Custom Boxes are produced using different card stocks and each cardboard have its industry standards and purpose of usage. There are hundreds of factories available in the market those produce quality cardboard. Every box maker have certain variations of cardboard available to produce box packaging. Question arises, which cardboard you should select for your custom box packaging? Below are the most common cardboard used for box printing along with their usages and ingredients. After reading the details of below card stocks, you should be able to decide easily which one of these to use for your custom boxes!
SBS [Solid Bleached Sulfate]
Most common and widely used cardboard type is SBS also refereed as Solid Bleached Sulfate. This is the most natural and virgin cardboard type and produced from virgin wood pulp. This cardboard is also refereed as bleach board. This cardboard can also be produced from recycled paperboard. Normally wood pulp is brown and bleach is used in this cardboard to make it white and increase purity. There are different methods of bleaching and that depends on the required finish of the material. This cardboard is normally coated from one end and other side is non-coated. This card stock soaks moisture and that is the reason its used for food grade items and cosmetic items. This stock has a smooth coated finish and produce great printing results compared to other materials. This is the most expensive material compared to other same grate papers.
CCWB [Clay Coated White Back]
This type of cardboard is made out of pulp and is not bleached. Clay coating is done on one side to make it good for printing. This cardboard have white backing and is normally coated from one side. This cardboard is not as stiff as SBS board is and easily bends. This cardboard is available in multiple thicknesses. The quality of the cardboard depends on the type of clay applied on the cardboard surface.
CCNB [Clay Coated News Back]
This type cardboard is made out of recycled paperboard and is not bleached either but this cardboard has a natural brown or grey back. The back of the cardboard is not processed have natural fibers and natural color to it. Its the most affordable cardboard and is used for the packaging where not much of printing is required. Usually it is used along with silk screen printing process. This cardboard is produced from old used boxes, newspapers and box boards. This cardboard is also available in multiple thickness.
Kraft Card
Made out of 100% recycled material, Kraft card is one of the finest cardboard used for custom boxes. This stock is made out of fine recycling procedure and a fine finishing is done on this card stock. The natural color of this cardboard is Brown but it can be produced in other colors as well. The brown color shade of brown Kraft depends on the quality of recycling procedure. This stock is available in both natural textured and wit smooth wax finish as well. Kraft stock is the most natural 100% recycled Eco-friendly cardboard and is great for printing as well. Because of its soaking nature, inks runs very smoothly on this card and soaks easily and quickly compared to other chemical coated cardboard materials. There many packaging applications for this cardboard ranging from beauty products to food packaging to electronic items. Its the most classy and widely used cardboard stock for custom cardboard boxes!
Corrugated Cardboard
Corrugated cardboard is made out of recycled material and it is made using 2, 3 or 4 layers of sheets by pasting them together. The middle sheet is called the corrugated liner and its the zigzag liner that is sandwiched between the two cardboard sheets to create strength and also to create pressure and shock absorptive mechanism. This cardboard is usually used for custom shipping cartons. There are different types of inner layer that is pasted between two card sheets and is referred to as flute. The way this sheet has up and down sequence actually determines the flute type of the corrugated sheet. Narrower the up & down sequence, lighter and thinner the corrugated sheet is and similarly wider the sequence, thicker the corrugated sheet. Corrugated sheet have G, F, E, D, B, C and A flute types. G is the most thinner corrugation type and C is the most thickest corrugation type. If more protection is required then corrugated sheets are also pasted together to make 2 ply or 3 ply corrugated materials. Direct printing on this sheet is only done using silk screen printing method. If CMYK custom color printing is required then first printing is done onto a plain cardboard sheet and pasted onto the corrugated sheet.
After reading above, one should have complete understanding of different stock types available and their usages. We at MyBoxPrinter have all the above stocks available in different finishes. We use primer top quality cardboard for custom boxes.
