Excamera Labs has created a 3D-printed box forming mandrel to streamline packaging assembly for their TermDriver2 product shipments. The company developed the tool to address the time-intensive process of manually folding thousands of product boxes for shipping.
The mandrel functions as a tapered jig that allows flat box blanks to be pressed into their final 3D shape. Traditional box formers are typically used in large-scale industrial production, but 3D printing technology has enabled the company to create a desktop-scale version for smaller operations.
Currently, Excamera Labs’ manual box assembly process takes approximately 30 seconds per box. With plans to assemble 2,000 TermDriver2 boxes later this month, the company estimates the manual process would require 16 hours of work. The new mandrel is designed to reduce this time by enabling single downward motions to form each box.
The mandrel design features a series of stacked parallelograms that transition from a flat top section to a rectangular bottom. The tool’s height matches the target box dimensions of 106mm wide by 137mm high. After initial testing, the company has already developed a second iteration that includes additional guides and external support features.
Source: hackaday.com