Equipment manufacturers are making it simpler, more efficient , and more efficient to fold, compress, roll and ship boxes of bedding that consumers desire.
The sales of traditional as well as boxed mattresses experienced a massive increase in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, when consumers began placing orders online for mattresses.
One of the top selling points for consumers in 2020 was their convenience, non-contact delivery. The quick and swift actions of mattress companies that made their products accessible online led to the 7.5 percent rise in U.S.-produced mattress unit deliveries throughout the year, according to data provided by the International Sleep Products Association.
Being a significant segment of market there has been an increase in the demands for roll-packing and compression solutions. The majority of consumers are purchasing mattresses and shopping on the internet and increasingly are shipped in a box.
“At the close of 2019 we estimated that the U.S. mattress in a box market share was 15%, and was steadily increasing,” says Mark DesJardin an executive in business development at C3 Corp., a manufacturer of laminating, packaging and material handling machines located in Appleton, Wisconsin. “By the close of 2020, only twelve months after, we calculated that (the boxed mattress) market share was at 35 percent..”
As the years progress, C3 anticipates that mattress boxes will reach 50 percent in the marketplace, and possibly at least 60% in the next two or three years. “The circumstances of 2020, although demanding in many ways, have pushed the mattress market to the edge,” DesJardin says. “But the momentum was growing in the previous years. It’s not like that the world was awash with boxed beds in the last year.”
Yet, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic set off a massive shift towards nesting. As people more often were at home working, preparing meals in their own kitchens and put off vacations. When spending on clothes entertainment, travel, and transportation slowed, people discovered they had more money to spend on improving their homes, which included the standard of their beds and bedrooms.
“Consumers were able to steer clear of visits to specialty shops as well as the traditional methods of delivery,” DesJardin says. “They’re trying to make purchases on the internet or at the retail store in which they shop for other products.”
A new normal
As the disease’s threat appears to be diminishing, a new norm is beginning to appear for the industry of bedding. While some of the contours of the terrain are uncertain, “we should expect to be seeing three things in the near future” which are positive for boxed beds as well as boxed bed equipment, says DesJardin. “First we’ll see the continuation of the trend towards nesting. Additionally, packaging that is environmentally friendly will become more relevant because the new generation of consumers will be more attentive to the carbon footprint of brands,” he says. “And thirdly the need to improve distribution and logistics (will grow) as consumers look for easier, more convenient shopping and purchasing alternatives.”
In order to help manufacturers keep pace with the changes happening in the market manufacturers of machinery are looking for methods to improve their equipment. efficient, economical and eco-friendly. This comes through the use of a mattress roll packing machine.
On the green side they’re developing new plastic films and other wrappings, like paper, that can reduce waste, while also protecting the beds during delivery and shipping.
In order to help manufacturers increase efficiency, equipment providers offer new machines which increase the number of ways a mattress is folded or rolled before it is placed in a box. The more folds means mattresses can are able to fit into smaller boxes, and smaller boxes translate to better logistics, which includes lower storage and shipping costs.
“The trend of reducing dimensions of production as well as cost of production and waste have played a major part in the development of mattress packaging” Eric Zaninelli who is an executive in the field of technical sales with Dolphin Pack, which is a maker of mattress packaging and compression machines that are based in Affi, Italy. “The principal goal of Dolphin Pack has been to come up with efficient solutions for businesses as well as consumers and the environment.”
The Etesian Double Roll, the most recent packaging system by Dolphin Pack, achieves this target, Zaninelli claims. Through allowing more boxes to fit inside containers or trucks it helps increase efficiency of transportation and decrease the costs of retailers and manufacturers. Additionally as a properly packed bed uses less fuel to transport by double-rolling before packing reduces the emissions of carbon dioxide. “Therefore businesses, the final customers and the environment all are all benefited by this Double Roll (approach),” Zaninelli says.
In the last few years, the field has made significant progress in the kind of bed that can be used for boxing. There are a variety of beds that are now able to be compressed, rolled , and put in a box including many hybrid mattresses, and some conventional innerspring mattresses.
The sales of equipment is increasing
Mattress sales on e-commerce are growing at a record rate across the United States and elsewhere, the demand for roll-packing equipment has increased, according to Serkan Guler who is the chief executive officer at Elektroteks. Elektroteks, which is based within Bursa, Turkey, has sold between 8 and 10 roll-packing machines a month to its customers across the globe by 2021 and the demand is showing no indication of slowing down.
“This type machines has proven to be a popular sales for the last several times,” Guler says.
Other companies also report similar strong results in the roll-packing machines segment.
It was once a niche market for a select producer group that specialized in sleep products available on the internet, boxed beds as well as the machines that place them into boxes are becoming more popular.
“Roll-pack machines are now an essential requirement for the majority of the mattress manufacturers of today,” Guler says. “Producers today require the ability to fold, compress as well as roll mattresses in order to remain competitive and meet their clients who want convenience and direct delivery to their door.”
Carthage located in Missouri, Global Systems Group, which manufactures a range of mattress-making machines and has been an early adopter of rolling-pack technology since launching the well-known TK-306 together with Teknomac srl, which is based in Barbara, Italy, at the ISPA EXPO in 2008. New developments and innovations have provided an array of options to increase efficiency and decreasing costs.
“The current GSG product developments focus on improving efficiency, and reducing waste material to ensure sustainability in manufacturing in addition to cost-savings for the mattress manufacturer,” says Randy Metcalf, GSG marketing manager. “There are numerous unique aspects in the broad field of roll-pack packaging. GSG has worked to offer the widest range of options to allow mattress manufacturers to adapt their manufacturing process to meet the different requirements of their customers.”
In the case of Atlanta Attachment Co., the recent implementation of new Windows-based technology that is patented allows the company to analyze the operation of equipment and software remotely. Additionally, the company has designed new equipment that has a uniform plug-and play application which allows for the easier integration of various machines as well as more flexibility in the design for production areas, according to Doug Guffey, vice president of sales for the business, located at Lawrenceville, Georgia.
“We are working towards an entirely automated system of equipment and equipment communicating in a single way,” Guffey says. “AAC continues to work on developing equipment for handling materials that can automate the entire process of production, which includes automatic bagging, rolling packaging, tapering labels, sorting, taking and tracking the product.”
Guffey states that aside from the fundamentals like efficiency, reliability, and flow, Atlanta Attachments’ advancement efforts in the roll packing segment also aim to improve manufacturing flexibility for mattress manufacturers. This includes machines that “can handle a variety of products on one working machine,” Guffey states, and equipment that can manage “thicker mattresses and the ability to move more hybrid mattresses.”
Pillow talk
for Brighi Tecnologie Italia snc what’s driving the growth within the United States right now is the rising demand for pillow manufacturing equipment that automates “each and every step of the production method,” says Matteo Tagliaferri the export sales manager of Brighi the company that makes equipment for home and bedding located within Forli, Italy.
“Manufacturers aren’t able to find workers, and, if they do locate them, it’s difficult to keep them. So, they’re taking a look at machines for their job,” he says.
Tagliaferri also says that Brighi has always been focused to automatizing the entire pillow production process “so that we’re in a an excellent position at present since we offer integrated solutions from A to Z, and everything between.”
Find out the most recent updates and developments in packaging equipment for bedding products.
Rock ‘Em Box ‘Em Robot
Robotics play a larger role in the bedding of factory floors as they automate a variety of tasks that used to be performed by human. Elektroteks RoBOX, the latest robot (in the blue color in this image) introduces a fresh level of efficiency to the packing phase of production. The RoBOX system creates an entire box out of a piece of cardboard. Then, it inserts the mattress, wrapped and rolled inside the box. Following that, the robotic transfers the box to a pallet for transportation.
Packing Taller, Thicker Springs
Recently upgraded to handle greater pockets springs, Amelco Industries’ RL2000PRE roll-packing equipment with a precompression feeding table can be used to pack large innerspring units approximately 8 1/2″ in height and 79 inches wide into compact, easy-to-ship and openable rolls. The RL2100PRE model of the machine is able to handle units that are that are up to 83 inches in width. Amelco also enhanced the accuracy of the machine’s paper tension to make sure that the paper strength is equal to the spring resistance, allowing the packing of more springs into the roll. Additionally the frame of the machine is now able to handle roll sizes that are larger (48 inches).
Automatic paper feeding at start of packing process as well as a new inching lever will ensure that the paper bar is in the right position , and help the operator in speeding up the process. Counters for spring units as well as an automated cutter for paper and large adhesive tape rolls boost efficiency, according to the company.
“After the machine has reached a certain amount of machines, it starts making cuts in the paper and securing the bale in adhesive tape that is ready to be ejected, and then setting (itself) to start another cycle” states Andreas Georgallis Director of the Nicosia Cyprus-based company.
designed with safety for the operator with safety in focus, the RL2000PRE’s improvements include an emergency stop at head-level for collisions as well as a knee-level stop for safety photocells and guard bars for the table for feeding. The RL2000PRE The company claims can be used with all spring types which include Bonnell and pocketed. It is compatible with special Kraft paper, and cloth, plastic film and nonwoven material.
Rolling Pillows That Roll With Simple
In an effort to make the pillow roll packing process more efficient to manufacturers Forli Italian-based Brighi Tecnologie Italia snc has improved their Easy Roll system by adding new features to increase flexibility and improve efficiency. It includes a brand new silicon spray inside the rolling joints of the machine for users using “naked” foam cores which makes it easier to roll and eject and deionizing bars inside the bag-making system that eliminate the static charge in tubular plastic, allowing bags-securing robots to more easily open bags and also a bag-punching machine which creates a microperforation inside bags for those who want some pillow recuperation following bagging, according to the company.
Its Easy Roll system comes in two versions, fully automated and semi-automatic. Both models come with the company’s distinctive “revolver-style” dual rolling which increases production speed by allowing the rolling of a pillow in one unit while a different pillow is compressed, bagged and sealed in a different unit.
Compact Solution
New new Atlanta Attachment Co., the Automatic Secondary Compact Roll Pack machine (model 1307SA, shown below) can be included in the current mattress roll-packing equipment or utilized as a stand-alone device. According to Atlanta Attachment Co., the Lawrenceville Georgia-based firm the machine’s small size reduces the amount of floor space needed at the mattress factory and also allows for the packaging of mattresses in boxes that are as small as the dimensions of 18″x18″, 18″x24″, at the rate at 35 secs for one piece. A Windows-based control system that is patent-pending and Atlanta Attachment’s top-quality design create a maintenance-free machine that is low-cost to service The company claims. It is equipped with attachments to load boxes.
Atlanta Attachment also has enhanced its automatic Mattress Packaging system by incorporating hydraulic Compression and Roll-Pac Workstation (pictured above) that is a combination of its 1390HCE Auto-Pac unit along with a 1306FF workstation as well as the brand new model 1307SA workstation. Created for omnichannel production of mattresses according to the company, this fully integrated system can handle many bags, which include the standard mattress bagging, the traditional roll packs, fold-in-half roll pack, and two roll packaging. The combination of 1390HCE, 1306FF and 1307SA allows the packing of a queen-sized mattress in boxes that are as small as 18 ” by 18″, and 24″. With the combination of a rotating feature within the compression platen the footprint of 1390HCE’s production is reduced, but still allows for different height options to meet requirements for production, the company claims. The 1360FF is the latest model that comes with an adjustable diameter of 10-23 inches for mattresses rolled and can produce rolled queen units in just 35 minutes.
A further addition to the line of Atlanta attachments is the H290 Automated Mattress Stacker. The machine stacks mattresses over one another on pallets or within bins. The machine can stack mattresses to the left or right and is able to be mounted with a center-pass-through discharge. The stacker can be palletized without the involvement of an operator, speeding up the process and reducing the risk of injuries to workers caused by handling large loads, as per the company.
Fighting Germs and Bacteria
United Mattress Machinery has partnered with an German firm that manufactures sterilization equipment for food and beverages to create a brand new kind of machine it claims removes germs and bacteria from the mattress’s surface prior to packaging and bagging.
The Kleen Machine, United’s new UM-UV-KLEEN “fits as a piece of puzzle” in existing roll-pack systems According to Michael Porter Jr., co-owner and vice president of United Mattress Machinery, which is headquartered located in Delray Beach, Florida.
The machine has some sort of ultraviolet sterilization tunnel that mattresses go through prior to being packaged and bagged. United Mattress Machinery’s study suggests that a typical mattress is hit by up to between 10 and 15 workers, with an average of over 100 times while manufacturing.
“That’s disgusting!” Porter says. “Everyone across the globe is thinking differently than they did before the Covid 19 of the pandemic, about the reality that bacteria, germs and viruses are readily spread, much faster than we believed.”
United Mattress Machinery is the company that has secured patent protection for the novel concept. Kleen Machine’s creator, United team member Leo Echeverria Leo Echeverria, has announced that the company will begin delivery of its Kleen Machine to customers this next fall straight from Germany. It is Kleen Machine integrates with the company’s UM-RP2-TURN Mattress Wrap/Compress/Roll Pack System as well as other equipment from other companies.
Improving Shipping Density
Following the popularity of the half Fold & Roll rolling system for packing rolls, C3 Corp. introduced the Tri-Fold & Roll system during this year’s Interzum Cologne trade show in May. The C3’s Half Fold & Roll system has proved to be a great solution for e-commerce, according to Mark DesJardin, business development director for the company, located at Appleton, Wisconsin. The company’s latest ultra-compressed, or “roll-on-roll” Tri-Fold solution “ramps up the density equation more,” providing a higher pallet density , which is more efficient for transportation and logistical processes, DesJardin says. “We have allowed us to put more than 600 bed onto trucks, dependent on the configuration of the product,” he says. If compared to other methods of rolling, this higher density can result in significant price savings for retail stores He says.
The company also introduced the possibility of replacing the stretch wrap that is currently employed in its packaging machines by paper. The use of paper in place of wrapping reduces the quantity of plastic that is used to pack mattresses by one-third, says C3. Mattress manufacturers can choose to use stretch wrap when their need arises DesJardin adds. “We’re not removing anything from you. We’re helping manufacturers to meet demand from the market,” he explains. The interest of consumers in recycling materials continues to increase, “this eco-friendly packaging option could enhance the image of the brand at one of the most crucial moments of interaction with the consumer — the unboxing process,” DesJardin says.
The Tri-Fold and Roll system as well as the brand new paper-wrapping feature are offered as an option on new machines, or as upgrade options for existing C3 machines that are currently operating in the field. They are upgrades that are modular retrofits that are able to be quickly installed according to DesJardin.
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