What is corrugated cardboard made of?

Have you ever wondered how a cardboard box is made? Here's everything you need to know about manufacturing a corrugated cardboard box. 

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There used to be a time when consumers would make a purchase and it wouldn&#;t matter where that product came from, where it had been made, or what it had even been made out of.

However, ethical shopping has become much more integral to the purchasing process and customers across the UK are choosing suppliers that are making reasonable efforts to be environmentally friendly.

A recent Unilever study revealed that a third of consumers prefer sustainable brands. So businesses will find more now than ever before, shoppers want more information on what their products contain and how they&#;ve been manufactured.

Here at Belmont Packaging, we operate a number of green initiatives as part of our efforts to care for the environment which is why we&#;re bringing you this post to be super transparent!

So, what is corrugated cardboard made of and how is it made?

From pulp to cardboard...

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The composition of corrugated cardboard consists of a paper pulp material. Pulp is predominately made from timber however it can also be created using recycled woodchips and shavings leftover from lumber mill waste.

The board itself is made from a combination of two sheets of paper called liners that are glued together with an adhesive to a corrugated inner medium otherwise called a fluting.

All three layers of paper are assembled in a way that create an overall structure that is robust. The connected arches are fantastic for supporting strong weights and the air circulating in the flutes acts as an insulator, providing extra protection against changes in temperature.

Image courtesy of Watermanswebworld.com

Different types of corrugated&#;

Various types of boards can be created, using different flute sizes and profiles. These will all offer their own strengths and characteristics.

Double and triple wall corrugated cardboard has a higher stiffness which means it has excellent bending resistance, high stacking strength and puncture resistance.

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Magic transformation&#;

Once the cardboard sheets are made, then we can go about working our magic and the board can be cut, shaped and folded into an infinite array of shapes and box sizes.

What&#;s more, it is extremely light and flexible therefore it&#;s versatility means it can also be used in a range of printing options to produce printed corrugated cardboard packaging solutions.

Fascinating facts that will blow your mind...

Did you know that many materials can be recycled, including corrugated cardboard. In fact, more than 80% of corrugated packaging in the UK is recycled, a higher rate than any other major packaging material.

But where did it all come from? The discovery of cardboard was by fluke! It was unearthed in the late &#;s by accident by a printer and bag maker called Robert Gair. He inadvertently cut a paper bag he was attempting to crease with a metal ruler. By doing so, he found he could both cut and bend the paper into a box. And the rest is history!

Interested in learning how to design and create amazing cardboard packaging? Read our complete guide to the basics of product packaging. 

Now you know how corrugated cardboard is made and what it is made out of, why not check out our Gallery to see the finished masterpiece and some amazing solutions we&#;ve created.

Cardboard boxes, those indispensable catchalls that carry, store and preserve our most prized possessions are a relatively modern invention. It is hard to believe but the cardboard box has only been around for about 200 years, and the current corrugated ones we know today, that transport our goods and find their ways to our doorstep, have only been around about 150 years.

But not a lot is known about the history of the cardboard box. There is really no official or definitive history. But a few publications and organizations, such as Gizmodo and National Museum of Play to name a few, have attempted. After reading through their timelines and myriad other histories, we have pieced together a brief history of the cardboard box.

The first documented reference to the cardboard box was in when it was used for a German board game called &#;The Game of Besieging.&#; During this time some attribute a British industrialist named Malcolm Thornhill with creating a single-sheet cardboard box while others credit the business M. Treverton & Son. These boxes were made of simple paperboard.

It would not be until the s when another invention would truly shape what would become the cardboard box we know today. In , Edward Allen and Edward Healey reportedly wanted to find a material that could keep the shape of their tall hats. As a result, the pair is credited with inventing a corrugated paper to use as a liner for the hats. Later in , Albert Jones of New York was awarded a patent in the United States for &#;improvement in paper for packing&#; that resulted in the corrugated board we are familiar with today.

About 20 years later Robert Gair, a Scottish born owner of a paper bag factory, put the structure and the material together to make what we know as the modern cardboard box. Through a mishap, Gair discovered that if he set the blades on his equipment just so, he could both crease and cut out a cardboard box in one step. And in , he created the first mass produced cardboard boxes. Once a multi-step process, the updated production of the cardboard box would cause its numbers to explode.

By the turn of the 19th century, the cardboard box would become the unique, ubiquitous and versatile creation we know and appreciate today.

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