Under the wave of smart factories: the necessity and path of upgrading paper bag production automation

400,000 packaging bags are produced at a high speed every day, with only a handful of workers in the workshop, but sales have increased by 30% - entering the smart workshop of Yixing Winite Packaging Bags, the upper and lower production lines run smoothly under the command of the "digital brain", subverting people's imagination of traditional packaging manufacturing.

In the smart workshop of Jiangsu Yixing Winnit Packaging Bag Company, raw paper automatically enters the tube-making and bottom-gluing production lines via conveyor belts. After undergoing digitally controlled processes such as gluing, forming, and slitting, it is ultimately transformed into packaging bags of varying specifications. A central control system monitors production speed, product quality, and output data in real time throughout the entire process. Intelligent algorithms maintain a coordinated rhythm between the two independent production lines, automatically adjusting parameters even in the event of a partial failure to prevent a complete shutdown.

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01 Urgent signal of industry change: Automation of paper bag production is imperative

The annual output value of China's packaging industry has exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan , of which paper products account for as much as 56% (data from the China Packaging Federation in 2024). Under the dual pressures of tightening environmental protection policies and consumption upgrades, traditional paper bag manufacturers face severe challenges:

• Efficiency bottleneck : A new paper bag machine developed by a Turkish company has increased production speed from 600-700 pieces per minute on traditional equipment to 900-1000 pieces per minute, a 30% increase. However, many domestic factories still rely on semi-automatic equipment, with manual paper loading and stringing processes severely restricting capacity release.
• Cost pressure : Research data shows that traditional paper bag machines require eight hours to adjust product specifications, requiring the coordinated operation of multiple personnel. However, Zhejiang Zhengwei Machinery's new equipment, with 90% automated adjustment capabilities, reduces this process to just one hour, significantly reducing production downtime losses.
• Quality Challenge : After Winite packaging bags went into production in the smart workshop, the product defect rate dropped by 75%. This is due to the automated system's millimeter-level control of glue spraying volume and cutting accuracy, which solves the quality fluctuations caused by manual operation.
• Policy Environment : Driven by the "dual carbon" goals, the packaging industry faces rigid targets of increasing logistics efficiency by 30% and reducing energy consumption by 15%. Traditional high-energy-consuming and high-waste production models are no longer sustainable.

These pain points converge into a clear signal: automation upgrade is no longer an option, but a matter of survival.

02 Core technology path for automation upgrade and four pillars for building a smart paper bag factory

Intelligent equipment innovation

Paper bag production equipment is undergoing a profound transformation driven by mechatronics. Siemens' "Golden Model" solution for paper bag machines replaces traditional mechanical cams with a SIMATIC motion controller and SINAMICS S210 drive combination, enabling online bag shape switching without downtime.

A Zhejiang company's bag-making machine uses a fully servo bus control system, allowing 90% of specification adjustments to be made with a single click via the interface. The mechatronic design significantly reduces the operational barrier to entry. Another company's waistline-less paper bag machine radically integrates the functions of five traditional machines, reducing equipment investment by 80% through a fully automatic stringing system and intelligent machine adjustment algorithms.

Intelligent logistics system

Logistics automation from raw materials to finished products is the blood vessel network of smart factories:

• Raw materials : The latent AGV developed by Mingguang Lituo Intelligent Technology is equipped with a customized lifting device, which can flexibly handle 4.5-ton paper rolls and automatically connect with the printing equipment for loading and unloading.
• Production connection : Collaborative robots combined with machine vision can automatically grab and load paper. A single robot can cover multiple printing equipment, greatly reducing the reliance on manual labor.
• Finished product processing : Finished products are automatically transferred to the palletizing area through the conveyor line, and the intelligent sorting system automatically stacks them according to product specifications. Haolin Packaging's fully automatic honeycomb paper production line has achieved dual-axis non-stop winding, increasing efficiency by 30%.
• Warehousing and delivery : AGV forklifts are connected to the conveyor line to directly transport finished products to the platform, reducing secondary handling losses and making the delivery error rate close to zero.

Digitalization of production management systems

Intelligent production scheduling and process control constitute the "nerve center" of the factory. Leading companies achieve the following by deploying MES systems:

• Dynamic production scheduling : Automatically generate production plans based on order priority and equipment load rate, reducing equipment idle time by 15%
• Quality traceability : Establish digital archives for the entire process from roll paper to finished bags, reducing the time required to locate quality incidents from 8 hours to 10 minutes.
• Energy consumption monitoring : IoT sensors collect real-time energy consumption data from die-cutting machines and air compressors, helping a carton factory reduce energy costs by 18%.

Green Manufacturing Technology

Environmental performance has become a core indicator of automated equipment. Haolin Packaging's fully automated honeycomb paper production line, utilizing Japanese wheel-knife technology, has run continuously for 48 hours without any failures, improving equipment stability by 40% and supporting 100% material recycling. Through its smart workshop transformation, Winite Packaging has reduced energy consumption per unit of output by 30% and operating costs by 10%, demonstrating the synergistic effect of automation and green initiatives.

03 Industry practice revelation, a benchmark case for paper bag automation upgrade

Winite Packaging: A model of full-process smart workshop

Yixing Winnet's three-dimensional smart workshop establishes a vertical value chain from customer demand to product delivery . The workshop features a two-story layout: the lower floor houses the automatic tube-making and bottom-pasting production lines, while the upper floor houses a temporary storage area. Digital twin technology enables full-scale monitoring.

Once a customer order is entered into the system, the "digital brain" automatically analyzes process parameters and adjusts the production process in real time. Its breakthrough innovation lies in its self-healing mechanism—local anomalies trigger automatic troubleshooting and resolution, while also implementing parameter optimization strategies to prevent recurrence of similar issues.

The results are remarkable: production efficiency increased by 150%, inventory decreased by 20%, and product development cycle shortened by 50%, helping the company to become the second largest in the country in its segment.

04 Implementation Strategy Guide: A Practical Path for Automation Upgrades in Paper Bag Enterprises

Phased implementation strategy

Based on the characteristics of the packaging industry, a gradual upgrade route is recommended:

• Phase 1: Logistics Automation . Prioritize the deployment of AGV coil handling and collaborative robot loading systems (such as the Lituo solution) to address the issues of heavy manual handling and high error rates. After implementation, one company increased raw material warehousing efficiency by 50% and reduced handling costs by 62%.
• Phase II: Intelligent production line . Introducing fully servo-controlled bag-making machines (such as the Zhengwei ZW-A12) and automatic palletizing systems. Shuangcheng Intelligent's robotic palletizing line can achieve 10-20 layers per minute with an accuracy error of ±1mm.
• Phase 3: Full factory digitization . Deployment of a production management system to integrate order scheduling, quality traceability, and energy consumption monitoring. After a system went online, it helped a packaging company reduce equipment idle time by 15% and material loss rate from 8% to 3.2%.

Technology route selection

Faced with diverse technical solutions, we need to combine them with the actual situation of the enterprise:

• Dedicated route : Choose highly integrated equipment, suitable for companies with concentrated product categories, and quickly achieve the upgrade effect of "one machine is equivalent to five machines"
• Flexible route : Adopting Siemens TIA solution, it supports multi-variety production through motion control library and modular design, which is suitable for scenarios with a high proportion of customized orders.

Data Integration Basics

The core of intelligence lies in data flow:

• Build a unified data platform to connect the information flows of the equipment layer (PLC status), operation layer (work order progress), and management layer (order delivery)
• Implement IoT data collection : deploy sensors in key processes, and Haolin Packaging uses constant temperature and humidity monitoring in the honeycomb paper production line to ensure the stability of paper processing.
• Building a digital twin model : A listed company increased its equipment utilization rate from 68% to 89% after implementing it

05 Conclusion: The future of paper bag intelligent manufacturing

Global environmental trends are accelerating the replacement of plastic packaging with paper. Industry forecasts predict the paper bag market will exceed 100 billion yuan by 2025. In this industrial transformation, automation upgrades have become a core lever for paper bag manufacturers to build competitiveness .

Winite Packaging's smart workshop demonstrates the success of its transformation: a 150% increase in production efficiency, a 30% increase in orders, and a 75% decrease in product defects. The lineless paper bag machine demonstrates the enormous potential of equipment innovation, reducing setup time from 8 hours to 30 minutes, unlocking astonishing production flexibility.

The wave of smart factories is driving the paper bag manufacturing industry's transformation from labor-intensive to technology-intensive. Companies that pioneer the triple leap of automation, networking, and intelligence will establish decisive advantages in efficiency, quality, and cost. Only when every production line is equipped with a "digital brain" and every paper bag possesses a "data gene" can traditional manufacturing truly achieve transformation and upgrading, focusing on "intelligence for quality"10.

There is no turning back from this transformation. Only companies that embrace the path of automated upgrades can occupy the commanding heights in the new industrial landscape.