Corrugated Boxes: How It’s Made Step by Step Process

corrugated boxes

You must be wondering how corrugated boxes are manufactured. We have made a comprehensive step by step manufacturing process for you in this regard.
Corrugated boxes are becoming increasingly popular because of their versatile nature and safeguarding abilities.

These benefits at a lower cost than others are eye-catching for many. Many people wonder how these packages are manufactured.
That is why we have gathered the below-mentioned step by the step manufacturing process. It will help you in understanding how they are made.

Before the Manufacturing Process Starts.

Raw materials gathering before manufacturing two things are done. One of them is collecting the raw materials required. Rapid growing pine trees provide the necessary raw materials to produce corrugated shipping boxes.
Some big packaging manufacturers have their land where they grow and harvest these trees while others outsource raw materials. Only trunks of pine trees are shipped to the pulping mill.
There basic raw material is processed further. Glue and chemicals are also gathered. Some other supporting items are also collected before manufacturing.

Read More: How to Attract Customers with Packaging Boxes?

Designing

This is a pretty important thing done before the actual manufacturing starts. The design of these packages is done at this stage. Information to be printed, images, illustrations, etc. are designed. Shape and size are decided.
If the die-cut window is to be manufactured or not, is it going to have a foldable lid or removable? Colors are also decided as the natural color is brown, but they can be printed with alluring color schemes. Type of lid and many other things are taken into consideration at this stage.
The Manufacturing process starts.

Step 1: Pulping

This is the first step in manufacturing the Corrugated Box Packaging. Pulping the wood chips begin. Tree trunks are stripped of bark. Then they are cut and torn into small chips.
Then these things are placed inside a big container named batch digester. Here they are heated and cooked with a solution having different chemicals.
This solution is heated under high pressure for many hours. When pressure is lifted, wood fibers are completely dissolved in the solution. This step has primary importance as it is the base. This influences the quality of the packaging, as well.

Step 2: Making Kraft Paper

Cleaning and refinement are done additionally after the first step. Then a consistent and thick wood pulp is pumped into a machine that makes kraft paper. This is known as a Fourdrinier machine.
Enormous square structures range up to 600 ft long. This machinery contains a wire mesh in which paper is initially formed. Then it is taken into a gigantic, stem heated rollers.
Wide felt blankets dry the water from it. In the end, the finished good is rolled for shipment. At this stage, kraft paper is manufactured in the required thickness.

Step 3: Storing of Kraft Paper

Now kraft papers are available in many sizes for manufacturing the actual product at different plants. Now the paper is shipped through rollers into required plants for making the corrugated one.
When it is reached at the plant, the paper is separated into different grades. That is going to be used for medium and liner. Different grades of cardboard or corrugated cardboard can be made by combining various grades of kraft paper.
At this stage, rigidity and desired strength are planned. A combination of medium and liner is chosen by the engineer to fulfill the requirements of customers.

Step 4: Corrugating the Cardboard

This is the major step in making corrugated shipping boxes. The corrugated sheet is manufactured here at this stage. Let us reveal to you how it is done. The medium to be corrugated is fed on enormous electric rollers.
They are significantly heated and then rolled with high weight. High pressure and temperature both are necessary for this step. When the hot paper passes between corrugating rolls, the flute traps and bends it. That forms the middle part of the sheet.
This medium is moved to the next set of rollers named as single-facer glue station. Here one layer of liner is applied on the medium or middle sheet.
This is done by using glue on the edges of the middle sheet. Then the other side is also covered with a liner or kraft paper. Gluing is done carefully. And then this sheet is passed through steam-heated plates that make the glue firmly stick.

Step 5: Die-cutting, Folding and Gluing

At this stage, the sheet is processed through die-cutting. And it is cut according to the size and shape of the package. Some customers to get their packages delivered in a complete box shape.
For them, cutting is done and then printing. After that, it is folded, fixed, and glued. If customers require the ready to assemble sheet in flat form, printing is done in the next step.

Step 6: Printing

Now flat sheets are ready to be assembled. They are manufactured in the desired shape and just needed to be folded and fixed. So, this is the step for printing. Design that was created before the manufacturing process is now applied by using printing technology. If customer demand lamination, then it is done after printing.

Corrugated boxes are pretty popular packages for many years. Their protection abilities, branding benefits, versatility, and many more make them the preferred choice of many product manufacturers.
Many people wanted to know their manufacturing process. That is why we have concluded the step mentioned earlier, by a step manufacturing process that shows how these packages are made.