Overview
Throughout the distribution cycle of moving goods from producer to consumer, corrugated is the most widely used kind of shipping container. Corrugated is best known for its structural strength that offers protection to the packaged product. However, it has evolved over the course of time and today it is a much more versatile product.
Raw Materials
Corrugated board consists of two structural elements; the facings (linerboard) and the fluting structure (medium). The medium is “sandwiched” between the inside and outside linerboard. The liners and medium are both forms of paperboard. Paperboard is made primarily from cellulose fibers found in wood. The corrugator combines the rolls of linerboard and medium into sheets of corrugated board.
Types of Corrugated Plants
There are two main types of corrugated plants. Integrated companies produce both the raw materials and the finished products. They harvest tress, produce paper at their own mills, and use most of their own paperboard to manufacture corrugated products. Independent companies buy their raw materials from paperboard mills and convert into finished products.
Among the integrated and independent companies there are three types of operations that represent corrugated manufacturing. A sheet feeder is a plant that operates a corrugator to run sheets exclusively for box plants to convert into boxes. A corrugator plant has a corrugator and converting equipment and runs both sheets and boxes. A sheet plant does not have a corrugator but does have converting equipment. Sheet plants purchase sheets from a corrugator or sheet feeder.