Established in the late 1960s Greenwoods Stock Boxes of Nottingham is now part of the Macfarlane Group. Their manufacturing facility is designed to cater for a range of nuisance run lengths and fast turnaround of products.
With three Autobox boxmakers and two gluers already installed Greenwoods are familiar with the machines and service provided by Kolbus UK. It was no surprise that when they wanted to expand their product range to include customised printed boxes, they turned to Kolbus UK.
Greenwoods have installed a Kolbus AUTOBOX AB300 boxmaker and a Kolbus FLEXO-PRINT FP300 unit. These machines enable them to offer short to medium run lengths of printed boxes, offering customers personalisation of their packaging.
Steve Pilmore, general manager of Greenwoods, has worked with Autobox for nearly 30 years and what has always impressed him has been the fast and automatic machine set up, eliminating the risk for operator error. Pilmore said: “All of the hard work is done for the operator and high value, bespoke, boxes can be made at the touch of a button. Every minute that is lost setting up is a minute longer than an Autobox takes to be producing boxes. On other machinery, it can take 10 minutes to an hour to set up a job, and some also require tooling. The Autobox is typically set up in a minute, without tooling, and has run over 100 boxes by the time you have finished setting other machines. This is obviously essential when specialising in manufacturing run lengths of one upwards to a few thousand.”
The AUTOBOX AB300 can feed a sheet up to 2600mm wide (deckle) by an unlimited length (chop). The machine can handle anything from E flute up to AA with run speeds of up to 800 boxes per hour, making it the most productive boxmaker on the market. The modular design means that it can be added to as requirements change or expand. The single colour FLEXO-PRINT FP300 unit specified by Greenwoods prints an area up to 1000mm x 1000mm, ideal for printing on large format boxes. Excellent speed, accuracy, and repeatability are achieved with the servo mechanism in the unit.
Pilmore said: “We are able to produce consistent high-quality boxes to tight tolerances, even when running large 300KK boxes. We are particularly pleased with the flexo print unit. It is quick to set and very flexible. Customers have been impressed with the quality we are able to achieve.”
Kolbus UK sales manager, Arran Sethi said: “Within five days of delivery by Kolbus UK the machine had been commissioned and operators, fully trained, were turning out top quality customised boxes at full production speed. It has been impressive to see the transition and expansion of Greenwoods Stock Boxes from their original Melton Mowbray location to the new all-in-one site in Nottingham.
Our Autobox machines are an essential part of Greenwoods operation. They have produced millions of boxes on them, a testimony to the Autobox’s build quality and reliability. Manufactured in the UK and with a comprehensive support network Kolbus Autobox has the experience and knowledge to ensure that Greenwoods investment is successful."
"Thanks to the Kolbus AB300, it has allowed us to achieve savings in labour and purchase of tooling for the manufacture of small orders, as well as special designs and low-volume boxes. Another favorable point of the machine is that we can add many style codes thanks to its computer setup time, which allows the operator to load an order in 2 to 5 minutes."
Add-on modules:
Box Printing:
Box Gluing:
