The systems from Sparck Technologies use 3D scanning technology to produce customised boxes. The world first Pick-to-Box now enables order picking directly into customised shipping packaging.
22 April 2025
The CVP systems use 3D scanners to produce customised packaging directly around the stacked goods in a shipment. (Image: Sparck Technologies)
Sparck Technologies is a manufacturer of automated packaging solutions for e-commerce. The Dutch company's systems use 3D scanning technology to produce customised cartons. Pick-to-Box is now new on the market. This world first enables picking directly into customised shipping packaging.
In e-commerce, items are often shipped in mixed units. In order to pack these automatically, Sparck has developed its CVP systems that use modern 3D scanning technology to produce customised cartons. Using the information from the 3D scanner, a carton is cut, folded, sealed, glued and labelled fully automatically for all items in a consignment. The process is designed to Reduce packaging volume by up to 50 per cent and cardboard consumption by 30 per cent. As the packaging does not require any additional strapping or banding, the need for additional packaging material is also reduced. Filling material is also superfluous, as the CVP systems fix the goods so securely that additional padding is no longer required.
(Image: Sparck Technologies)
„Our systems are suitable for all types of order picking for the B2C and B2B sectors as well as for direct sales. The CVP Impack can handle 500 packs per hour. And the CVP Everest, which we launched on the market in 2019, offers high throughput rates of up to 1,100 cartons per hour with two infeed stations and up to three carton feeders. This makes our solutions some of the fastest on the market.“
Claus Weigel, International Senior Sales Manager at Sparck Technologies.
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Today, the company has more than 180 machines in use around the world, which have already produced more than 220 million cartons in exactly the right size. This is possible thanks to a minimum height of 28 millimetres also the packaging of very flat products that are sent as merchandise mail with letter postage and dropped in the letterbox by the deliverer.
Two packaging strategies in one system
Both machine types produce Precisely fitting packaging directly around the stacked goods in a consignment, The 3D scanner records each stack and determines the minimum size of the carton. With the new product, an open packaging unit is now produced first - in the correct size for the planned contents, as calculated automatically beforehand. It leaves the machine to be filled in the picking area and then automatically returns to the system via a conveyor belt, where it is automatically closed with the precisely fitting lid, which has also been calculated beforehand. The innovation is integrated as a module in the CVP system, Sparck can now combine two packaging strategies in one system. Another new feature is that the three corrugated board feeders are not only available in three different widths, but also in different thicknesses and flute types, which means that the weight can be further optimised.
(Image: Sparck Technologies)
„No matter whether Box first or Box last, Whether it's picking into the prepared shipping unit or picking and then producing the shipping packaging, our machines combine both packaging strategies as required,“ explains Claus Weigel. The new pick-to-box solution is initially being planned for three customers.
The company, based in Drachten in the Netherlands celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Founded in 1924 as HaDeWe in the Netherlands, it was initially involved in the mechanisation of clog production. In the 1950s, the company then developed solutions for post offices that could automatically fold and fill thousands of envelopes per hour. The path from mail processing to dispatch was not far away, and in 2013 Sparck launched the first automated solution for customised packaging. In 2023 there was a German Packaging Award in the Digitalisation category.
The Sparck systems also relieve staff of heavy and monotonous work, because they automatically pack goods weighing up to 30 kilograms. They also help to avoid errors due to time pressure and thus returns during peak times or the high season.
Packaging produced on CVP systems also already meet the requirements of the new EU packaging regulation, which, among other things, stipulates the avoidance of oversized packaging with too much air. Claus Weigel: „The new regulations play into our hands as a 3D manufacturer of customised packaging. Our solutions also reduce labour costs, as one machine takes over the work of 20 packers. It also reduces material costs, as corrugated board is cheaper than cardboard.“
packaging journal 2/2025
This article was published in packaging journal 2/2025 (April).
