Folding cartons have got it all; they’re popular, in demand, and super attractive to boot!
Folding carton packaging truly does have many advantages. It’s stunning, completely customizable, versatile, affordable, lightweight, space efficient, and environmentally sustainable. Folding carton packaging is used across a wide range of industries for countless purposes and its market is expected to increase in value by more than $15 billion over the next five years.
There’s no doubt that folding cartons have established themselves as front-runners in the world of packaging, but if you’re seriously considering them as a solution for your products, you may be hoping for a little more clarity about how they’re manufactured. In this post, let’s peel back the shroud of mystery surrounding the folding carton manufacturing process, and break it down into five simple steps:
Sheet Layout and Dielines
It all begins with a concept, and that concept begins with the shape and dimensions of the folding carton boxes to be manufactured. A two-dimensional layout, or net, is created with indicators clearly marking out where future die-cutting, folding, and gluing will occur to achieve the desired outcome. These indicators are known as dielines.
Once dielines have been established and a functional template has been approved, it’s time for sheet layout. Sheet layout is the process of positioning graphics and text on the template. Often, the artistic and manufacturing teams collaborate to ensure a creative yet achievable outcome.
A bleed line delineates the perimeter of the printing space while also allowing for slight inconsistencies in the die-cutting process. The number of templates that can fit on a sheet is also taken into consideration at this point.
Sheeting and Printing
Next, it’s time to choose the type of paperboard that will be used for the project. Paperboard comes in a wide range of styles and thicknesses. Important selection criteria include its foldability, resistance to cracking, and grain.
Once a paperboard product has been selected, sheeting can commence. Sheeting is the process of cutting paperboard that arrives on large rolls into appropriately sized sheets that will be fed into the press.
Now the printing process begins in earnest. Various inks and coatings are applied to the templates on each sheet to create customized colors, textures, and other visual effects. Adjustments can be made at this point, if necessary.
Post-Press Finishes
With the printing process complete, it’s time to apply any post-press finishes. These can include hot foil stamping, embossing/debossing, or the addition of special coatings. The application of post-press finishes always occurs while the sheet is still in its flat form.
Die-Cutting
If you’ve ever rolled out cookie dough and cut it with a cookie cutter, you’ll be able to more or less visualize the die-cutting process. Powerful, customized dies stamp out the templates on each paperboard sheet while also creating creases, cutouts, perforations, and more according to the dielines on the layout.
Just as you’d collect leftover cookie dough to be rolled out again and reused, folding carton manufacturers separate the remaining stripped paper to be recycled and used again at a future date. The fewer passes necessary during the die-cutting, the more timely, affordable, and efficient the manufacturing process will be.
Folding and Gluing
The last step in the folding carton manufacturing journey is folding and gluing. While not all folding boxes need to be glued, all require pre-folding to be ready for future assembly. Packaging with custom windowing will also be finished with plastic inserts at this stage in the process.
Get Started on Creating Your Own Custom Folding Cartons Today!
That’s it—an overview of the whole folding carton manufacturing process from start to finish. If you’re currently contemplating whether or not folding carton packaging will be the right option for your product or are in the pre-press phase of packaging development, we hope that learning more about paperboard carton manufacturing has provided some clarity.
As always, the experienced and dedicated team at SupremeX is here to guide and support you as you make packaging decisions that will heavily impact your product’s success in every way. For more information about our carton packaging solutions or to get your order started today, contact us here!
