Board for folding cartons: choosing the right solid board

Virgin-fibre and recycled board

Virgin-fibre board often offers a bright, uniform surface and high stiffness at a comparatively low grammage. Recycled board uses secondary fibres and, depending on the grade, can have different reverse-side colours and surface properties. Both groups include numerous grades for different requirements.

The material designation alone is therefore not enough. Samples, technical data and a test under real process conditions provide greater confidence.

Key selection criteria

Several properties are assessed together for a folding carton suitable for series production:

• Grammage, thickness and bending stiffness
• Creasing, folding and gluing behaviour
• Surface and suitability for offset printing
• Material grain direction
• Humidity, temperature and logistics conditions
• Requirements of the filling process and packaging machine

Develop material and structural design together

A higher grammage is not automatically the better solution. Geometry, grain direction and creasing can also influence stability. HvC therefore coordinates the board grade with structural design, print design, finishing and converting, and can produce a sample for practical testing on request.

For sensitive applications, the necessary material documentation and product-specific requirements are considered during the initial project clarification.

Choose a suitable structure and closure

Folding cartons can be designed with tuck-in, automatic or glued closures, tuck flaps, viewing windows and integrated fixing features, among other options. The structure must suit the product, desired opening, packaging process and intended reuse.

Instead of selecting a structure solely by its name, its interaction with the material and manufacturing process should be tested using a sample. This turns a general folding-carton format into packaging suitable for series production.