Work / FEFCO 0427 dieline generator

A packaging dieline that folds itself

FEFCO 0427, the roll-end mailer. Geometry generated from three numbers, no modelling software involved.

Style
FEFCO 0427
Role
Personal project
Stack
BabylonJS, TypeScript
Panels
11
Source
Public FEFCO standard
Read how it works

SVG dieline export is next. The panel table it needs already exists.

How it works

Why a box

Most of my work sits behind a login, and this is the exception. It is the same problem I spend my days on, rebuilt from scratch against a public specification: take a handful of dimensions, generate real geometry, fold it in a browser, and let anyone poke at it.

FEFCO is the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers, and its code system is the shared vocabulary of the packaging industry. 0427 is a roll-end tray with a tuck front, which is the box most e-commerce orders arrive in. It is more interesting than the standard 0201 shipping carton because the ends roll inward through several creases and lock, so the fold has real ordering and real constraints rather than four flaps meeting in the middle.

The geometry

Every panel is built extending in one direction from its hinge, and folds about that hinge only. Nesting does the rest: the lid is a child of the back wall, the tuck is a child of the lid, the lock tab is a child of the roll panel. Fold the parent and the children come with it, which is exactly how the board behaves.

The flat blank is derived from the same numbers, not measured off the model. Across the die you get the base length plus a side wall, roll panel and lock tab at each end. Along it you get the front wall, base, back wall, lid and front tuck. Those two figures are the blank size shown above the box, and they are what a converter would quote board against.

Next SVG dieline export, so the Download button produces a real cutting file with cut and crease lines on separate layers. The panel table already exists; it needs a writer.

The fold order

The box does not fold all at once, because a real one cannot. The ends go up first and roll in, since the roll ends form the side walls and capture the long walls. The long walls follow, then the lid comes over, and the tuck goes down at the front last. Each stage owns a slice of the fold slider and eases within it, which is why dragging slowly reads as assembly rather than as one hinge opening.

Looking for a senior role, and taking freelance and consultancy work.