Corrugated Fiberboard

Dr. Anil Pethe

Corrugated fiberboard

 Most popular form of outer protection

 Comprises one or more sheets of fluted paper
secured by an adhesive to two or more liners
 Recycled paper
 Stiffening agent
 Pre-printed shits may also be employed
Corrugator
Types of corrugated fiberboard

 Single wall
 Double wall
 Tripple wall
Structure of boards

 K, Kraft liner (outer)

 BK, bleached kraft liner
 T, test liner (inner)
 C, chipboard liner (centre)
 MK, mottled kraft liner
 WTK, white-topped Kraft liner
 SC, semi-chemically prepared
board.
Grammage of corrugated fiberboard

 Expressed in grams per square meter (g/m2),

paper density is also known as grammage. This is
the measure used in most parts of the world.
Expressed in terms of the mass (expressed as
weight) per number of sheets, it is known as basis
weight.
 The grammage of corrugated flutting-112 g/m2
(125, 150, 175)
 Liner- 115-400 g/m2
Types of paper used for corrugated board

 Virgin – from agri. raw material eg. baggase, rice husk,

bamboo, etc.
 Recycled - from paper garbage / waste.
 Paper products are made of long and short fibres.
 Long fibres come from soft wood.
 Short fibres come from hardwood.
 Long fibres give strength and flexibility - tensile, able to
withstand tearing and bursting.
 Short fibres give stiffness, opacity, smoothness, etc.
Factors which influence the box strength
requirements are:

 Protection requirements of product

 Product shape, size and weight
 Distribution hazards
 Total journey and storage time.
The box strength & its performance
depends upon:

 Materials used – paper, adhesive

 Process of box mfg.
 Box design.
Box Manufacture

 The corrugated board is creased or scored to provide

controlled bending of the board.
 Most often, slots are cut to provide flaps on the box.
 The "Flexo Folder Gluer" is a machine that in one
single pass prints, cuts, folds, and glues flat sheets of
board to convert them to boxes
 Closing of cases
 Gluing
 Large staples
 Adhesive tape
 Interlocking flaps
 Closing of Cases
 Gluing,
Either hot melt or cold adhesive. This would only be used on cases
where the inner flaps of the case protected the Product.
 Large staples
Can be used, but they puncture the liners of the outside corrugation
and can let in water to the corrugations; nevertheless they form a
secure closure and are widely used.
 Water-based adhesive tape
Where the adhesive is activated by wetting and this soaks into the
outer liner of the case forming a strong closure, provided the
relative humidity remains reasonably low. Not recommended for
tropical markets where the high humidity makes paper taping a
security risk.
 Closing of Cases
 Pressure sensitive adhesive tape
 Probably the most used today.
 At least 50 mm tape is needed to form a positive bond with the
surface of the liner and there needs to be a substantial overlap of
tape over the join of the outer flaps.
 For this reason 50 mm or 2 inch tape is the most popular.
 Clear tape pressure sensitive adhesives are susceptible to UV
light degradation. It therefore makes sense to incorporate UV
blocking agent either into the plastic material or into the
adhesive itself.
 Interlocking flaps
may be used, but they are not considered to be a secure form of
case closing.
 Specific hot melts
are used for very hot and very cold climates.
 Specification
 Corrugated fiberboard can be specified by the
construction (single face, Single wall, Double wall, etc),
flute size, burst strength, edge crush stength, flat
crush.
 basis weights of components (pounds per thousand
square feet, grams per square meter, etc), surface
treatments and coatings, etc.
 TAPPI (Technical Association of the Pulp and
Paper Industry) and ASTM (American society for
testing & material) test methods for these are
Standardized
Tests for Corrugated Fibers
 Moisture content
 Folding endurance
 Dimensions
 Burst strength
 Flat crush resistance
 Edge crush test
 Ring crush test
 Flat crush of corrugating medium
The moisture content Determination
 The moisture content of paper and paperboard is
the
 quantity of
The moisture water of
content present and measurable
corrugated in paper.
fibreboard is
determined by the oven-drying technique.
 The corrugated fibreboard is weighed before and after
oven drying at 105°C. Results are quoted as a
percentage (%) moisture content of the original or dry
sample weight.
 Folding Endurance

 In paper testing, folding endurance is defined as the

number of double folds that are required to make a
test piece break under standardized conditions

 The direction of the grain in relation to the folding

line, the type of fibres used, the fibre contents, the
calliper of the test piece, etc., as well as which type of
folding tester that is used affect how many double
folds a test piece can take.
 Bursting Strength

 To measure the bursting

strength of the board
produced.

Equipments:
Bursting Tester
Cutting Device
 Flat Crush Resistance Test

 To determine the flat crush

resistance of corrugated board
used in the manufacture of
packing cases.

Equipments:
Flat Crush Tester
Circular Cutter
Edge Crush Resistance Test

 To determine the edgewise

crush resistance of board.

Equipments:
Edge Crush Tester
Parallel Cutter
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