Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machinery Systems launches AI anti-warp device for corrugated cardboard

The announcement points to a persistent bottleneck in cardboard manufacturing. Sheets are made by gluing liner layers to a wavy core and drying at high temperature, and differences in moisture between the front and back can leave the finished sheet warped. Because warped sheets jam downstream box-making equipment, the defect can ripple into quality problems and slower output.

The traditional fix has been manual: experienced operators adjust machine settings for each paper type based on know-how built up over years. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machinery Systems cites labor shortages and the retirement of skilled workers as making that know-how harder to pass on, while a shift toward more product varieties and smaller lot sizes adds to the difficulty of controlling warp.

The new device is designed to absorb that adjustment role. It automatically accumulates data on moisture, temperature and warp for each paper type and trains an AI model to predict suitable machine settings, so production can start with warp already suppressed. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machinery Systems has delivered more than 300 corrugating machines since its first unit in 1956, and it plans to market the new device both in Japan and abroad.