Sitma Parcel Technology Wraps up E-Commerce Field

8th March 2019

Logistics BusinessSitma Parcel Technology Wraps up E-Commerce Field

Italy’s Sitma Machinery has added its latest solution from its innovative e-cobots technology and the next evolution of the species for wrapping parcels in the e-commerce field: the Sitma e-Wrap, one of the most popular platforms designed by the Italian company. Originally created for Åland Post Ltd, a postal operator based in Northern Europe, today e-Wrap is presented in its most advanced 2.0 form, redesigned to respond to renewed needs for savings and efficiency in the logistics sector.

From postal operator to e-commerce specialist
Formed as a postal operator specializing in shipping newspapers and magazines, Åland Post Ltd gradually shifted its activity to focus on management of envelopes and parcels, becoming a true logistics operator in the field of e-commerce. This structural change meant needing to find more flexible packaging solutions, capable of handling products of different sizes and, at the same time, allowing savings on materials. Building on its experience in both the logistics and packaging sectors, Sitma worked together with Åland Post Ltdt to develop a tailor-made solution: the ‘e-Wrap packaging machine. The machine developed by the Italian company, characterized by the use of plastic film and variable formats, has been operating for over three years at the Aland Post headquarters, where it has showed excellent efficiency, flexibility and productivity.

The evolution of the species: e-Wrap 2.0
The e-Wrap proved to be a winning solution, able to respond to the needs arising from the boom in the e-commerce sector in Europe, but Sitma wanted to go further. Building on its experience in sorting processes, the company developed an evolved version of e-Wrap. The ‘2.0’ version, in addition to allowing packages of variable sizes to be packaged with different types of films, integrates and automates advanced processes, increasingly meeting the needs of efficiency, work management and cost saving experienced by companies active in the sector. In the e-Wrap 2.0 packaging machine’s operating concept, upstream the e-Cobots automatically pick up packages from the racks (drawers containing orders to be packaged and shipped) and, thanks to a special feeding system created by Sitma engineering, offers the possibility to take and apply paper inserts (such as invoices or other documents), integrating perfectly with the package without needing glue, thus ensuring significant savings in materials. The packaging machine operates in a vertical direction, guaranteeing wrapping with tailored film applied to packs of different sizes and shapes, quickly performing the various operations of cutting, welding, weighing and labeling. Finally, downstream in the process, the e-Wrap integrates perfectly with the sorting systems, Sitma’s flagship, which concludes the package management cycle from picking to final shipment.