Corrugated. It's not just a brown box.
Corrugated
is a complete, high-performance material design, manufacturing and
delivery system. Corrugated is the preferred packaging material because
it is:
- Durable
- Versatile
- Lightweight
- Sustainable
- Environmentally Responsible
- Made from a Renewable Resource
- Customizable
- Protective
- Graphically Appealing
- Cost-Effective
If it's not just a cardboard box, what is it?
A High-Tech Engineered Material.
What may come as a big surprise to many is that the ever-present corrugated "cardboard box" is high-tech:
- Ongoing R&D programs continuously improve such characteristics
as strength-to-weight ratios, printability, moisture barriers and
recyclability.
- Corrugated components, designs and end products are
manufactured on sophisticated, automatic equipment that reduces costs
and ensures consistent performance.
- The vast majority of corrugated products are designed and
prototyped with advanced, computer-aided design and manufacturing
systems, providing customers with the best and most cost-effective
solutions to their packaging challenges.
Infinitely Customizable.
Corrugated offers thousands of possible combinations of board types,
flute sizes (caliper), basis weight, adhesives, treatment and coatings,
including flame retardant and static control protection.
Corrugated is the only rigid shipping container and packaging
medium that can be cut and folded into an infinite variety of shapes
and sizes and direct-printed with high-resolution color graphics
(including lithography, flexography and silk screening). And corrugated
is not just for displays and boxes. Other uses include low-cost,
one-way recyclable pallets, retail bulk bins, and lightweight castles
that children can build themselves.
There are hundreds of basic designs and thousands of
adaptations, each chosen on the basis of proven experience and the
proposed use of the product.
Corrugated is routinely custom-designed to fit specific
product protection, shelf space and shipping density requirements
(including inner packaging that prevents shifting).
Tenaciously Protective.
Corrugated combines structural rigidity with superior cushioning
qualities. Containers, packages and pallets nest products in an
optimally protective environment, so even heavy or fragile contents
arrive undamaged.
Corrugated offers excellent tear, tensile and burst strength
to withstand shipping pressures. It resists impact, drop and vibration
damage while offering uniform stacking and weight distribution so the
load stays put, regardless of the form of transportation.
Corrugated can be designed to contain flowable, granular or
loose bulk products and even hazardous materials. It is also used to
ship liquids and fresh foods, with the addition of removable plastic or
waxed liners which serve as moisture barriers.
All this from a material that is lightweight, low-cost, reusable and recyclable.
Graphically Appealing.
Corrugated containers and packaging are mobile billboards that create
product image wherever they travel. Corrugated displays are
eye-catching modular units that can be set up quickly and recycled at
the end of a promotion.
Corrugated is a very flexible medium that accommodates a wide range of printing options to support the end-use requirement:
- Offset lithography and rotogravure (high-volume).
- Flexography or letterpress (shorter runs)
- Silk screening (displays)
- Corrugated can be direct printed in plant or manufactured with high-end process color graphics.
Preeminently Cost-Effective.
One of the least expensive containers ever developed, the overall cost
of corrugated shipping containers is usually between one percent and
four percent of the value of the goods they carry.
The cost of labor and tools required to produce, fill, and
move the container is low. The cost of shipping is low, due to lower
weights and higher fill densities than alternative packaging. The trend
toward lightweighting will continue to drive down shipping costs. Low
raw material costs and mass production of corrugated containers makes
them particularly cost-efficient.
The ultimate contribution to cost reduction is when corrugated
is used as an all-in-one shipping, storage, advertising and display
medium - a growing trend both in warehouse and other retail stores.
Environmentally Responsible.
Corrugated, made from a natural renewable resource, has a great
environmental record. Corrugated is frequently manufactured using high
percentages of secondary fiber (including old corrugated containers,
kraft, old newspapers and even straw), thereby diverting these
materials from the municipal solid waste stream.
In 2006, 25.2 million tons of
corrugated were recovered and recycled in the U.S. -- that's 76.4 percent
of all containerboard produced in the same year. Corrugated has the
best recycling rate of any packaging material used today. And that's what happens after the corrugated box has been used and reused time and time again to store and move items around the home, store and office.
In addition, the use of corrugated constructions with
high-performance linerboard has led to a significant overall reduction
in basis weight and a significant source reduction of raw materials.
Water-based inks are now used almost exclusively for printing
graphics on corrugated containers, avoiding the use of lead-based inks
and solvents which pollute the air and the water used to wash down
printing equipment between color changes.