The most successful packaging for transportation and storage of various items in corrugated cardboard boxes. Lightweight, cheap, practical, durable, economical, and environmentally friendly, corrugated packaging has become the most common type of packaging in the world.
Cardboard and corrugated cardboard have become so firmly established in our daily life that we often simply do not notice them: whether we take a book in our hands, Order shoes, a box of chocolates, or custom pizza boxes, custom boxes with logo are we going to move – cardboard is everywhere! Almost all products are packed in corrugated cardboard boxes.
What can we say about production, trade, construction – without cardboard and corrugated cardboard is indispensable. Now you can Order a corrugated box in many parts of the world.
Table of Contents
ToggleWhat is cardboard?
Cardboard is inherently thick, thick paper of special manufacture. The first cardboard consisted of several sheets of paper glued together and served as a cover for books.
Currently, cardboard is produced from wood pulp, waste paper, cellulose with the addition of mineral fillers, sizing agents, dyes and other additives.
Types of cardboard and its application
Depending on the needs, the percentage of ingredients can be different and, accordingly, the output of the cardboard is different in quality. Different types of cardboard have different strength, shock absorption characteristics; appearance and printability are different, so they are used in different ways.
Polygraphic cardboard
It has a top, and often the bottom, coated layers, on which high-quality printing fits perfectly, it allows you to perform any post-printing processing.
Not very rigid, it is mainly used for printing magazines, brochures, books, etc.
Binding cardboard –
Special cardboard for the production of book covers. Special requirements are imposed on it – sheets should be with a smooth and even surface and have great strength, adhesion and should not delaminate. Depending on the thickness of the bound books, the thickness of the cardboard sheets ranges from 0.5 mm to 3 mm.
Designer cardboard
It is the most expensive and capricious to work with and store, but it’s worth it. A huge variety of textures, textures, and richness of color palette allows you to make various compositions, presentations and gift wrapping from it.
Read Also:5 Different Types of Cardboard Box Packaging
Various containers are produced from corrugated box packaging, therefore, the main requirements for it are: high indicators of rigidity, strength, moisture resistance. If the boxes need to be printed, then the top layer of the cardboard is coated first.
What is a corrugated board?
Corrugated cardboard appeared much later and is made from cardboard, paper and glue. It consists of two layers of cardboard (liners) and one layer of corrugated paper (fluting) glued between them. This is a three-layer corrugated board.
Fluting gives the board its rigidity, strength and damping properties, thanks to which corrugated board has earned its rightful respect.
If you glue fluting and one liner to it, you get a five-layer corrugated cardboard, an even stronger and thicker material.
Well, the most durable and rigid corrugated cardboard is a seven-layer one.
The main application of corrugated cardboard is the manufacture of corrugated packaging.
Comparison of cardboard and corrugated board
Both materials have a lot in common, but there are also differences.
General:
Both are made from the same environmentally friendly materials, they are very light and cheap, they are convenient to work with, they can be reused, they are convenient to store after use, because they take up little space, are easy to dispose of, both are used for the manufacture of packaging.
Differences:
Corrugated cardboard consists of sheets of cardboard and corrugated paper; therefore, its strength and depreciation characteristics are significantly higher than that of cardboard. In terms of popularity and demand for packaging all over the world, it has no equal.
And this is the main difference between corrugated cardboard and just cardboard.
Purpose of corrugated packaging
Packaging containers are divided into transport, industrial and consumer. Each of these groups is divided into many more subgroups, depending on the purpose.
From the name it is clear that the shipping container is designed for packing and transporting a wide variety of items: from heavy machines to small and fragile items.
Industrial containers are corrugated boxes for storing and storing furniture, refrigerators, building materials, tools, spare parts, etc.
Consumer packaging goes along with the goods packed in it directly to customers.
In any case, any container is designed primarily to protect the contents from the destructive effects of external influences: damage, pollution, moisture, ultraviolet radiation, etc.
Nowadays, packaging has also become an important advertising medium. Most enterprises and trade organizations order corrugated boxes with the obligatory application of a logo, information about the product and its manufacturer on their surface.
Corrugated packaging for industrial Purposes
For industrial enterprises, printing on boxes in one or two colors is enough to identify products and information about its manufacturer.
Well-designed corrugated boxes with beautiful full-color printing on them are an excellent effective advertising of a product that has a positive effect on the image of its manufacturer. This is especially important in the manufacture of consumer corrugated packaging.
How are corrugated boxes printed?
Traditionally, a somewhat rough surface of corrugated board is printed flexo in one to four colors.
Recently, coated corrugated boards have become very popular. The coating process is the application of a composition consisting of chalk, kaolin, special glue to the cardboard in one or two layers.
At the same time, roughness is leveled; the surface becomes very beautiful, smooth, pleasant to the touch. The coated material enables high quality printing of any type. The container made from it has a very attractive appearance.
Why is color printing required in corrugated box packaging?
If a durable box with a prestigious look, beautiful full-color printing is required, then laminating technology can be used, i.e. automatic gluing of cardboard with a thinner colored or white sheet of paper with an applied advertising image, text, logo.
Lined containers are not only beautiful, but also noticeably stronger. Products packed in it will be reliably protected.
Full-color offset, digital, screen printing is excellent on coated and laminated corrugated box packaging surfaces.
WHAT IS THE BRAND OF CORRUGATED BOARD?
Corrugated cardboard is a well-known material widely used for the manufacture of cheap, durable, lightweight, environmentally friendly packaging.
Types of corrugated board
Corrugated boards have many undeniably positive properties. However, in different cases, different requirements are imposed on its quality.
Recall that corrugated cardboard consists of sheets of smooth cardboard (liners) and layers of corrugated paper (fluting). Fluting is glued between the liners and gives certain rigidity to the resulting material to ensure reliable protection of the product from possible mechanical stress.
Naturally, the more layers, the higher the strength and amortization properties of the material. Each of them is used in the manufacture of corrugated cardboard packaging with a variety of requirements for physical and mechanical properties, dimensions and appearance.
Raw materials for corrugated board
Each type of corrugated board is made from a different quality of raw materials, which affects its physical parameters: density, resistance to compression in different directions, etc. Raw materials are cardboard for liners and paper for fluting.
Cardboard consists of fibers and is produced from cellulose, semi-cellulose, waste paper, various additives in different ratios to obtain cardboard of different quality.
The higher the percentage of cellulose, the higher the quality of the board
The main varieties of the top layer of corrugated board are represented by the following types:
-
Top-liner – 100% kraft pulp;
-
kraft liner – 80% cellulose + 20% – a mixture of various additives (waste paper, waste corrugated board, etc.); used for the production of products for which high strength requirements are imposed;
-
Test liner – a significant part of it is recycled fiber and a small part is cellulose. If necessary, special substances are added to it to give the material such useful qualities as frost resistance, moisture resistance, etc.
Corrugated paper (fluting) plays almost the main role in corrugated cardboard, because the product assumes the main load. It is made from rough raw materials of different quality for the manufacture of fluting with different properties.
The wave of the corrugation is in the form of a sinusoid, which is called a profile. The main parameters of a profile are its height and step (distance between adjacent vertices).
Order corrugated packaging wholesale and retail
In order to purchase custom corrugated cardboard boxes, the buyer does not need to know the details of the production of corrugated cardboard. In our article, we decided to show a little bit of the huge variety of this material and the great possibilities of making products from it.