Cardboard is the most common packaging material. By its nature, it is a high-density paper. It is based on woody plant fibers. Mineral fillers, coloring pigments, artificial fibers, adhesives are added to them in the manufacturing process.
The raw materials for the production of this material are wood waste, sulfate cellulose, and semi-cellulose waste paper. Its production technology is similar to papermaking. During it, the following stages are distinguished:
- grinding;
- low tide;
- pressing;
- Drying.
Corrugated cardboard production
Corrugated cardboard is a multilayer material consisting of 2 layers of cardboard and one sheet of corrugated paper between them. This structure significantly improves the strength characteristics. This makes corrugated board one of the most demanded packaging materials.
Before its manufacture, cardboard and paper are transferred to a room with a temperature of more than 15 ° C and left for a day for conditioning. Then, prepared rolls with raw materials are fixed on an unwinding machine. After that, they go to the heating cylinders. There they are heated and humidified. As a result, the adhesive penetrates better into the paper. As a result, it's subsequent gluing with cardboard will be of high quality and reliable.
SM Custom packaging is providing the best custom packaging for small business.
Then the paper is fed to a corrugating press and passed between heated corrugating rolls at a temperature of about 180 degrees. This creates the wavy layers of the desired profile. The sheet is then transferred to an applicator. First, a layer of glue is applied to one side using a roller. Next, its amount is adjusted using a metering roller. After that, the corrugated paper is connected to a flat cardboard sheet and processed by a pressure roller. The result is a two-layer board. For the production of three-layer material, the resulting sheet is sent back to the applicator. There, a layer of glue is applied to the other side of the corrugated paper.
At the end of the procedure, the corrugated board is fed to the drying device. Drying and final gluing take place there. At the same time, steam is removed from it, and the glue hardens. After such processing, the material is delivered to the cooling equipment.
Manufacturing of corrugated boxes
The finished corrugated board goes to longitudinal-transverse cutting. Here, with the use of circular knives, it is cut and cut. This process is often combined with material compaction. As a result of these actions, scoring lines are drawn along which the material will be folded. The last step is cutting into sheets of specified sizes. Of these, in the future, the manufacture of packaging from corrugated cardboard is carried out. For this, a glue valve and slots are made on the blanks. For this purpose, a special guillotine or eccentric slitter is used.
If you need to make containers of complex shape, then the scoring application is not necessary. For this purpose, a punch shape is used. The corrugated sheet is laid on it and rolled between the shafts of a roller press. This equipment allows you to get 500 items per hour.
Different technology for manufacturing boxes of complex configuration is used if a more extensive circulation is required. It consists of the manufacture of molds and the use of rotary equipment. The productivity, in this case, reaches 5,000 units per hour. The cost of a mold can be about 50,000 rubles. The SM Custom Packaging has such equipment and specializes in the production of large quantities of cardboard packaging.