company news about How much do you know about the production process of corrugated cardboard boxes?

Corrugated cardboard manufacture, printing and die-cutting, and box nailing/gluing and packaging are the three key steps in the highly automated and continuous industrial process of making corrugated cardboard boxes.

Step 1: Corrugated cardboard production
This serves as the foundation for the production of cardboard boxes, which entails turning raw materials (paper) into corrugated cardboard with protective and cushioning properties.
Preparing raw paper
Kraft paper, which is separated into face paper, inner paper, and core paper, is the primary raw material. While the core paper is in charge of creating a wavy structure to give elasticity, the face and inner papers are of good quality.
Corrugated type: A corrugated, B corrugated, C corrugated, E corrugated, F corrugated, etc. can be classified based on the density and wave size of the corrugated. Depending on the requirements, several forms of corrugated cardboard can be joined into double-layer (single pit), three-layer (double pit), five-layer (three pit), or even seven-layer cardboard. Each type of cardboard has distinct compressive, buffering, and planar compression capabilities.
Corrugated cardboard structure on one side
Preheating: To facilitate formation and speed up the adhesive's reaction, a preheating roller heats the roll base paper (face and core paper).
Pressing: Two toothed corrugated rollers on top and bottom press the core paper into wavy corrugations.
Application of glue: Cover the top of the pressed corrugated surface with adhesive, often starch-based glue.
Bonding: To create a single-sided corrugated cardboard, the adhesive-coated corrugated paper is attached to the surface paper using a pressure roller.
Corrugated cardboard structure with two sides and multiple layers
A double-sided device, sometimes referred to as a bridge conveyor, receives single-sided corrugated cardboard.
Warm up the inner paper: The other roll of raw paper that will be used as the inner paper should be preheated.
Secondary bonding and adhesion: In order to create a robust double-sided (three-layer) corrugated cardboard, the corrugated top of the single-sided corrugated cardboard is coated with glue once more and then firmly bound to the preheated inner paper under high temperature and high pressure in a double-sided machine. Add additional corrugated layers and paper and repeat the process for five or seven layers of cardboard.
Cutting, chilling, and drying
Drying: To completely firm the glue, the created wet cardboard is dried in the dryer's hot plate section.
Cooling: In order to recover the strength of the paper fibers, the dry cardboard must be cooled and molded through a cooling section due to its extremely high temperature.
Both horizontal and vertical cutting:
Vertical cutting: Cut a wide piece of cardboard into thinner widths as needed by trimming both sides using a rotating tool.
Cross cutting: Depending on the size of the cardboard box specified by the order, cut continuous cardboard into precise lengths.
The standard-sized corrugated cardboard has now been made and is ready to move on to the next phase.

Step 2: Die cutting and printing
The final shape and appearance of the cardboard box are determined by this phase.
printing
Printing business logos, product details, shipping labels, barcodes, etc. is the goal.
Typical printing techniques:
Elastic resin plates and water-based inks are used in the most popular technique, flexographic printing, which is quick, economical, and appropriate for medium-sized to large orders.
Offset printing: Prior to mounting on corrugated cardboard, superior color printing is done on copperplate paper. Ideal for packaging that needs really precise designs, including gift boxes and electronics.
Pre-printing: It is printed on a broad base paper before being turned into cardboard to create corrugated cardboard. Ideal for orders with consistent patterns and high volumes.
Die-cutting
Goal: To create a cardboard box, cut rectangular cardboard into a particular shape. The die-cutting plate has an indentation line for pressing out folding lines and a steel knife for cutting contours.
Die cutting technique:
Small and medium-sized operations can benefit from flatbed die-cutting.
Circular die cutting: connected to the printing unit, finished in a high-speed drum rotation, incredibly efficient, and appropriate for mass production.
Eliminate waste products
To create a clean box blank after die-cutting, the cardboard's extraneous components—such as the waste surrounding the handholes and hanging holes—must be eliminated using a waste cleaning machine.

Step 3: Packaging and nail/glue boxes
This is the last stage in creating a three-dimensional cardboard box from a flat box blank.
Put together a box
The nail box Nail the box blank's joints with metal flat wire using a nail box machine (nail machine). This approach is reliable and quick.
Glue box: To bond a seam, use a glue box machine to apply hot melt adhesive or white latex. High-end packaging or automated packing processes might benefit from this method's cleaner appearance and lack of metal nails, which prevent machines and items from being scratched.
Box pasting: A specialist box pasting machine is used to finish boxes with unique structures like sky and earth covers.
Packaging and Quality Inspection
Inspection: Examine the size, printing quality, bonding/nailing strength, edge compression strength, burst strength, and other aspects of completed cardboard boxes.
Bundling and packing: For easy storage and transit, flatten the formed cardboard boxes, stack them in a specific number, and use packing tape to knot them into pieces.
Flowchart summary
Raw paper roll → [preheating, crimping, gluing, bonding] → single-sided corrugated cardboard → [re-gluing, bonding, drying, cooling] → multi-layer corrugated cardboard → [longitudinal cutting, transverse cutting] → standard cardboard → [printing] → [die-cutting, waste cleaning] → box blank → [nail box/adhesive box] → formed cardboard box → [inspection, packaging] → factory delivery

The efficiency and accuracy of contemporary manufacturing are embodied throughout the entire production process. Roll raw paper can be quickly converted into thousands of personalized corrugated cardboard boxes that satisfy customer needs using automated production lines.