Packaging Materials 1

14. A company has specifications for several folding cartons. One is listed as being 90 mm x 20 mm x 40mm, and another is listed as being 20 mm x 40 mm x 90 mm. Explain these descriptions.

Carton dimensions are given as length x width x depth. For the first carton 90 mm is the length, 20 mm is the width, and 40mm is the depth. For the second one, 20mm is the length, 40mm is the width, and 90 mm is the depth.

5. What is the working score?

Cartons are flattened for shipping at the "working scores" The working scores are normally the pair not adjacent to the glue flap.

29. The Cobb test measures the level of a particular paper treatment. What is that treatment?

Determines the quantity of water that can be absorbed by paper or board in a given time. Used with sized papers and paperboards.

33. Which of the following characteristics is highest in MD: tear, fold endurance or stiffness?

Tear

17. What type of board might be used for a setup box?

They are typically constructed from heavy, low-grade chipboard, with no particular folding or printing qualities and then wrapped with a single white lined board.

9. What is a 20-point board?

This is a paperboard that is 0.020 in. thick

5. Paper is "hygroscopic." What does this term mean?

This means paper loses moisture according to the ambient relative humidity and temperature.

24. Paper is hygro-expansive. What does this term mean, and how would this property affect your packaging?

This means that when paper absorbs moisture, it expands; when it dries; it shrinks. A difference in dimensions can wreak havoc with printing and die-cutting registration.

16. A paperboard specimen can be peeled apart into seven layers. What does this tell you?

This tells me that the paper was most likely made on a cylinder machine because the layers are not bonded very well together and a fourdrinier machine cannot make that many layers. This cylinder machine probably had 7 cylinders.

25. Name two typical softwoods and two typical hardwoods.

Two typical softwoods are pine and spruce. Two typical hardwoods are maple and aspen.

10. How is paper caliper (thickness) correctly specified in (a) metric units and (b) inch/pound units?

(a) metric units - micrometres μm (b) inch/lbs units - lbs per 1000 sq. ft.

22. Describe the general process by which carton design is brought into production.

1. An in depth review of customers needs 2. Paperboard orders placed 3. Carton designer develops once or several designs 4. Hand sample of each design is hand made 5. Customer view and signs off on chosen design 6. Carton production begins 7. final press approval

3. What is the standard international test environment for all paper and paper-board testing? Why is it important to do paper characterization tests under these conditions?

23 degrees celsius and 50% relative humidity

36. What is the moisture content of paper at standard test conditions?

7.8

13. In what direction is a scored paperboard folded: away from the valley or toward the valley?

A paperboard is folded away from the valley of the score. As the board is bent, the outside skin flattens out while the fiber toward the inside of the fold breaks inward to take up extra material on the inside radius.

11. What is the difference between a Beers tray and a Brightwood tray?

Beers trays are knocked down flat for shipping. Brightwood are non-flattening once erected.

31. What paper properties will calendaring affect?

Calendaring will improve caliper consistency, make surface of paper smoother, denser, and aid in getting a glossier surface.

23. Why is it a good idea to erect and fill folding cartons soon after they have been produced?

Cartons should be filled within 90 days. The force needed to erect a carton is a critical value for efficient running on high-speed packaging equipment. Freshly creased cartons have some springiness at the scores are easily erected, but over time much of this spring is lost, and the cartons become harder to open. They should be filled before the spring is lost.

28. What is the probable makeup of chipboard and where might you use it?

Chipboard is made from 100% recycled fiber and is the lowest cost paperboard. They are used for set-up boxes, partitions, backing and other applications where appearance and foldability are not critical

11. Paper is often coated at the paper mill. What is the principal coating material, and what does it do?

Clay fills irregularities between fibers to produce a smooth printing surface and improve gloss and brightness.

4. Discuss retailing or merchandising needs that will have a major impact on carton design.

Does the product need to be supported or held in packaging? How will the product be displayed or delivered?

6. What is double gluing, and where would you specify it?

Double gluing would be specified when there is not primary package within the carton. If the carton is the primary package and it needs to be contamination proof or sift-proof, such as in food applications the flaps must be double-glued

26. You want to design a box with a tear strip around the perimeter. What instrument would you use to evaluate the characteristic in question?

Elmendorf Tear Test

35. What is formation, and what qualities contribute to poor and good paper formation? What is the significance of formation to the paper user?

Formation is the eveness of fiber distribution on the papermaking screen. The length of fibers contributes to the formation on the screen. Poor formation can lead to uneven ink absorption or erratic adhesive bonding.

Paper is made with different machines, each machine imparting certain characteristics. In most discussions, paper is referred to as coming from two types of papermaking machines. What are these machines, and what is the principal characteristic that indicates what kind of machine a paper came from?

Fourdrinier machine- makes thinner paperboard Cylinder machine- Cylider machines are required to make thicker paperboard because fourdrinier machines cannot make many layers. Cylinder machines produce cheaper paper than fourdrinier because the filler inside can be much lower quality.

30. What is the makeup of a glassine paper? Where might it be used?

Glassine papers are greaseproof papers made from chemical pulps that have been highly refined to break up the fiber bundles. Glassine papers are supercalendered, semi-transparent greaseproof papers. These are used for snack foods, cookies, butter and lard wraps and other oily greasy products.

12. What is the difference between a hard-sized and a slack-sized paper?

Hard-sized papers are very water resistant and slack-sized paper has little to no water holdout capability.

32. What paper properties does refinement affect? Name an application where low refinement is desirable and an application where high refinement is desirable.

How smooth and bright a paper is. High refinement is desirable in a paper product that wil be printed on. Designs will come out sharper and more vibrant on highly refined paper. An example where low refinement is desirable is in chipboard. This paperboard is purely functional is just used for things like partitions, backings and set-up boxes.

7. What paper would you specify for an ice cream box?

I would specify hard-sized paperboard coated with polyethylene or wax.

9. What are the disadvantages of the airplane-style tuck carton?

It has two visible cut edges, graphic design element cannot continue from front to panel over to tuck flaps

4. Why is it difficult to print a natural Kraft paper?

It is fibrous and has a dark brown color.

27. What problem might be encountered if a highly sized board was used for making a folding carton?

It might not absorb the ink printed on the folding carton.

22. What problem would you encounter if you tried to make a thick paperboard on a conventional fourdrinier machine?

It would be impractical to add more headboxes to produce thick paperboard because the water from each successive addition must drain through fibers that have already been laid down

20. What clues would signify that a paperboard contained recycled materials?

Low brightness, low physical strength properties, shiners, greasespots and indications of contaminants

6. What are MD and CD? Why is it important for a carton designer to know these terms?

MD is the Machine direction, CD is cross direction. Package designers need to be aware of papers directionality because it affects tensile strength of paper. Tearing along grain MD is easier than across grain. Stiffness and fold endurance across grain is also great MD.

15. Which will be paper MD in a typical tube-style folding carton?

MD will run around carton perimeter, crossing body scores.

10. Himes and 1-2-3 closures are usually put on what kind of cartons?

Manually assembled cartons for heavier products.

Cellulose fiber can be separated from the wood mass by several means. Name the two main methods, and give the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Mechanical pulping- faster and more economical, but mechanical action breaks fibers and reduces their effective length. This method is used for lower quality papers like newspaper or for blending. Chemical pulping- less fiber damage, dissolves away lignins and leaves fiber bundles of cellulose intact, These two methods are often combined (semichemical processes) to make more economical yet good quality paper.

21. Which paper would be stronger: mechanical softwood or mechanical hardwood?

Mechanical softwood would be stronger because softwood has longer fiber lengths. Longer fiber length make for better entanglement and stronger tensile, tear, and puncture strengths.

2. Name four product characteristics that will have a major impact on board selection.

Product environment or characteristics-If the product wet/will it be stored in damp environment like a freezer, or if the product itself is liquid, or wet, or greasy. Machinability- how fast a carton can be selected, physical properties such as coefficient of friction are considered. SBS boards run more trouble free. Structural requirements- is the product heavy/does it need stiffness or strength, puncture resistance, Decorating needs- printing and decorating characteristic determine what the papers surface finish is needed to achieve the qualities wanted in the final design product.

13. Discuss the benefits and problems of postconsumer waste paper as a fiber source for papermaking?

Recycled paper reduces costs and the materials are plentiful, but recycled fiber may have contaminants that cause bits of color, grease-spots and shiners, and every repulping process degrades and reduces fiber length.

15. What kind of paperboard would you select for making a beverage basket (ex: a six pack holder)

SUS Solid Unbleached Sulfate

19. What is a slit lock?

Slit lock tuck closures have slits that engage against dust flaps to form a more positive closure than a plain friction lock.

What is the difference between softwood and hardwood as a source of wood pulp for papermaking?

Softwoods like pine, spruce and hemlock make high quality paper because they have longer fibers. Hardwoods like polar, aspen and maple have shorter fibers, make lower quality paper. Longer fibers produce paper with higher tensile, tear, fold, and puncture strengths.

37. A foil-laminated label stock is causing problems because the labels are curling. What is the cause of this behavior?

The foil is not affected by moisture, but the paper is, so when the humidity changes the paper will expand or shrink accordingly and cause the label to curl.

7. Discuss the impact of fiber length on paper properties.

The longer the fiber the better fiber entanglement and make paper that is more strong. However, long course fibers produce a rougher surface texture.

8. Which panel on folding carton is generally regarded as the principle display panel?

The panel that has the front design display. This is where the brand and product name would appear. This is the front of the package that would face customers in a store.

12. What are the principal advantages and disadvantages of a setup box?

The rigidity of setup boxes give and upscale image, gives consumer a convenient long-term storage unit. Some disadvantages of a setup box include occupying much more storage and shipment space. They are also not as amenable to high speed production as folding cartons, making their production slow and labor intensive.

21. Discuss the nature and critical importance of providing a sign-off.

The sign off of a CAD sample starts the carton production process, and the following sign offs are important to indicate their acceptance of the work actively being done to authorize the next step. The sign off acts as a legally binding contract. A missed spelling mistake discovered at the end of production run is responsibility of the customer and not the carton maker.

14. What is the strongest and weakest paper-making pulp?

The strongest is chemical pulp, and mechanical pulp is the weakest

18. What is the difference between a vertical end-loading carton, a horizontal end-loading carton and a top-loading carton? Where would you use each?

Top loading cartons are shipped as unglued banks. Vertical end loading is used for granular or powdered products. Pizzas and cakes have horizontal orientations and shouldn't be dropped vertically. They need to be handled gently and put horizontally into carton.

3. Name four machining or filling needs that will have a major impact on carton design

Tuck or glue ends. vertical or horizontal loading size of opening required irregular shape

1. Discuss factors that would lead you to decide whether to design a tuck-end carton or a glue-ended carton?

Whether or not the product is contained in another primary package. If the carton holds another package, a tuck end is sufficient. Tuck end is preferred if there will be re-entry over cartons lifespan. For repeated entry cartons or if the product will be opened prior to purchase a tuck flap will provide a neater appearance. If a product require sift proof construction and the carton is not the primary package then the carton should be double glue ended.

Is there a difference between "whiteness" and "brightness" when describing paperboard? Define these terms.

Whiteness is a color description, while brightness is the measure of the total reflectance of white light. Values of brightness are expressed on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the brightness of pure magnesium oxide. Quality grades of paper have reflectance value of about mid-80's

18. What kind of pulp is kraft paper made from, and what are the distinguishing characteristics of kraft paper?

Whiteness is a color description, while brightness is the measure of the total reflectance of white light. Values of brightness are expressed on a scale of 1 to 100.

19. Is there a difference between paper and paperboard?

Yes. Paper is less than 300 micrometers or 0.012 inch and paperboard is more than 300 micrometers

20. When is a customer typically asked to sign-off on a carton project?

after looking at the initial CAD sample, one-up die sample, after viewing the design from the art department, on press for final production.

23. Explain why paper products are typically specified by both caliper (thickness) and grammage (basis weight).

because different units of measure may be used for different mill products.