How are Corrugated Boxes Made

By MartinIndustrial Engineering

In this article, I will show you how are corrugated boxes made in a modern equipped high-speed production plant. Not forgetting that new machines are improving all the time, in both quality and speed. This brings about a change in the ways and methods of production line manufacturing processes. If looking at how this progress comes about, you can observe that some machines are very similar, to what they were many years ago.

Corrugator Machinery used in box making

While others have changed completely! There is one outstanding factor that is very obvious when you enter one of these huge plants, which is the sheer size of the area they occupy. Then you will notice how quiet the machinery runs, following this how fast the new corrugated board travels down the production line.

Many new plants can reach speeds of 450 mpm, in everyday production speeds. Now you can understand the need for the size of the production room required to hold the amount of finished material.

So; How ARE Corrugated Boxes Made?

The raw box-making material comes into the warehouse as reels of paper. Many of these reels come from various parts of the world. They may arrive at the production plant warehouse, by container, on railway trucks, or lorries.

Some may cross the wharf to the warehouse, straight off smaller ships. Where the paper was manufactured in a local paper mill near the water’s edge, upriver. These have direct access to a quay or wharf and the ship/train can be loaded directly from the paper mill and transported to the corrugating manufacturing plant or warehouse in a very efficient manner.
The fluting medium, that is the middle plies of the corrugated cardboard sandwich may differ from the outer plies, in thickness (caliper in Microns or Gsm grams per square metre), quality of material, surface finish, and colour. All reels of paper for the corrugators are made close to the max width of the corrugating machines that they will be converted on.
That way the corrugator production yield can be maximised, with the least amount of waste cut off as trim, therefore gaining the maximum profits possible.

The Raw materials

Paper reels in a warehouse for box making
Kraft Paper Reels

Depending on the type and standard of the box to be made, the customer will have specified the required number of plies needed for their order, plus other factors like colour, material to be used, number of plies, strength, and finish of the outer box, printed or pre-printed liner, etc.

Just look at a box-making order form that is used by various manufacturers, many have their own forms, created for their own in-house use. These are usually filled in by the salespeople at the order desk.
In more advanced companies that have automated IT systems in place, the purchaser may fill in his own orders, direct from his computer system as he requires them. These orders are sent over the internet which are integrated into the manufactures computer system.
As the order is placed by the customer it appears on the manufactures order desk system. The warehouse & production departments are all informed at the same time, and the orders are allocated to one of the corrugator’s production schedules. And all this happens in the same instant, in real-time, without the use of any paper. Sales and production personnel check over the new orders to observe that all systems are running and operating correctly.
They are processed by other departments also, sales, accounts, transport, etc. This means that there are minimum numbers of people involved in this complete process. Only a few years ago there would have been whole departments of different people employed to carry out all these tasks individually.
This involved high admin costs on any larger corrugator manufacturing plants. In today’s modern admin areas, there are a few IT-qualified people involved that look after these processes, of fully computerised systems that run 24/7/365.
Of course, there are still some people employed to oversee the whole process and keep the systems running smoothly. As more and more of these systems are automated software and greater use of AI in many aspects of modern manufacturing plants in admin, production, and engineering.
In some companies trials & experiments with the use of AR are going forward, especially in the training of technicians in the newest of equipment and machinery. One of the biggest rewards to be gained with this technology is in the speed of response to problems as this can be remotely relayed to the person on the ground. With instant instructions coming from another person who could be thousands of miles away.

Corrugated Box Making

The number of plies used in many corrugating machines can vary between 3 and 7. Within this corrugated sandwich, you can have a mix of flute sizes and material calipers.

There are various tests that a box for a given purpose or specification will have to meet. This is the determining factor that the box manufacturer will fulfill this requirement, by using various papers of known quality to make up the corrugated sheet on his corrugator.

In the following video, you can see a box-making plant in action…!

Where you can see the whole process of making a corrugated box, from start to finish.

See the various individual machine elements in action. NOTICE the size of the building that houses one of these complete box-making manufacturing plants!

High-Speed Machinery

Many of the elements that are used in the manufacture of corrugated boxes have not changed over decades.

But the quality and precision of the machinery & the materials used. Coupled with modern electric motors, drives, computers, and plc’s.

Computers are used to control many machines

This is the line control computer
Production Line Control Computer
Have immensely changed the character & speed of these up-to-date corrugators beyond all recognition over the last few years.
On entering one of these manufacturing plants, for the first time, you will be amazed at the sheer size of the building on the inside.
The next single item you very soon become aware of is the lack of people about the plant…!
As these machines have very little direct input from humans, while they are running at high speed, during the process of making corrugated sheets. These sheets usually rest for a while, (4 to 48 hours) before going on to be converted into cardboard boxes.
     M/c Speed
MPM  = Km/Hr
500  =  30
450  =  27
425  =  25.5
400  =  24
375  =  22.5
350  =  21
325  =  19.5
300  =  18
250  =  15
200  =  12
175  =  10.5
150  =  9
125  =  7.5
100  =  6

Process Automation

Automation of many of the process in use with these newer corrugating machines means that speeds of over 450 mpm is achievable and can be maintained over long periods of operation. With the widespread use of automated conveyor systems being utilised to take the stacks of cut sheets, from the back of the corrugator to other converting box-making machines. Using this method has cut down the handling time that the product may need to stand between converting processes.
Automated conveyor system in modern cardboard warehouse production plant.
In the not-to-distant past, this job would have been carried out by a fleet of forklifts and drivers. Now they are no longer used for this task, in the larger and more advanced type of companies. As the whole job is done by automated transfer conveyors and automatic carts or cars. They move the material around the plant to the various converting machinery as they are required. It is an internal JIT system, (Just In Time) process also known as LEAN PRODUCTION…
Of course, this process is under the control of the process system computer, and any additional information is required to re-direct the transport of semi-finished materials from one secondary machine to another machine. This system is monitored by a watchful person, who can redirect at short notice, the flow of materials, should something unexpected occur.

Cardboard Boxes for Crafts or DIY jobs

For crafts and ideas on how to make cardboard boxes, the following video will be of interest to those, that are making up a few boxes or for a school project in a classroom setting. Or for DIY’er’s moving house and wish to recycle larger boxes, by making smaller ones out of bigger boxes.

Some people can be very resourceful when the need arrives.
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