Packaging System, Height Savings

The Cubilette packaging system offers ingenious cost saving potential, as well as circular economy options.

The Cubilette is an innovation in semi-automated equipment from Durrenberg, a Marseille-based start-up. The Cubilette reduces American cases (FEFCO 0201 spec, by far the most used box in packing) to the height of the content, thus providing three benefits: better product protection, reduced cost required to cushion materials effectively, and reduced transport costs. The makers claim that reducing the box height cuts the cost of protecting the materials within by half.

Packaging system brings savings

Sales Director Bernard Dominici says that reducing the box height is also relevant in distribution, whether B2B or ecommerce (and thus direct to end consumer), because almost all parcels do not reach the minimum density of the dimensional-weight formula, used to calculate pricing models. This therefore means that the weight used to calculate the transport cost is always the dimensional weight (namely, the length in centimetres x the width in centimetres x the height in centimetres) and not the real weight. While the savings on cushioning materials can be calculated in cents, the savings on transport costs add up to euros or pounds.

A patent has been filed about the Cubilette process, and the Cubilette brand is also filed.

Cubilette’s makers are particularly excited by its capacity to process multiple box footprints without adjustment, between a minimum and a maximum box size. This performance is based on two points:

• One corner of the box is processed at a time
• Corrugated board folds nicely when two thirds minimum of the folded line are creased

The Cubilette consists of a product line with three models :
• C2 100% mechanical
• C3 with electrical assistance
• C4 Semi-automated machine
And three box size ranges :
• PF from 150 x 150 x 100 to 350 x 300 x 200
• GF from 300 x 300 x 100 to 600 x 400 x 300
• XL from 375 x 375 x 200 to 900 x 800 x 500

The models C2-PF and C4-GF were exhibited at All4Pack Paris.

Mr Dominici says that the Cubilette packaging system targets retailers and 3PL shipping from 50 to 500 parcels per day. It can make sense also in automated warehouses to process under or oversize parcels, otherwise known as ’uglies’.

Last but not least, he points out, it makes it possible to reuse supplier boxes, so circular economy potential is high, allied to the associated waste savings that go a long way to improving sustainability numbers. www.durrenberg.com