5 Things You Didn’t Know About Corrugated Cardboard - By: Andre Issey

When something is as ubiquitous as cardboard we rarely stop to question the origins of the material. Everyday we come into contact with cardboard packaging of some description, whether it be when we are surrounded by it between aisles in the supermarket or when it’s handed to us in the street in the form of a flyer or on even rarer but important occasions such as moving house. Corrugated cardboard in particular is the most used form for packaging, due to its dexterity it is used for attractive branding as well as to protect the products during shipping and transportation.

Corrugated cardboard is made up of three layers of a paper material known as kraft paper. This kraft paper is shipped from the paper mills to the corrugating plant where it is crimpled to make the middle layer of corrugated cardboard. A top and bottom layer is then glued to this and cut to the desired size and folded to result in the cardboard boxes we are so accustomed to.

The corrugator machine is the same length as a football field measuring approximately 300 feet. Some rolls of kraft paper are used as liners while others are used as the corrugator medium. The machines then handle the complex process of cutting, gluing and folding to complete the cardboard box in its finished form ready to be dispatched.

The companies that make corrugated cardboard typically own a lot of land where they grow pine trees, this constitutes the raw material used for the kraft paper which is later processed into corrugated cardboard. The organisation must own the land so that they can replant the trees and keep the business sustainable and not breach deforestation regulations.

The sulphate process. This is when there are chemicals added during the corrugating procedure that generate that fibrous pulp from the wood chips of the trees. Once the pulp is created the remaining fibres are put into a paper machine that forms them into large rolls of kraft paper through repeated pressing, drying and rolling of the fibres.

Many of our corrugated boxes are made of old, recycled cardboard. With increasing awareness of our carbon footprint companies are making more effort to find eco-friendly alternatives. They will break down the box in a similar way to how they made it in the first place. Recycled corrugated cardboard boxes are just as strong as their non-environmental counterparts, however they do not necessitate harvesting trees or require the sulphate process, and therefore it’s actually far cheaper method of making them.

Cardboard is a material we often take for granted because we’re so used to it, however there’s a complicated series of processes involved in getting it from the pine tree forest and into the corrugated form of a box used for consumer packaging.

About the Author

The author knows a lot about corrugated cardboard as he has worked with cardboard box making machines professionally for years.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Andre-Issey/54899

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