In essence, the folding and gluing process transforms a piece of flat material into a finished product such as a box, envelope, or promotional item. This is achieved by folding the blank along pre-creased lines and applying the adhesive that will hold the product together.

Folder-gluers are suitable for processing a wide range of materials including solid board, plastics, metalized varnished boards, litho-laminates, micro-flutes, and corrugated board. Their use is seen mainly in the packaging industry where they transform flat blanks into straight-line, crash-lock bottom, or multi-point boxes.

A  folder gluer is a modular machine which will consist of a number of different sections, depending on the application. These may include:

Feeder: ensuring the precise feeding of the blank is vital for accurate processing. Various designs of feeder help process specific materials or products more effectively

Prebreakers: these pre-break the creases of cartons for their easier processing on automatic filling lines

Crash-lock module: using conventional or hook-free technology this unit folds the base flaps of automatic crash-lock bottom cartons

GYROBOX unit: for rotating blanks at full line speed, allowing single pass processing of complex products

Combifolders or 4/6 corner devices: rotating folding hooks that fold the flaps of multi-point cartons

Folding section: for progressive folding of the final fold

Transfer section: ejects non-conforming cartons and shingles cartons for delivery

Delivery section: applies pressure to the box stream to allow good adhesive bonding

Folder-gluer machines may be augmented by a range of peripheral devices such as loaders/batch inverters, special feeders, packers, and robot palletizers.