System and method for carton serialization

A system for carton serialization on a high-speed production line for selectively gluing and folding feed stock to form an assembled carton comprising:

• a conveying apparatus for delivering feed stock from a feed unit to a delivery unit;
• a sensor for sensing feed stock entering the conveying apparatus;
• a printer for printing a unique character string on each piece of feed stock to uniquely identify each resulting assembled carton;
• folding and gluing apparatus operatively associated with the conveying apparatus for selectively gluing and folding feed stock to form assembled cartons;
• analysis apparatus for monitoring operation of carton assembly;
• a rejection device for selectively removing defective assembled cartons from the conveying apparatus;
• and
• a control system in operative communication with the sensor, the printer, the folding and gluing apparatus, the analysis apparatus and the rejection device, the control system storing machine operating parameters in a database, the control system controlling the printer to print the unique character string on each piece of feed stock responsive to the sensor and storing the unique character string and production time for each carton produced in the database, and the control system selectively providing serialization reports providing machine operating parameters for each assembled carton.