​Start-up business Ion Packaging install Kolbus Autobox box making production line

Ion Packaging is a newly launched packaging business, based in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. Their primary focus is on corrugated cardboard boxes, offering eco-friendly and innovative solutions for businesses across various sectors. Driven by a powerful desire to reduce plastic usage in packaging they want to support local businesses in their journey toward environmental sustainability. 

Ion Packaging’s managing director, Ioan Soporan, researched the market for box making machines and found Autobox online. What he liked most about Kolbus Autobox machinery was the ease of use, the compact footprint, the impressive versatility in box styles, sizes, grades and run length capability. 

Being a start-up business, it was critical to Ioan that his business was in safe hands. Investing in a UK manufacturer, with UK based engineers, and the manufacturing site just over an hour from his site gave him confidence. The fact that they also maintained a stocked and managed spare parts department was another benefit. 

Ion visited the Houghton Regis headquarters of Kolbus Autobox where they demonstrated an AUTOBOX AB300 machine. They produced six different box styles and sizes, and demonstrated the run speed of the machine, often hitting around seven hundred boxes per hour. He then toured the manufacturing site where he saw the added value in Kolbus Autobox. They demonstrated the range of tooling and metal converting machines in their components division, and the skills involved in manufacturing every  single part. He met with the in-house electrical, software and design teams and saw the assembly and testing of a variety of machines in the range.

AUTOBOX AB300 box making machine

Convinced by what they saw Ion Packaging ordered an AUTOBOX AB300 box making machine, SC100 SLITTER-SCORER, and PG100 PRO-GLUER. The machine was installed, and training complete within a few days. The following week, Ion Packaging were making their first live jobs for a local customer. Their selling points to this customer were that their boxes would be the exact size, in the exact quantity, and produced quickly. They did not need to fill-out using costly void-fill or bubble wrap. With a lead time of only 48 hours, they only needed to order the number of boxes required, so saving on expensive storage. 

Kolbus UK director of sales, Arran Sethi, said: “We were delighted to strike up a working relationship with Ioan and were excited to have contributed to his business flourishing so quickly. 

The Autobox is the perfect machine for Ion Packaging. It will give them the ability to say “yes” to as many jobs as possible due to the machines versatility and flexibility producing close to fifty different Fefco styles and even bespoke products in a near infinite range of dimensions and sizes."

The Autobox can produce some of the industry’s largest boxes in the heaviest of board grades down to the smallest of packages in the lightest of board grades. A set up typically takes 60 seconds. The SC100 SLITTER-SCORER is a quick set, offline slitter that will enable them to produce boxes on demand or in very small quantities. The PG100 PRO-GLUER uses a cold PVA glue wheel controlled by a speed variable switch. Stacked sheets are pulled through nip rollers under the PVA wheel where a consistent line of glue is applied. The operator can fold and finish the box ready for distribution. 

With energy costs soaring an important aspect of all Autobox machines in the AB range is their low running cost. Using the machine’s kinetic energy, the AUTOBOX AB300, for example, only uses 0.4 to 0.66 kWh - less than most household appliances!