Packaging Materials - Basics, Paperboard & Corrugated Fiberboard Box Development, Part 2

Hello Everyone,

-Now we have primary pack dimensions, required quantity, orientation of primary pack & arrangement pattern, so we are ready now to work on box dimensions.

-Assume, If we choose 3 X 4 arrangement & standing position of the packs. Now we can calculate length, width & height of box and then we need to add tolerance into the calculated dimensions. For example RSC box of 300 mm length X 150 mm width X 250 mm height as per the primary pack calculation then add 3 mm extra as box tolerance and final dimensions will be 303 mm X 153 mm X 253 mm.

-Now again we need to add 3 mm or 5 mm extra for proper closing of flaps in the height (It actually depends upon on thickness of board). If partitions are placed inside box then box height will be increased accordingly. Generally partitions height is 3 mm or 5 mm bigger compare to primary pack height.

-Please note that in normal case box length should not exceed more than 600 mm & height should be not more than 400 mm to provide easy manual handling.

-Do you think ? Partitions are required to protect primary packs. If answer is No! then calculated dimensions can be sent to box supplier to get 2-3 boxes for fitment test.

- Once box is arrive then fitment test to be done along with primary pack 


Next post will be a continuation to this for development of corrugated RSC Box with Partitions

Packaging Materials - Basics, Paperboard & Corrugated Fiberboard Box Development, Part I

Hi Everyone,

This topic will cover development of corrugated fiberboard box (CFB).

Design of new CFB box is really exciting if you are doing it very first time & also makes us nervous when we think about fitment test, strength & most important transit test.

Personally speaking, I had faced lots of problem during my early days when resources and development time were very minimal. Today I am going to share you few points or key steps which needs to be considered while developing CFB box.

As  we know, there are various types of CFB boxes are available for examples, Regular slotted container (RSC), Central slotted container (CSC) etc. out of these RSC box is very common in the industry & especially in FMCG companies.

Let's assume we have to develop RSC box for a particular primary packaging like round bottle of weight 500 ml pack and it contains some oil/cosmetic/food products & market price is of X.

Following steps to be considered during development of box.

-Check with your marketing or sales team, how many pieces are required in a box and inform them about 20kg will be the maximum weight possible (considering easy manual handling). Often marketing team takes decision by considering overall cost of each finished box because one of the reason is if finished box cost is too high, sales team may find difficulty to sell and small distributor/retailer/shop keeper takes few pieces only instead of buying entire a box.

- Measure the dimensions of finished primary pack.

-So now we have primary pack dimensions & required quantity per box (provided by sales & marketing teams) and now we can develop box but wait what are we missing now???

-How do we keep packs inside a box ? Will it be standing or flat or side ways & what will be arrangement pattern ? Oh.

-So let's understand importance of orientation of packs & arrangement patterns. Consider if we need to pack 12 nos. of bottles into a box, so we need to understand what will be the best orientation which provides most optimize box. The orientation may be standing or flat or upside down, this has to be considered basis primary pack design & its type. Also orientation should not affect primary pack during complete operations, here we are considering standing position.

-Now we need to find arrangement pattern which is also vital to have completely optimize box. Considering 12 nos. of bottles to be placed inside box then following are the possible arrangements (Length X Breath X Height).

1.        12 X 1 X 1

2.       6 X 2 X 1

3.       6 X 1 X 2

4.       4 X 3 X 1  and so on.

-So out of these possible combination now we need to choose most optimize arrangement which consume less area & saves paper material but ensure that selected arrangement should not impact negatively on primary pack attributes during entire operations.

-Now we have primary pack dimensions, required quantity, orientation of primary pack & arrangement pattern, so finally we are ready to work/estimate box dimensions.

Part II coming soon, thank you.

Packaging Materials - Basics, Paperboard & Corrugated Fiberboard Boxes or Cartons

Hello Everyone,

Today we are going to discuss about Paperboard and Corrugated fiberboard boxes  or Cartons

It is really a interesting and one of my favourite topic to discuss. Basically paper box is one of the oldest packaging material & type. Generally it can be categorized into two types.

 The first one which is formed out of paperboard (usually paperboard is having grammage more than 250 GSM) and the other one is made up of combination of various paper/plies and commonly called as corrugated fiberboard box (CFB).

Paperboard box or Carton:

Paperboard boxes are generally used for small size and less weight object/product,  for examples -Breakfast Cereals , Cookies, Chocolate, Toothpaste, Soap etc. and in these packs maximum weights are within 2kg.

Various designs/types of paperboard cartons are available in all over the market depends upon the customer needs for examples- Reverse tuck-in, Crash lock bottom or Glue end etc.

Corrugated Fiberboard Box (CFB Box) or Carton:

CFB boxes are mostly large in size and generally use to carry heavy weights & use for foods, chemicals, glass and small to medium size electronic items etc. Usually maximum weight of these CFB boxes should not be more than 20kg (In certain case, it may go up to 25kg), If  weight is less than 20kg then it's fairly good for manual handling.

Various CFB box designs/types are available in the market such as Regular slotted container (RSC), Central slotted container (CSC) etc. but most common is regular slotted containers (RSC) in the industry. Addition to this, due to development of advance packing  machinery " wrap around boxes" have been introduced and it is also used very frequently across the industries like UHT milk, cheese, creams etc. and  mostly it is of 3 ply.

Next post coming soon, thank you.

Packaging Materials - Basics,

Hello Everyone,

The purpose of starting this blog is to enlighten the packaging knowledge to common people who are not aware of basics of packaging materials which are being used in our daily life. Most of the developed countries people have  fairy good knowledge of packaging materials but in under developed and developing countries people are still not having much knowledge of packaging materials.

To prove this, let me share some examples and I believe you will agree and  have  fun too.

Example 1:

How many times have you heard people are pronouncing " Cartoon" for small & big paper boxes ? I am sure multiple times but technical it is called as " Carton" and not Cartoon (Cartoons are Mickey mouse , Donald duck:)) and trust me  I have seen even educated people say this.

Example 2:

How many times have you confused between the words sticker and label ? Shopping bags or Poly bags or Polyethylene bags or Carry bags ? Metallized film or Aluminium foil ? Bottles or Jars ? Are these same or different ?  All of these will be answered here along with details.

You know, list of packaging materials are huge and I am going to share  lots of tips on development of these packaging materials which will help packaging professional as well as general people for creating awareness about these packaging materials.

If everyone has a basic awareness about packaging  materials then we can reduce lots of packaging waste we generate and promote proper disposable which will impact positively on our environment and other species.

Next post coming soon, thank you.