Assembly for custom box blank preparation and method

An assembly for preparing a box blank from a cardboard sheet comprising:

• a feeder for vertically feeding one of a plurality of the cardboard sheets from a storage position into a printing/cutting assembly;
• said printing/cutting assembly comprising:
• a printing station comprising at least one printer head and a vertical conveyor for conveying a printing surface of the cardboard sheet proximate to and past said at least one printer head, wherein the printing surface is printed by said at least one printer head during said conveying;
• and
• a cutting station comprising a feed mechanism for feeding the cardboard sheet into at least one cutting position and upper and lower elongate slot cutting blades arranged vertically and configured to cut respectively an upper slot and lower slot in the cardboard sheet when in said at least one cutting position, said feed mechanism subsequently ejecting the cut cardboard sheet from said cutting station;
• wherein each of said printer heads and each of said cutting blades is vertically moveable respectively into a selected printing position and a selected cutting position under control of a controller thereby accommodating a plurality of different cardboard sheets of different sizes.