Corrugated Box Machine Suppliers & Manufacturers

Corrugated board production and converting

Corrugated packaging is produced in two stages: corrugated board production (the corrugator produces flat sheets of corrugated board); and corrugated converting (converting machines cut, score, print, fold, and glue the flat sheets into finished boxes, trays, and displays). Corrugated board production — the corrugator: a corrugator is a large, continuous production machine that produces corrugated board from paper rolls; the inner medium paper is corrugated (fluted) by passing between heated corrugating rolls; the fluted medium is glued to one or two flat liner sheets; the result is single-face (one liner) or double-face (two liners) corrugated board (the familiar brown corrugated sheet); board flute types: A-flute (5mm) — cushioning and stacking strength; B-flute (3mm) — good crush resistance, common for display packaging; C-flute (4mm) — the most common general-purpose flute; E-flute (1.5mm) — fine flute for point-of-purchase displays and outer cartons; F-flute (0.7mm) — microflute for premium retail applications; double-wall and triple-wall board (two or three fluted layers) for extra strength. Corrugated converting machines: flexo folder gluer (FFG) — the main converting machine; prints on the board (flexographic printing, 2–4 colours), cuts and creases (die-cut or slotted), folds, and glues the box blank in one pass; produces RSC (regular slotted container) and similar box styles; output rates of 10,000–50,000 boxes per hour on high-speed machines. Die-cutter: a flatbed or rotary die-cutter cuts complex box blank shapes, display trays, and die-cut boxes that cannot be produced on a folder gluer. Stitcher (stapler): a wire stitcher staples box blanks instead of gluing — used for heavy-duty cases and certain export markets. Case taper / box erector-taper: these are downstream packaging machines used in the end-packing line, not box manufacturing equipment.