Libor Miloševský, General Manager at Cardbox Packaging
Cardbox Packaging, an international manufacturer of boxes, cartons, containers, cups, and other paper-based food packaging products, is reaping the rewards of its investment in die-cutting equipment from BOBST.
Two important reasons for Cardbox Packaging’s investment in BOBST die-cutting technology are productivity and reliability. The first machine, a BOBST NOVACUT 106 ER installed in 2017, delivered on these requirements, and the company opted to reinvest in 2021 and 2024, choosing a VISIONCUT 106 LER on both occasions. Die-cutting at Cardbox Packaging complements a pair of sheet-fed offset presses and additional finishing equipment, enabling the company to turnover c€20 million a year.
Libor Miloševský, General Manager at Cardbox Packaging, explained: “Paper packaging is in a good position compared to other types of packaging material. More customers are switching from plastic or composite packaging to paperboard in the future.
“The trends for sustainability and recycling are very welcome as they mean additional demand for our products and higher order volumes. At the same time, this brings a requirement for lightweight packaging produced in combination with recycled material.”
Challenging materials
For Cardbox Packaging, the reality of this is that thin gauge materials can behave unpredictably, due to compositions that include an increasing amount of recycled content. This can result in wavy materials, for example, which are harder to control during production stages, from infeeding and registration to blanking.
Smooth sheet transport is a specific issue connected to the downgrade of materials, as Mr Miloševský added: “Smooth and gentle sheet transport is required throughout the whole production process. However, we are facing the challenge of insufficient nicks, so the sheet transport is not smooth enough to keep the product in register at each station at high speed.
He said: “It is very important that we can reliably produce the highest quality products in the volumes that the market requires. Having a machine such as the BOBST VISIONCUT 106 LER is allowing us to achieve this.”
Quality is non-negotiable
The Austria-headquartered company has production and sales operations throughout Europe, in Czechia, Germany, The Netherlands, Slovenia, and Switzerland. To serve the market in North America, Cardbox Packaging has a production plant in Pennsylvania and additional sales offices in Wisconsin and California.
Mr Miloševský said: “Quality is a must for all of our customers. Customers around the world place high-volume orders with us each year and expect perfect quality every time. They cannot receive pieces that are not properly cut. Thanks to our investment in cutting-edge equipment such as the BOBST VISIONCUT, we deliver reliable performance and output that means our customers can be sure to get their orders delivered to them, on time and in full.”
Cardbox Packaging’s latest VISIONCUT is a highly automated die-cutting line, integrated with an automated feeding system. It also utilizes BOBST’s TooLink platform that connects machines and tooling and unites the entire converting process to maximize production flexibility, reduce job turnaround times, and increase productivity. Powered by industry-leading digital technology, TooLink offers a suite of IoT applications that give a total overview of dies, recipes and job histories. As everything is connected, a higher level of production data and insight can be accessed that delivers increased control, automation, and efficiency. This empowers printers to make better decisions.
For Cardbox Packaging, the capability to instantly recognize jobs through the machine HMI and deliver production-ready job recipes is saving up to 15 minutes per changeover.
With Cardbox Packaging already using a sophisticated workflow and ERP system to steer the flow of information within the company and capture high-value data, TooLink is being used to take this capability to the next level. It is enabling hyper-specific data that is related to each job and product to be efficiently captured, as well as failure and error analysis, downtime tracking, and predictive maintenance scheduling.
Achievable goals
With the latest machine having already processed around 30 million sheets in 2025, the benefits of a highly automated die-cutter equipped with TooLink are now being felt by Cardbox Packaging.
“Our goal is to reach 40 million sheets a year across more than 7,000 hours of available machine uptime. These are big numbers and challenging goals to achieve but our experience so far with BOBST makes us believe they are achievable.
“Our new BOBST VISIONCUT has lived up to our expectations,” said Mr Miloševský. “As our operators were already skilled in operating BOBST die-cutters, there were no issues with the switch over to the new model. Guidance, where needed, has been easy to understand, intuitive, and supported by a graphical user interface (GUI) that has streamlined the understanding and instruction of our machine operators. This has also helped standardize the machine set-up, regardless of the operator.
“This is important as productivity and efficiency must go hand-in-hand with our available resources and specialist staff.
“We want to be the most efficient converter in our field. Fewer incidences of downtime, less time spent on make-ready-time, and higher net speed will achieve our high ambitions for this machine.”