From the packaging of small consumer items to the use in the industrial spectrum of the market, corrugated boxes are famous in the industry. The material used in the production has a highly customizable nature in addition to a superior build structure that can ensure the protection of any packaged product.
An overview:
These boxes are manufactured with high-quality materials with have an eco-friendly nature. They are manufactured of pine tree pulp, which is treated with other sorts of additives in the process, which helps in binding the material together for ensuring the solid structure. The pulp is then dried in a flat format for getting Kraft sheets, which are further fluted in order to acquire the corrugated sheets. These sheets have a strong and lightweight structure, which is then used for the manufacturing of Custom Corrugated Boxes. The process for manufacturing these corrugated cardboard sheets consists of several stages, from cutting pine trees to pulping and corrugating the Kraft sheets. Here are some important steps in the process.
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Pulping:
In order to initiate the process of manufacturing, the pine trees are cut and lumbered for acquiring tons of logs, which are then sent to the pulping facility. The process requires converting the logs into small wood chips, which can then be treated for getting cellulose for manufacturing flat sheets of Kraft material. The wood chips are processed by pulping to get the cellulose. The pulping process can be done by either mechanical pulping or chemical pulping.
· Mechanical pulping
The process of mechanical pulping comprises stages such as grinding the pine logs for getting small wood chips. Which are then used for separating the individual cellulose fiber. Revolving stones are used to grind the wood for making pulp; these rolling stones are continuously sprayed with water to remove cellulose fiber. The technique is cost-effective but results in low paper quality as some debarked fragments are also present in the pulp.
· Chemical pulping
The other technique used for pulping is chemical pulping. This process involves cooking the debarked pulp to reduce the pulp into an individual fiber. The pulp can be cooked either with sulfite or sulfate. Both these chemicals work perfectly as a catalyst in the process. But the use of alkaline solution with sodium sulfate is preferred due to the quality of Kraft its results. The pulp is then treated with fluting for getting raw sheets of cardboard. Which are used in the manufacturing of custom size corrugated boxes.
The wood pulp is also bleached in the process of pulping in order to get a clean color, free of any sort of impurities. The pulp is then spread over metal sheets in order to get the Kraft sheets that are then rolled and dried.
Fluting:
Once the Kraft sheets are acquired, they are then fluted for getting the corrugated sheets which we all are known of. The process of fluting also enhances the protective nature of the cardboard. The fluted sheets have a structure that can easily withstand high exerted pressures that flat sheets of Kraft can never withstand. There are different styles of Fluting, such as E-flute, R-flute, M-Flute, S-Flute, etc.
The E-flute technique is most efficient in that the sheets are processed in a fluted roller.
Which works effectively to strengthen the construction. The process consists of binding three layers of Kraft sheets in order to acquire a sandwich-like construction. That is effective in protecting printing quality. The cardboard processed through the E-flute technique results. In better custom printed corrugated boxes by a 30% margin as it absorbs the printing ink effectively.
Production:
After the Kraft sheets are processed by fluting, the material is ready for the production phase. They just require to be assembled and stick together in accordance with the dimensions of the packaging size. One of the sheets is fluted and sprayed with hot steam; they are cut with circular blades in the size of the required box.
