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The benefits and growth of mattress packing machines

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Equipment makers are making it simpler, more efficient , and more economical to fold, compress, roll and ship boxes of bedding that consumers desire.

The sales of traditional as well as boxed mattresses experienced a massive increase in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, as more and more people placed orders online for mattresses.

One of the top benefits that consumers were looking for in 2020 was their convenience, non-contact delivery. The speedy and quick actions of mattress companies that made their products accessible online led to the 7.5 percent increase in U.S.-produced mattress unit deliveries throughout the year, as per figures provided by the International Sleep Products Association.

A major part in the marketplace, there has been an increase in demands for roll-packing and mattress packing machine solutions. Every consumer segment is shopping and purchasing mattresses on the internet and increasingly are shipped in a box.

“At the close of 2019 we estimated that the U.S. mattress in a box market share was 15% and growing steadily,” says Mark DesJardin who is a business development executive at C3 Corp., a manufacturer of laminating, packaging and material handling equipment located in Appleton, Wisconsin. “By the close of 2020, only one year later, our calculated that (the boxed mattress) market share had surpassed 35 percent..”

In the future, C3 predicts that mattresses made of boxed materials will surpass 50 percent from the total market and and possibly even reaching 60% within the next two or three years. “The conditions of 2020 although difficult in many ways, brought the market for compressed mattresses over an unsustainable level,” DesJardin says. “But the momentum had been increasing in the preceding years. It’s not like people discovered boxesed beds this year.”

However, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic set off a massive change in the way people behaved towards nesting. People increasingly were at home working, preparing meals in their own kitchens and put off vacations. When spending on clothes entertainment, travel, and transportation slowed, people realized they had more funds to spend on improving their homes, which included the condition of their beds and bedrooms.

“Consumers were able to steer clear of shopping at specialty stores and the traditional methods of delivery,” DesJardin says. “They’re seeking to make purchases on the internet or at the retail store where they can shop for other items.”
A new normal

As the virus’s threat is diminishing, a new norm is beginning to appear for the industry of bedding. While some of the contours of the terrain are unclear, “we should expect to be seeing three things in the near future” which are positive for boxed beds and bed machines, says DesJardin. “First we’ll see a continuation in the trend towards nesting. Additionally, packaging that is environmentally friendly will become more relevant since the growing consumer base is more aware of the carbon footprint of a brand,” he says. “And thirdly the necessity to optimize distribution and logistics (will grow) as consumers look for easier, more convenient shopping and purchasing choices.”

To assist producers in keeping up with market trends manufacturers of machinery are looking for methods to improve their equipment. efficient, economical and green.

On the green side they’re introducing new plastic films and other wrapping materials, like paper, that can reduce waste, while also protecting the beds during delivery and shipping.

In order to help manufacturers increase efficiency, equipment providers have introduced new equipment that can increase the number ways a mattress is folded or rolled before it is placed in a box. With more folds, mattresses are able to fit into smaller boxes, and smaller boxes result in better logistics, which includes less storage and shipping costs.

“The trend of reducing dimensions of production along with production costs , and waste has been playing an important part in the development of mattress packaging” Eric Zaninelli who is an executive in the field of technical sales for Dolphin Pack, which is a maker of mattress packaging and compression machines that are based in Affi, Italy. “The primary goal was always to find efficient solutions for businesses as well as for consumers and the environmental.”

The Etesian Double Roll, the most recent packaging system developed by Dolphin Pack, achieves this target, Zaninelli claims. With the ability to make more boxes fit into the container or truck The system can help improve efficiency in transportation and lower cost for retailers and manufacturers. Additionally since a well-packed bed uses less fuel to transport and double rolling prior to packing can reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide. “Therefore companies, businesses, customers and the environment all will benefit from using the Double Roll (approach),” Zaninelli says.

In the last few years, the field has seen significant improvements in the kind of bed that can be used for boxing. There are a variety of beds that are now able to be compressed, rolled , and packed into a box, including the majority of hybrid mattresses as well as many traditional innerspring mattresses.
Sales of equipment are increasing

Mattress sales on e-commerce are growing at a record rate across the United States and elsewhere, demand for roll-packing machines is growing, according to Serkan Guler who is the chief executive officer at Elektroteks. The company, which is located within Bursa, Turkey, has sold between 8 and 10 roll-packing machines a month to its worldwide customers by 2021 and it is not showing any indication of slowing down.

“This kind machines has proven to be a popular selling machine over the last few times,” Guler says.

Other companies have reported similarly impressive results in the roll-packing machines segment.

It was once a niche market for a tiny producer group that specialized in sleep products available on the internet, boxed beds as well as the equipment that puts them into boxes are now more commonplace.

“Roll-pack devices have become essential for many of the mattress manufacturers of today,” Guler says. “Producers are now required to fold, compress and then roll up their mattress to remain competitive and meet their clients who want convenience direct-to-door delivery.”

Carthage the Missouri-based Global Systems Group, which manufactures a range of mattress-making machines and has been an early adopter of the roll-packing process since it first introduced the cult TK-306 along with its Teknomac srl, which is based in Barbara, Italy, at the ISPA EXPO 2008. New developments and innovations have provided an array of options to increase efficiency and decreasing costs.

“The current GSG product developments focus on maximizing efficiency, and reducing waste material to create sustainability in manufacturing in addition to cost-savings for mattress producers,” says Randy Metcalf, GSG marketing manager. “There are numerous unique aspects in the broad field of roll-pack packaging. GSG has worked to offer as many options as it is possible to allow mattress manufacturers to adapt their manufacturing process to meet the different requirements of their customers.”

For Atlanta Attachment Co., the recent introduction of Windows-based technology that is patented allows the company to analyze the operations of other equipment and software remotely. Additionally, the company has designed new equipment that has a uniform plug-and play application that allows for a more seamless integration of several machines and more flexibility regarding the layout for production areas, according to Doug Guffey, vice president of sales for the business, located within Lawrenceville, Georgia.

“We are working towards fully automated systems of equipment and equipment communicating in a single way,” Guffey says. “AAC continues to create equipment for material handling that automatizes the entire production process which includes automatic bagging, rolling tapes, boxing labels, sorting, taking and tracking the product.”

Guffey states that aside from core elements like the reliability of output, quality as well as workflows, Atlanta Attachments’ advancement efforts in the roll packing sector also aim to increase manufacturing flexibility for mattress manufacturers. This includes machines that “can handle a variety of mattresses on a single working machine,” Guffey states, and also equipment that can manage “thicker mattresses and the ability to move more hybrid mattresses.”
Pillow talk

for Brighi Tecnologie Italia snc what’s driving the growth within the United States right now is an increasing demand for pillows manufacturing equipment that automates “each and every stage of the manufacturing procedure,” says Matteo Tagliaferri the export sales manager of Brighi the company that makes equipment for home and bedding located within Forli, Italy.

“Manufacturers cannot find workers and, if they do locate them, they are unable to keep them. They are therefore taking a look at machines for their job,” he says.

Tagliaferri says that Brighi has always been focused to automatizing the entire pillow making process “so Brighi is in an advantageous position now since we offer integrated solutions from A to Z, and everything between.”

Check out the latest developments and new packaging equipment for bedding items.

Rock ‘Em Box ‘Em Robot

Robotics play a larger role in bedding factories and automating many tasks that were previously required to be performed by human. Elektroteks RoBOX, the latest robot (in green in the picture) provides a brand fresh level of efficiency to the packing phase of production. The RoBOX robot makes boxes from a sheet of cardboard. Then, it inserts an unrolled mattress inside the box. Then, the robot shifts the box straight onto a pallet to be transported.

Packing Taller, Thicker Springs

Recently updated to handle larger pockets springs, Amelco Industries’ RL2000PRE roll-packing equipment with a precompression feeding table can be used to pack large innerspring units of approximately 8 1/2″ tall and 79 inches in easily-to-ship compressed rolls and are easy to open. The RL2100PRE model of the machine is capable of handling units with a width of up to 83 inches. Amelco also enhanced the accuracy of the machine’s paper tension to make sure that the paper strength is equal to the spring resistance, which allows the packing of more springs into the roll. Furthermore the frame of the machine is now able to handle roll sizes that are larger (48 inches).

Automated paper feeding at the starting of the packing process as well as a new inching lever will ensure that the paper bar is in the right position , and help the operator in speeding up the process. Counters for spring units as well as an automated cutter for paper and large rolls of adhesive tape increase efficiency, according to the company.

“After having reached a predetermined amount of machines, it begins cutting paper into strips, then strapping the bale in adhesive tape that is ready to be ejected, and then setting (itself) to start another cycle” claims Andreas Georgallis Director of the Nicosia Cyprus-based company.

designed with safety for the operator with safety in focus, the RL2000PRE’s improvements include an emergency stop at head-level for collisions as well as a knee-level stop for safety photocells and guard bars that are placed on the table that feeds it. The RL2000PRE is, according to the company can be used with any spring unit which include Bonnell and pocketed. It uses special Kraft paper, along with cloth, plastic film and nonwoven material.

Rolling Pillows That Roll With Easy

Looking to make the packing of pillows process more efficient the manufacturers Forli is a company based in Italy. Brighi Tecnologie Italia snc has improved their Easy Roll system with new features that increase flexibility and boost efficiency. It includes a brand new silicon spray inside the rolling joints of the machine for customers who use “naked” foam cores which makes it easier to roll and eject and deionizing bars inside the bag-making system that eliminate the static charge in tubular plastic, allowing Bag-positioning machines to more easily open bags as well as a bag-punching system which creates a microperforation inside bags to allow customers to have an incomplete pillow recovery after bagging, as per the company.

Easy Roll is available in two configurations. Easy Roll system comes in two versions, fully automated and semi-automatic. Both models are equipped with the company’s exclusive “revolver-style” dual rolling that speeds up production by allowing pillows to be rolled in one unit while a different pillow is compressed, bagged and sealed in a different unit.

Compact Solution

New new Atlanta Attachment Co., the Automatic Secondary Compact Roll Pack machine (model 1307SA, shown below) can be included in the current mattress roll-packing equipment or utilized as a stand-alone device. According to Atlanta Attachment Co., the Lawrenceville Georgia-based business the machine’s small size reduces the amount of floor space needed in the mattress factory and also allows for the packaging of mattresses in boxes that are as small as the dimensions of 18″x18″, 18″x24″, at an average at 35 secs for one piece. A Windows-based control system and Atlanta Attachment’s top-quality design create a maintenance-free machine that is low-cost to service The company claims. The attachments are available to load boxes.

Atlanta Attachment also has enhanced its automated Mattress Packaging system by incorporating hydraulic Compression and Roll-Pac Workstation (pictured above) that includes with the 1390HCE Auto-Pac unit along with a 1306FF workstation as well as the 1307SA workstation model that is new to the line. Created for omnichannel production of mattresses according to the company, this system is highly integrated and can meet many bags, which include traditional mattress bagging, standard roll pack, fold-in half roll pack, and the double-roll packing. The combination of 1390HCE, 1306FF and 1307SA machines permits the packing of a complete queen-sized mattress in boxes smaller than 18 ” by 18″, and 24″. Through the use of a rotation feature in the compression platen the footprint of 1390HCE’s production is reduced, yet it still permits different height options to meet requirements for production, the company claims. The 1360FF model is the latest machine to come with the ability to program the diameter of 10-23 inches for mattresses rolled that can roll queen-sized units in just 35 minutes.

Another product in this line from Atlanta Attachment is H290, which is an automatic Mattress Stacker. The machine automatically stacks mattresses over one another on pallets or within bins. It can stack mattresses either on the left or right and can be fitted with a central pass-through discharge. The stacker permits palletizing without the involvement of an operator, thereby speeding up production and reducing the chance of injuries to workers caused by handling large loads, as per the company.

Fighting Germs and Bacteria

United Mattress Machinery has partnered with an German firm that manufactures sterilization equipment for food and beverages to create a brand new kind of machine it claims will eliminate germs and bacteria on mattresses prior to packing and bagging.

With the name Kleen Machine, United’s new UM-UV-KLEEN “fits as a piece of puzzle” in existing roll-pack systems according to Michael Porter Jr., co-owner and vice president of United Mattress Machinery, which is headquartered at Delray Beach, Florida.

The machine has the ultraviolet-light sterilization tunnel that mattresses go through prior to being packaged and bagged. The research conducted by United Mattress Machinery indicates that a mattress is hit by up to 10-15 different workers, with an average of over 100 times during the process of making it.

“That’s disgusting!” Porter says. “Everyone around the globe is thinking differently than they did before the Covid 19 of the pandemic, about the fact that bacteria, germs and viruses can be transferred, and much more easily than we imagined.”

United Mattress Machinery is the company that has secured patent protection for its innovative concept. The Kleen Machine’s creator, United team member Leo Echeverria Leo Echeverria, has announced that the company is planning to start sending its Kleen Machine to customers this next fall straight from Germany. It is Kleen Machine integrates with the company’s UM-RP2-TURN Mattress Wrap/Compress/Roll Pack System as well as other equipment from other companies.

Improving Shipping Density

Following the popularity of the half Fold & Roll rolling system for packing rolls, C3 Corp. introduced the Tri-Fold & Roll system during this year’s Interzum Cologne trade show in May. The C3’s Half Fold & Roll system has proven to be a great solution for e-commerce, according to Mark DesJardin, business development director for the company, that is based within Appleton, Wisconsin. C3’s ultra-compressed, or “roll-on-roll” Tri-Fold solution “ramps the density equation more,” providing a higher density pallet for better logistical and shipping, DesJardin says. “We have allowed us to put as many as 600 beds onto the truck, based on the configuration of the product,” he says. If compared to other methods of rolling, this higher density results in huge costs savings to retailers He says.

The company also introduced the possibility of replacing the stretch wrap that is currently employed in its packaging machines by paper. Utilizing paper instead of wrapping reduces the quantity of plastic that is used to pack mattresses by one-third, says C3. Mattress manufacturers can choose to use stretch wrap when their need arises DesJardin says. “We’re not removing anything from you. We’re helping manufacturers to meet demand from the market,” he explains. With consumers’ desire to recycling materials continues to rise, “this eco-friendly packaging option could enhance the image of the brand in one of the most crucial moments of interaction with the consumer — the unboxing process,” DesJardin says.

The Tri-Fold &Roll system as well as the brand new paper-wrapping option are available as options for new machines, or as upgrade options for existing C3 machines that are currently operating in the field. As upgrades, they’re modular retrofits that are able to be quickly installed and quickly, says DesJardin.