720766Remote Central Palletising (RCP) in the Corrugated Packaging IndustryClosedGRD Development of PrototypeInnovate UKThis project aims to develop an innovative palletising solution that will be faster, more flexible, with a smaller physical footprint, delivering significant economic and safety benefits to the corrugated box industry. World demand for corrugated boxes is forecast to increase 4.2 percent per year to 234 billion square meters in 2017. In Europe the Corrugated Board industry production is approximately 42 billion square meters per year with the industry comprising 420 companies and 686 production plants. In corrugated box plants, flat sheets of corrugated board are fed in stacks/piles to converting machines. These converters print and cut out the boxes. On exiting the converter, the sheet is split in a separator with the finished goods packed in individual bundles of 10 to 100 pieces per bundle, depending on the product type and sizes. These bundles are then configured on pallets in patterns in accordance with end user requirements. There is a need in the industry for ever increasing flexibility and quality of production; boxes are now used as a marketing tool requiring higher quality boxes and printing definition; with order sizes reducing reflecting more rapid/frequent end user product/promotion changes (job changes are therefore frequent, a few times/hr, with convertor adjustment taking 10-20 minutes, also requiring set up of the separator and palletising device). Based on industry observation, converting equipment therefore currently runs at 30-50% of maximum capacity. The proposed development - Remote Central Palletising (RCP) - eliminates the automatic or manual palletising at every convertor line, and centralises these operations in a specific RCP area, away from the converting lines. This in turn allows converters to run at maximum capacity rather than at a rate dictated by the peripheral equipment (as is currently the case). As a result of this development it is estimated that productivity could be increased by 15% through the adoption of RCP