4. Case packing, cartoning

4.1 American corrugated cases

Until 1975, bottles, single cartons or cases, sachets (flour, sugar) or cans were always grouped together in corrugated cardboard boxes, delivered flat on pallets by the cardboard factory.

The end-user opened them and placed 6, 12 or 24 unit packs inside, assisted for high output by filling systems that pushed the unit packs into the cases. Then, on the conveyor belt, there were various closing systems, using either adhesive tapes (figures and ) or hot-melt adhesives (figure ) (and, more recently, staples).

Such systems are still commonly used for small production runs, from one to several cases per minute.