tape, then packing the finished box , ready to be palletized and shipped.


Why choose Solema Magic Box 

Equipping your business with Magic Box will lead you to reach the highest automation level, allowing you to meet the latest market evolutions – many short and different runs per day

This, with a series of advantages that can be summarized as follows:

  • throughput: books are boxed with a speed of up to 60 books per minute
  • Optimization of resources: people can be assigned to other jobs, where the workforce is really needed
  • Safety: occupational accidents are limited by allocating the workforce to less strenuous processes and with non-repetitive dynamics, thus respecting the rules governing the manual handling of loads
  • Savings: the ROI is estimated at 3-5 years

From need to solution: see the result

With the Magic Box, we invite you to challenge the problem of increasingly tight delivery times while maintaining a high quality of work.


THE NEED
Imagine having to produce thousands of books a year and having to box them. And having to do it quickly to maintain competitiveness on the market. You would have to use a considerable manpower to do this.

The challenge is to find the right machine that allows you to reach the needed level of automation with the most modern and efficient solution.


THE SOLUTION
Magic Box has proved, in these 15 years, to be the right solution to such structured problems. Deliveries would finally be respected, and the workforce optimized.

And with a Pluton palletizer right after a Magic Box, automation is maximum, being the Pluton able to palletize not only books, but also boxes.


THE RESULTS
The results obtained thanks to the Solema Magic Box become benefits for the company – here listed:

  • Increased revenues and productivity
  • Cost savings with increased efficiency and process integration
  • Easy operation
  • Boxing flawless quality

Magic Box completely removes ergonomic issues and reduces labor costs typically associated with manufacturing lines.
Magic Box was designed with compact dimensions to allow its application even in small and narrow areas. The flexibility of the machine allows to work with a wide range of products to cover various formats of books produced in the world.
The make-ready of the Magic Box takes less than 3 minutes and thanks to it, boxes containing 1, 2 or 4 stacks of products can be created in a completely automatic way.


Magic Box and Packaging Line: born for each other

But what are the fields of application of the Magic Box? We asked Ezio Bonetali, Solema Project Manager who personally followed the launch of the machine in 2008:

The fields of application of the Magic Box are various, but the most frequent is inserting it at the end of the line right after stacking and before palletizing [books, ed].

Lately a context that is becoming more and more popular is that of inserting the Magic Box within the Solema Packaging Line, an innovative work concept that improves and optimizes the production flow between the binding and packaging, which allows you to have a single working isle to manage all the finishing operations. 

Among the numerous advantages of using the Magic Box within the Packaging Line is the guarantee of packing at maximum speed avoiding the classic bottleneck.



2022: a record year for the Magic Box

Since 2008, Solema has sold 37 Magic BoxJust last year, 15 years after its creation, the Magic Box reached its maximum splendor: 13 machines have been sold.


There is a specific reason to explain this sudden sales boom: Magic Box was already in 2008, an extremely technological machine that needed a few years before its innovative concept and its qualities could be fully understood by the market and consequently by companies. Furthermore, 15 years ago labor costs were much less than they are now.

Today, however, the average wage has increased, and the demand for increasingly shorter deliveries on production runs has led to an inevitable increase in the automation of the production lines, with the shift of the workforce to less strenuous tasks and with a lower risk of accidents.


Solema SmartBox: an alternative boxing machine

The Magic Box was preceded on the market by the Smart Box, a semi-automatic version of the same machine, which requires a partial operator intervention.

Despite being slower, Smart Box, represents a valid alternative to the Magic Box, as it was developed with years of experience in the manipulation of products for the graphic arts.

Smart Box is recommended where a reduced level of automation and a lower speed of stacks of books per minute is required, for this reason it is the machine that best suits a similar context.







For more information about Solema, please contact info@solema.it or call +39 035 654111

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