Lateral Corrugator: An Improved Method of Manufacturing Corrugated Boxes, 2004 Paper Summit, Spring Technical & International Environmental Conference, (including Papermakers; Process Control, Electrical & Information; Product & Product Quality)

In the lateral corrugating process, medium is corrugating conventionally. This preserves the flat crush and handling strength of the combined-board. The linerboard, however, is oriented transversely. This places the machine direction of the paper in the cross-machine direction of the corrugated sheet and, thereby, places the paper fibers parallel to the direction of box stacking loads. Experiments conducted by the Institue of Paper Science and Technology demonstrated that lateral corrugating generates box compression strength improvements of 30% over conventionally oriented board. It was found that a box utilizing 15% lighter materials and with the linerboard transversely oriented generated comparable stacking strength to that of a conventional box. The goal of this project is to develop a commercially viable lateral corrugating process. This includes designing and building a pilot lateral corrugator, testing and evaluating the pilot machine, and developing a strategy for commercialization.