How It's Made - Cardboard Boxes

First, the trimmer perforates the boards to create flaps and handles. Rubber sponges cushion the blades so that they only cut the parts they're supposed to. During the trimming, a press condenses the boxes overlapping panels to level out their thickness. Workers usually cut out the sponges by hand to make sure they fit snugly around the blades. The trimmer runs at a speed of eight kilometers per hour. Processing up to ninety boxes a minute. Workers send the cut-offs back to the paper mill to be recycled as many as six times over.

A folding machine now bends them along score lines that the corrugator made earlier. It then applies cold glue to the sections that will join together to form the box. Hot glue on the cardboard is wax coated. The next machine folds over the glued sections. They are invisible once the box is finished. Another machine stacks the boxes in piles. A separator arm moves the boxes to trays called skids, for shipping.

The printing of the boxes began in the factories ink kitchen. Computer-guided dispenser squirts out different shades of ink following a precise recipe to create a particular color one of five thousand in the pallet. One pail holds about twenty kilograms of printing ink. Enough for about two thousand boxes, depending on the coverage needed. The factory uses water-based ink because it dries instantly. The printing press applies the ink to the boards one color group at a time, through four consecutive stations. This factory uses a flexographic printing system. A process that can print drawings and illustrations. Some companies use a lithographic press which can also print photographs.

Back on the trimming line, more complicated types of box flaps and handles require what is called a flatbed trimmer. It holds the boards in place with suction while making intricate perforations. After removing the trimmed bits workers give the boxes one last quality check. Then they stack them and send them off to the warehouse

[meters_and_madness]

Diecut flexo operator here.. sitting in the break room at the box plant watching how boxes are made. Trying to figure out where I went wrong in life.

[frostyant]

Found this after thinking about if people order cardboard boxes online and if they come in boxes, or a box of the specific type they wanted. Then, I wondered, how are cardboard boxes made?

[kimfrankwatson]

I work in a box making factory now! There are some things that are wrong here, lol - when the boxes are being folded, it's along score lines that the machine they're going through made. The corrugator made score lines going through the length of the box, not the width.

[lucindathefaithful]

“ISN’T THERE ANYTHING ON THAT ISN’T ABOUT BOXES?!”

[jadond.]

About to be working for Valley Packaging, thought about getting acquainted with the process. Very informative

[Yotsukaido]

The story of how two brothers and five other men parlayed a small business loan into a thriving paper goods concern is a long and interesting one.

[RavenwolfFoxtrack]

I'm the truck driver that brings the used cardboard bails to the recycling plant that turns the old cardboard into new roll stock, that I then take to the plant that turns the role stock into new cardboard boxes.

[FS_]

Did any of your workers had there hands chopped off by the machinery and that hand started crawling around and strangle everybody?

[messijaffa]

"Class, instead of going to the box factory today, we'll be going to the...box factory!"

[barmbailey]

Are the boxes assembled in Flint Michigan?

[jianniaponte]

This is the best video I have ever seen

[yaujj]

This comment section is the best while the commentators made good jokes, the channel reply to the comments to make it funnier.

[cyberen]

This room is the most popular one in our factory.

[Jgatti]

1st off these are not cardboard boxes. Your cereal is packaged in a cardboard box. This is corrugated fiber board. There is a difference.

[armandomeza]

Cmon line that up you’re gonna jam me up on the knife! Hahaha

[corn_eel]

Cool! never thought about this before, very educational

[eddieinthebed]

Thank you algorithm for this informative video

[mariozaragoza]

I was high searching for this no other reason 😂

[magicraftmods]

That was pretty interesting, so I'm glad I stumbled upon this!

[ellycehill]

I’m here bc I was drinking a milk carton and I was wondering how it was made and then I realized it was cardboard and I started thinking “how was coardboard made"