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How Is Cardboard Made?

Do you use cardboard a lot? 

About 90% of products shipped from the U.S. use cardboard boxes. It makes the material seem abundant since it’s common in your daily life. 

Even so, many people ask whether it’s toxic or eco-friendly. Regardless of the environmental concerns, how is cardboard made?

In this guide, we’ll discuss the basics of the cardboard-making process. Read what we have below and learn more. 

Collection of Raw Materials

Papermaking starts with vendors collecting tree saps. The quality of the paper depends on the specific species of trees chosen. Wood chipping and excess tree materials from manufacturers is another way of making paper.  

Pulping Stage 

Pulping is the process of breaking down the raw material structure. Once broken, you’ll get with fibers. These are ready for processing into market pulp. 

To create the pulp, it uses either a chemical or mechanical process. The chemical process cooks the materials and mixes them with sulfate solution. It creates a fibrous material experts call “white kraft.” 

The mechanical process grinds logs into a revolving stone grinder. The process sprays the grinder with water to remove any fiber content. The pulp made through mechanical reduces the quality of the final product because of the washed fibers.   

Pulp to Paper 

When the pulp is available, it’s now ready to enter paper production. To have the familiar color of cardboard boxes, they add clay and chalk for the brown opacity. They also add items like starch, rosin, and gums for the sizing effect. 

To have the paper material, the process feeds the enhanced pulp to an automated machine to drain excess water. 

Paperboard Flutes 

After draining excess moisture, you now have the completed paper. The process then uses flutes and glue to support the paper, making the cardboard boxes. A machine does the job and arranges the materials.

Sometimes, the liners of cardboard boxes come from recycled paper. They either come from another cardboard box or second-hand paper. It supports cardboard recycling, making it a biodegradable item. 

Finished Cardboard Product 

Once the paperboard is available, the corrugator creates the final product. They enter the specs since they serve as a guide for cardboard sheets and corrugated cardboard. 

It includes the cardboard boxes’ styles. It’s where you can see familiar items like packaging boxes, cereal boxes, and other item packages in the market.

The production process won’t waste excess and offcuts of the paper and cardboard. They send these items to the pulp production as materials for new cardboard boxes. 

If you want to learn more about cardboard boxes, check the corrugated box definition. It gives an idea of whether it’s the right box type for your purposes.

How Is Cardboard Made? Learn More Today

Hopefully, the sections above answered your question, “how is cardboard made?” Use this guide to determine whether the process is toxic or eco-friendly.

Are you looking for more informative guides? Read our other posts and learn valuable information now.

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