Corrugated boxes are used worldwide as the primary package for most products. For the primary assembly or erecting of these boxes, and the sealing of flaps with hot melt, the following steps must be taken:
- Open and square the box
- Fold the minor flaps down
- Apply hot melt to minor or major flaps
- Compress the major flaps
- Flip the box and compress from the inside of the box
In the erecting process most minor flaps tend to deflect away from the major flaps on compression which can create weak bonds between these flaps. Also, operators may use far too much hot melt to extend the open time of the hot melt to allow for the flipping of the box and recompression from the inside of the box.
An effective method of improving the manual erecting of boxes with hot melt is to provide your operators with a mandrel stand with a box drop pin. Operators simply slide the box over the mandrel, fold the minor flaps so that they contact the top of the mandrel plate, apply the adhesive and compress the major flaps.
This method of case erecting produces better boxes faster with less hot melt. This method of case erecting also dramatically improves the ergonomics.