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Amazon Automatic Packaging Catches Up With Gernsback's 1911 Book
Amazon is working on automatic packaging machines for its warehouses; these machines are essentially robots that can look at the size of the items in the order, and determine correct packing boxes.
Sources told Reuters that Amazon is considering the CartonWrap machines from CMC Srl, which can build boxes around custom orders and add seals and labels. The machines can reportedly build 600 to 700 boxes per hour, which is four to five times faster than a human. And with the machines sold for $1 million, Amazon could recover its costs in under two years, Reuters' sources said.Apparently, Amazon has already installed a handful of the machines in warehouses near Seattle, Frankfurt, Milan, Amsterdam and Manchester. They could also find their way into the nearly two dozen US fulfillment centers Amazon is preparing for small and non-speciality inventory.
Very early science fiction pioneer Hugo Gernsback described an automatic-electric packing machine in his 1911 classic novel Ralph 124c 41 +:
The clerk making the sale placed the purchased articles on a metal platform. He then pressed several buttons on a small switchboard, which operated the "size" apparatus to obtain the dimensions of the package. After the last button was pressed, the platform rose about two feet, till it disappeared into a large metal, box-like contrivance. In abut ten to fifteen seconds it came down again bearing on its surface a neat white box with a handle at the top, all in one piece.
(Read more about Hugo Gernsback's automatic-electric packing machine)
Via engadget.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/27/2021)
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