Paperboards are the primary materials for production of containers such as folding cartons and paper cups, and

coated boards are used in the largest quantity.

Paperboard is quite commonly used for packaging food and beverage products including juices, milk, and cereal
products. Paperboard packaging comes in several grades. Solid bleached sulfate (SBS) paperboard contains at
least 80% virgin bleached wood pulp. Most gable top and aseptic drink packages are composed of SBS
paperboard. Coated unbleached kraft paperboard (CUK) is comprised of at least 80% virgin unbleached natural
wood pulp. Non-gable top beverage cartons and frozen food packaging are often CUK paperboard. Coated
recycled paperboard is used for dry food packaging, for example cereal and cracker boxes. Also, paperboard
packages often are coated with various materials to improve printing and gas/ water vapor barrier, and strength
properties. Coating materials include kaolin clay and polyethylene resins. Many of the same technologies used
for adding additional layers to plastic materials also are employed with paperboard.

Paperboard generally outperforms plastic materials in terms of light blocking properties, although paperboard
packages do not block all light. Unprinted fiberboard (0.7 mm thick) will still have about 4% transmittance.
Bleaching of paper removes pigments that absorb light and therefore bleached paper has higher light transmission
than unbleached paper (Singh and Singh, 2005).

Paperboard, a very popular packaging material based on wood fibers, is available in many grades, based on the
type of wood fiber and the fabrication process. Virgin fibers are obtained directly from trees, either softwood or
hardwood trees; recycled fibers are obtained from recycled paper and paperboard. Manufacture of paperboard
requires similar processes to paper manufacture: pulping, optional bleaching, refining, sheet forming, drying,
calendering, and winding. Paperboard can be fabricated on different machines, with the fourdrinier and cylinder
machines being the most common. Paperboard can be classified in different ways: virgin or recyclable, cylinder
or fourdrinier-produced, and single-ply (known as ‘solid’ paperboard) or multi-ply. Often a board grade involves
more than one criterion and depends on its intended application or useAs with paper, paperboard properties are
highly affected by humidity, and should generally be evaluated at the standard conditions of 50±2% RH and
23.0±1.0 °C.

Paperboard packaging applications cover a wide variety of physical forms and shapes, including folding cartons,
trays, blister backings, set-up boxes, solid-fiber boxes, convoluted and spiral-wound cans, and fiber drums. By
far the largest application of paperboard is the fabrication of corrugated fiberboard, which is a structured
composite material combining linerboard, corrugating medium, and adhesive (usually starch-based). Corrugated
fiberboard is mainly used for fabricating shipping containers, but some is used for cushioning, mechanical
protection, and pallet construction.

Paperboard containers are employed in almost every industry around the world, including pharmaceuticals,
cosmetics, chemicals, food, bakery, tobacco, soap, textiles, hardware, toys, office products, sporting goods,