Corrugated boxes represent the lifeblood of our modern packaging and shipping industries. Consider this: everything that we touch today has been packaged, moved, delivered, and received in a brown box. Packaging indeed forms an integral part of our every day lives. In order to better how we get stuff from point A to point B, it is rather essential to know all the ins and outs of how manufacturers go about making corrugated boxes.

Corrugated Cardboard Basics and Terminology

When cardboard is mentioned people can't help but think about all of those big, brown shipping boxes. If you're not in the packaging business, you probably don't even know that cardboard generally refers to a thin paper stock or heavy paper pulp. Truth be known, though, cardboard is the heavy paper used in making cereal boxes, tissues, greeting cards, and so much more. It's not exactly the same thing, however, although corrugated boxes are made out of cardboard.

How corrugated cartons are made

The Life Cycle of Corrugated Carton Packaging Corrugated packaging comprises the largest share of shipping materials. In fact, 95% of products in the United States are shipped through corrugated boxes because they are inexpensive, lightweight, and recyclable. Because of their sandwich design, the boxes can withstand the pressure involved with layering thereby suitable for safe transport. Businesses love to use corrugated boxes because of the material's reusability. Corrugated cardboard happens to be one of the greenest packaging solutions due to it being comprised of a higher ratio of recycled materials. But how does the process of making a corrugated box start?

Step 1: Collecting Raw Materials

Corrugated cardboard is typically manufactured mainly from recycled materials, which are often in the form of old cardboard and paper stock. It takes the energy that is needed to create new cardboard to be used up by just 75% of the recycled cardboard. As the fibers get recycled each time, they become weaker. This also means that the cardboard can only be recycled about eight times. While most corrugated boxes are made from recycled paper, it is required to produce new cardboard by raw pulp from newly logged pine trees. Fast growing and renewable pine trees are the raw material mainly used to make corrugated cardboard. The trees, once cut, are stripped of their limbs, and the trunks are transported to a pulp mill.

Step 2: The Pulping Process

The kraft process at the mill turns wood into paper. The trunks of the trees first become wood chips, then the wood undergoes chemical treatment to separate into a fibrous pulp, and the fibers are passed to the paper machine to form, press, fire, and roll the big, heavy rolls of brown craft paper.

Step 3: Manufacturing and Fluting

This is achieved by passing rolls of kraft paper through a corrugated roller machine to produce the wavy paper stock in the middle. Notably, the production of corrugated rollers dates back more than two centuries, tracing its origin to the 18th century, where it was also used in the past for the ruffling of clothes, for example, shirts and hats. The liners are then attached on both sides by spreading glue after the paper has passed through the corrugator. Now that the corrugate is assembled, it is cut into the shape needed for the box and stands ready for packaging, bundling together, and shipping out for distribution.

Step 4. Usage

Most industries that ship food and products utilize corrugated cartons. Corrugated boxes are cheap to produce and provide a solid cushion for whatever is placed inside; thus, the items are safe during transport. Additionally, the boxes are food-safe, strong, light in weight, and economical. Most corrugated boxes are made using the eco-friendly glue; thus, they are safe for storing food products and friendly to nature.

Step 5. Recycling

Once used, corrugated cartons are sorted into recycling and sent back to the paper mill. It then starts all over from there! The corrugated cardboard is soaked in water and chemicals to break it down and takes out all coloring and stables. Broken-down corrugated is now mixed with virgin fibers and remade into new corrugated cartons With a recyclability as high as 8, this kind of packaging is one of the most sustainable, not to mention economical. In addition to the recycling ease, using benign adhesives like liquid or gelatin-based adhesives makes recycling corrugated much easier and less environmentally destructive. The Future of Sustainable Packaging It is all the more important to understand what goes into making the perfect package as we look forward to the future of the packaging and shipping industries, where sustainability is absolutely key as local and global economies increasingly rely on moving goods and products quickly and effectively.