Esko and DS Smith Kaysersberg receive packaging award

Esko, provider of packaging pre-production solutions, and DS Smith Kaysersberg, a European specialist in the development, manufacturing and distribution of tailor made corrugated board packaging, shared the honor of receiving a bronze star from ONDEF in the category technological innovations. DS Smith Kaysersberg used Esko's ArtiosCAD to create a corrugated board package for encasing a spare part item used in the military industry.
DS Smith Kaysersberg depended on ArtiosCAD 3D Designer, 3D Solid Import and 3D Animation software to achieve the complex packaging requirements. ArtiosCAD enables a product to be structurally conceived, developed and prototyped on the fly.

 ‘The project was classified as a national defense secret, so we had to develop the packaging using digital data, and without having the item physically on hand,’ said Pierre-Henri Guardiola, director of development at DS Smith Kaysersberg. ‘With the help of ArtiosCAD, the order was processed and completed without ever seeing the final product - the entire packaging was virtually developed, presented and animated in 3D.’

The jury at ONDEF was impressed by DS Smith Kaysersberg's presentation that detailed how Esko's innovative 3D - 2D software was used in the project. The technical foundation for this software was first put into place several years ago in 1999 in cooperation with Didier Blanvilain, Esko's application sales manager CAD/CAM. ‘His efforts helped us to secure our present-day victory. We are proud to share the recognition of the ONDEF award with Esko,’ stated Pierre-Henri Guardiola.

The prestigious award is given annually by ONDEF, a French trade organization of corrugated board manufacturers, and the FFC, the French Carton Board Federation. ‘Four years ago, we asked Esko to work out a module for receiving, reading, and interpreting the 3D files coming from our clients so that they could be processed and transferred into the ArtiosCAD software,’ said Guardiola. Esko responded to the challenge by conceiving a bridge linking the ArtiosCAD software to the 3D software packages commonly used by designers in the automobile industry. DS Smith Kaysersberg's site in Saint-Just en Chausse was selected for beta testing the module, which combined the capabilities for developing the packaging and for visualizing the volume rendering associated with the product. ‘Thanks to this module we can accept files from our clients and execute 3D processing on the virtual product. The result is an animated view of the packaging and product,’ explained Paul Leuiller, responsible for BE at Saint-Just.

Esko's ArtiosCAD provided the winning formula for a number of other packaging companies at the ONDEF awards ceremony. Of the 25 stars given for corrugated board packaging designs, 15 were awarded to development studios using ArtiosCAD, the CAD software most utilized in packaging.