It's not just sweaters from Sears, beef jerky from Hickory Farms, and apples from Harry and David anymore. And that is creating the need for a whole new kind of packaging. Given the ever-increasing volumes they're dealing with, shippers take extraordinary measures to ensure every box arrives intact. To that end, both FedEx and UPS offer free packaging design consultations. The huge Kongsberg cutter dominates the engineering section.
Air is sucked out, pulling the cardboard flat against the table for the cut.
Engineer Tom Wood uses Laserpoint Page Design software, which offers many basic box designs. The design is saved to a floppy disk, which Wood then pops into the Kongsberg. He takes a large, flat piece of cardboard from shelves that hold sheets of every thickness. It takes only a minute to complete. Wood springs forward, pulls the cardboard out and quickly pokes out the excess pieces.