As a Vancouver box manufacturer, the team at Racer Boxes know that cardboard is awesome stuff. It’s light and useful, and many different businesses rely on it for shipping, storage, and much more. To help customers understand why corrugated cardboard boxes have become so ubiquitous, we decided to produce a blog exploring the miracle that is cardboard.
Tens of millions of tons of cardboard are used in North America every year. That that works out to something like 200 pounds for every man, woman, and child in the country. Part of the reason is that cardboard possesses some very unique properties—and it’s inexpensive to produce.
Due to the internal ridging of its construction, cardboard is strong. It’s rigid and firm. However, the internal air pockets also mean that it’s also light. The ridging even provides some give, creating a natural insulator and a bit of padding for contents. It’s resistant to puncturing, yet easy enough to cut. And when damaged, cardboard often maintains its structural integrity rather than shattering like wood or plastic.
The boxes fold for easy shipping and storage—and when it’s time to say good-bye, cardboard is both recyclable and biodegradable.
So, what gives cardboard its strength? After all, there’s really only three sheets of paper and some glue involved. To answer this, consider an I-beam at a construction site. The ridges in-between the top and bottom sheets of paper act in a structurally similar way to an I-beam in terms of weight distribution.
New cardboard typically begins life as de-barked pine, which is ground into chips and put in a big pressurized tank. Chemicals like sodium hydroxide (aka lye), are added to the mix to break down the fibres. Then the unbleached pulp is formed into huge rolls of Kraft paper. The actual cardboard is formed by taking two flat sheets of paper and gluing a corrugated sheet in between.
Once the glue sets, the result is a rigid sheet of cardboard. After that, the cardboard is cut into the shape of a box blank, and this blank gets folded and glued appropriately. These finished boxes are left flat for distribution–to be assembled as and when needed.
Now that you the secret of cardboard, we’ll let you in on one more. Racer Boxes has been a Vancouver box manufacturer since 1991. We can manufacture boxes of any size and printing is available for anyone who wants to promote their brand. To learn more, please call 604-270-8205.
