Starting a corrugated cartons plant?

To understand the different types of corrugated cartons, we first need to understand the structure of a corrugated sheet.

A corrugated is made of two parts;

• The liner
• The flute

The liner is the flat outer surface of the corrugated sheet whereas the flute is the wavy structure sandwiched in between two layers of liner surface. It is the flute medium that gives a corrugated sheet its strength.

Depending on the number of layers of liner and flute, we can categorize the corrugated cartons on the number of ply.

A corrugated sheet with one line and one flute medium is a 2 ply sheet, whereas a corrugated carton with one flute medium sandwiched between two liner mediums is a 3 ply corrugated carton. A 3 ply corrugated carton is also called as single wall corrugated carton.

A corrugated carton with 2 flute medium sandwiched between two outer liner mediums and 1 common liner medium in between the 2 flute mediums are called a 5 ply corrugated carton. Such cartons are also called as double wall corrugated cartons.

Add 2 ply to a 5 ply and we get a 7 ply. This combination keeps going. However, we seldom find corrugated cartons beyond 7ply. 3ply and 5ply corrugated cartons are the most common forms of corrugated cartons found across a wide range of industries.

One of the core part of the corrugated carton manufacturing process if the type of flute produced. It is important to have clarity on which type of flute do you want to produce in your corrugated cartons.

Each flute is used for different applications. A, B, C flutes are used for industrial packaging applications whereas E, F & G flutes are used for more retail based packaging applications.

Each sector that uses corrugated cartons are different and hence it is important as a corrugated carton manufacturer, you have clarity on where you want to focus. Your entire machinery will be configured for the sector in focus.

We can help you develop your corrugated cartons business model. Please reach out to us at sales@carbonprintz.com if you need help.

Corrugated cartons is a productivity business. The plants are large and take up a lot of resources for start up. Thus it is seldom advised to frequently stop the plant for whatever reasons.

To make the corrugated cartons business profitable, we need to keep in mind two main elements;

• Cost of raw material.
• Productivity of the line.

Cost of raw material

You need to have sufficient stock of raw material at any given time. Being purely a converting business, you need to plan the finances to always stock good quality raw material and should be in a position to buy stock lots when a good deal arises.

A fully automated corrugation plant will easily have a production capacity of 3000 to 5000 tons per month. Make sure you have at least 3 times that volume as raw material inventory.

Productivity of the line

The more automated your production line, the lower your production cost and the better savings you have on your sale. Often, clients make the mistake of going for a low end corrugation line to save on the capital investment. However, one thing you need to keep in mind is your priority should be to lower your cost of production, not the cost of the production equipment. The consistency in glue consumption, the reduced wastage, the high quality consistency in output for hours, all of this play a crucial role in making your corrugated cartons business profitable.

If you need help with starting up your corrugated cartons production plant, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@carbonprintz.com

The main challenges in corrugated cartons business are around your raw material inventory and production line quality.

Many corrugated carton factories struggle because of the huge cash flow they need, to maintain a steady inventory of raw materials at any given time. This fund is often not budgeted at the beginning of the project which later weakens the entire project.

Planning is crucial. Not just financial planning, but also production planning, procurement planning & sales forecasting.

To avoid such dire situations, we approach a corrugated cartons project from a strategic perspective before we get into the financial or the machinery part of the project. This gives the business owner a lot more clarity and they are in a better position to take a more informed decision.

If you need help with developing your corrugated cartons business, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@carbonprintz.com. 

At Carbon, our primary focus is in helping you build your business model through an informed decision making process. The type of machines, material and every other resource comes at a later stage. We first help you establish the scope of the business. We then follow a structured approach to validate the identified scope using our proprietary analysis tools.  

There are cases, where the client would have already done this part before reaching out to us. In such cases, we begin the project at the next level, with technical pre-qualifications, strategy building, resource planning etc. Every project is different. The best way to find out is to reach out to us for an initial project scope discussion and let us discover together how can we help you kick start your project. 

If you need help with setting up your packaging business, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@carbonprintz.com.