The FR5 vacuum-tool demonstration went well. The carton was clean, flat and unprinted. Our dispatch cartons have a taped seam down the intended pickup area, heavy print on some variants and board from two sources. None of those appeared in the demonstration.
I sent a box of actual samples ahead of the visit. They were still under the bench when we left. The demonstrator said the smooth one was easier to see on camera. It was certainly easier to lift.
I don't know yet whether the concept is unsuitable. I do know we have not tested the awkward surfaces. What belongs in the follow-up besides asking them to open the sample box?
Start with your actual filled cartons and mark the proposed cup contact areas on photographs. Have them cover seams, print, surface variation and release, with failures kept in the record. A smooth empty box answers a rather convenient question.
Also ask whether their proposed layout crosses the taped seam by design or because the cup position is still provisional. You need to know which tool they are asking you to buy.
We had cups that worked on the fresh cartons but struggled after the boxes had sat around the packing area. The trial box had lived a very sheltered life. Include cartons as they actually reach this station, and whoever will clean or replace the cups should see the trial too.
Yes. Supply condition and maintenance matter, though nobody should invent a dirty-box torture test that your process never sees. Representative awkward samples are enough to start with.
The seam crossing was intentional. Supplier is now proposing a different cup arrangement, using the same samples they previously ignored. At least the samples have been promoted from furniture.
It may not need to avoid every seam, but it needs evidence for the contact conditions it uses. The drawing and real carton variation must agree about where the cups can land.
One board variant still lost the pickup in the supplier trial. The other behaved better with the revised layout. They are revisiting the concept; we are not accepting a tool that requires stores to guess which carton it likes.
Ask them to identify that failed variant and the observed failure in the revised proposal. It is now a specific application limit to solve, not a vague request for better suction.