A cartooning machine, sometimes called a cartoner for short, is a type of packaging machine. Its sole purpose is to form cartons. Have you ever seen a milk carton? If you look at the average milk carton in the grocery store, a cartooning machine probably made it. A cartooning machine forms cartons that stand up straight, close, are folded, side-seamed, and then, ultimately, sealed.
Cartoning machines can be sub-divided into two basic types:
- Vertical cartooning machines
- Horizontal cartooning machines
A carton machine will pick up a single piece from a stack of fold carton and then get it to stand up straight, or erect. The machine will fill it with a product or a number of products horizontally through an end that is open, and then close it by tucking an end flap of the carton or putting on glue or adhesive. It is not that hard to understand, but for those who aren’t involved in the cartoning field, it can be a little tricky to understand if they haven’t seen one first-hand in action. The product can be pushed into the carton with either pressurized air or with a mechanical sleeve. Technology is always changing, and newer, better, and more economical ways of doing the same job are always coming out. However, for a number of applications, the products are inserted into the carton by hand. A cartoning machine is often used for packaging sundry goods, cosmetics, confectionary, foodstuffs, etc.
A cartoning machine which produces a folded carton, fills it up with a product or several products vertically through an end that is open, and then closes it by tucking in the end flap and applying glue or adhesive, is called an end-load vertical cartoning machine. Cartoning machines are used on a regular basis for packaging medicine, confectionary, cosmetics, etc.
