Top Cardboard Box Manufacturers and Suppliers in the USA – About 95% of all product transportation in the US is handled by corrugated box producers. It is by far the most popular technique for product packaging.
Businesses that produce corrugated boxes can anticipate continuous revenue growth. This is due to the fact that corrugated boxes are biodegradable and lightweight.
In 2023, the corrugated market will be valued at $300 billion, according to Smithers research. Since demand has increased and the industry has expanded quickly, there are more corrugated box makers in the United States than before, despite the numerous benefits of manufacturing in Mazatlan or other cities in Mexico, such as lower production costs and the abundance of skilled labor. Finding the ideal manufacturer may seem intimidating as a result.
We would be delighted to provide you with more information on how we can help you generate revenue within your industry. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions! With Linquip’s Solutions for Each Company Level, you will be able to upgrade the capabilities of your organization in order to gain a competitive edge by taking advantage of a wide range of options to enhance your organization’s performance. If you are looking for the simplest or the most sophisticated marketing and advertising package for your business, we can help you ensure that your company gets as many customers as possible to grow your business.
Basics of Cardboard BoxesThere are numerous distinct types, sizes, forms, and manufacturing processes for cardboard boxes, despite the fact that they can be broadly divided into two categories: paperboard boxes and corrugated boxes.
The most popular kind of cardboard box is one called a corrugated box, which is made up of numerous layers of paperboard. They are created using a corrugating machine, an adhesive to hold the layers together, and two or three outer layers with a corrugated “middle” layer for extra stability and longevity. Single-wall, double-wall, triple-wall, and anti-static boxes are all options for these containers. Pizza boxes, moving boxes, and corrugated shipping boxes, also called mailing boxes, are a few examples of typical corrugated boxes.
Cardboard boxes have many uses but don’t forget to pair them with custom stickers. A custom sticker can be used not only for cartons but also for decorating personal items. CustomSticker offers a variety of customizable products and services that you can choose from, such as custom stickers, labels, buttons, and magnets.
Paperboard boxes, also known as chipboard boxes, are produced from a paper-based substance that is typically 0.01 inches thick and is thicker than standard writing and document paper. Paperboard boxes, which can be bleached or unbleached and are produced by a process called pulping that involves physically or chemically breaking down wood, are generally used for baked goods, food or cereal, pharmaceuticals, and amenities like soapboxes, gift boxes, and shirt boxes.
Not every cardboard manufacturer is the same. When evaluating vendors, some things to keep in mind are as follows:
What are their areas of expertise, and how well do they fit your requirements? Are you interested in personalized, sturdy, or food-safe cardboard boxes? Will you require a single kind of specialized box, a variety of solutions, or corrugated boxes for everyday use? A business that specializes in providing what you need will know more about it and be more skilled at creating it.
How eager they are to talk and respond to queries. Asking about their quality assurance procedures and supply chain is crucial to avoiding later poor-quality products or supply shortages. Find out if they use sustainable sources if sustainability is a priority for you. Regarding the kind of cardboard and padding (if any) you’ll require for your particular use, you might also want the supplier’s assistance. Generally speaking, the provider should be prepared to offer at least a minimal level of responsiveness in the event of future issues.
Their smallest and largest order sizes. Smaller minimum order amounts are your friend if you’re experimenting and want to start out with a small number. You might also want to give yourself room to expand, though.
Whether their lead times meet your requirements.
Evaluations of the business. As well as asking their most loyal clients about them and looking up online reviews to see if there are any prevalent issues.
Whether they are willing to offer free samples of their goods. Before buying 1,000 of them, make sure you’re obtaining the high-quality corrugated boxes you need.
What on your list of requirements is absolutely necessary, and what is not? You might come across a business that meets all of your requirements, but you might not. Making smarter decisions will be easier if you are aware of what matters.
Whether they are prepared to offer a free product sample.
Once you’ve determined which supplier would meet your demands the best, you can either enter into a more normal contract right away or sign a trial-run short-term agreement. In either case, confirm that the contract will ensure pricing that will safeguard your profit margins.
Top Cardboard Box Manufacturers and Suppliers in the USAListed below are the Top Cardboard Box Manufacturers and Suppliers in the USA, ranked by company size. Each company’s information includes its headquarters, sales, year of foundation, and the number of employees. US million dollars are used to measure annual sales. Following the table are summaries of each company.
A market leader in the production of fiber-based goods, International Paper Company produces cellulose fibers, containerboard, corrugated packaging, papers, recycling packaging, pulp, and paper goods. In addition to various designs of cardboard boxes and sheets, their corrugated packaging also covers retail, bulk, molded fiber, kraft paper bags, solid fiber, and specialized packaging.
Corrugated containers, folding cartons, paperboard, containerboard, displays, kraft paper, partitions, protective packaging, and pulp are just a few of the paper and packaging products that WestRock Company offers.
Paper goods, such as toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, and facial tissues, disposable cups, plates, and cutlery, as well as containerboard and corrugated packaging with customizable choices, are all produced by Georgia-Pacific LLC.
Custom corrugated boxes are one of the packaging options produced by Illinois-based Packaging Corporation of America specifically for its customers’ requirements. Corrugated containers, heavy-duty packaging, produce packaging, stock packaging and supplies, interior packaging, and containerboard are among the available goods.
The workplace, shipping, and packaging items offered by Associated Bag include moving boxes, pizza boxes, reverse-tuck boxes, bakery boxes, bin boxes, corrugated or cardboard mailing and shipping boxes, and shoe boxes.
A prestigious Wisconsin-based company, Western Container Company, creates thousands of various stock boxes, cartons, and packaging supplies, including paper tubes, paper core products, and sturdy Kraft corrugated cartons that are 100% recyclable.
Custom apparel, bakery, candle, cookie, cosmetic, favor, electronic, food, gable, kraft, medicinal, paper, pillow, promotional, retail, sleeve, tobacco, toy, window, soap, and custom style boxes are just a few of the cardboard box possibilities Emenac Packaging offers.
With various customizable possibilities, Deluxe Packaging, Inc. manufactures rigid setup boxes, luxury packaging, fashion, jewelry, and gift boxes. They also provide free delivery, design assistance, and no setup fees.
Corrugated boxes, chipboard cartons, bin and storage containers, corrugated mailers, kraft paper, cardboard mailing tubes, sheets, wraps, tissues, and other office supplies are all provided by Illinois-based Larsen Packaging Products, Inc.
Download Top Cardboard Box Manufacturers and Suppliers in the USA (2023) PDFBy using Linquip RFQ Service, you can expect to receive quotations from various suppliers across multiple industries and regions.
Click Here to Request a Quotation From Suppliers and Service Providers
Read More on Linquip
Corrugated boxes are storage and shipping containers that are constructed of corrugated materials. The term corrugated material refers to material (usually a type of paperboard) that is rippled, fluted or ridged. Corrugated containers are usually composed of a corrugated fiberboard, a common form of material that consists of a corrugated sheet sandwiched between layers of flat sheets. Despite the inaccuracy of the term, "cardboard box" is widely used to refer to this type of container.
A consistent, economic trend throughout history is that packaging supplies tend to be made from materials that cost the least. Because of this, paper and its products have not been used as packaging for most of human history. Only in the mid-1800s, with the advent of industrial pulping processes, did paper become widespread for packaging uses.
The first corrugated paper was patented in England in 1856 for use as a hat liner. Corrugated material used for shipping did not crop into usage until Albert Jones patented a single-faced corrugated board in New York City 15 years later (1871). Three years after Jones’s work (1874), Oliver Long built upon his design and added a second piece of liner to the single-faced board, thus creating the elemental version of the corrugated fiberboard all around us today. In the same year, G. Smyth built the first massive-production corrugator.
Corrugated packaging boxes as we know them today – both the material used to create them and the actual product - did not develop until the very end of the nineteenth century. In 1884, Carl F. Dahl, a Swedish chemist, pioneered the creation of a strong, tear-resistant paper from pulverized wood chips. The product of his process came to be known as kraft paper. By 1906, kraft paper was being regularly manufactured. Interestingly, corrugated shipping boxes did not really develop until an accidental discovery in 1890. Then, Brooklyn-based printer Robert Gair discovered the foundational technique for making such boxes when a creasing tool malfunctioned while working on paper seed bags and performed cutting actions instead. Initially corrugated boxes were primarily used for packaging glass and pottery. As time developed, more products came to be entrusted to corrugated boxes, such as farm produce.
Toward the turn of the millennium, paper-based products had come a vast way from their position during the previous century as a last-resort packaging option. In 1992, production volumes of corrugated fiberboard in the United States exceeded 25 million tons.
Although the terms cardboard, paperboard, and corrugated material are all used interchangeably, technical differences do exist between them. The generic term cardboard can refer to any heavy material chemically based on paper-pulp and is often avoided in the packaging industry due to its lack of precision. Similarly, the term paperboard really describes heavy paper-based material whose main distinction from actual sheet paper lies in its greater average thickness.
Chipboard is a slightly more precise term that refers to a recycled-paper product pressed to a certain thickness. Packages used for light items such as board games or cereal are typically made of chipboard. According to the previous definitions, these boxes could technically also be described as cardboard or paperboard boxes.
Corrugated fiberboard is an accepted technical term for the most common material used to make corrugated boxes. This material is simply a three-layered form of kraft paper (a specific type of paperboard or cardboard) that consists of a corrugated (rippled) interior sandwiched between two flat liners. Although some sources may refer to corrugated material as any three-layered material, this is not really accurate, since the term "corrugated" refers primarily to the existence of ripples or pleats (known as flutes). The ripples which define corrugated material are similar to pleating and contain air, which acts as a strong cushion and also increases the durability of its products made from corrugated material. Ultimately, it is more accurate to simply say that corrugated (or rippled) material is an essential part of many three-layered material constructions.
Despite these technical differences, sometimes the packaging industry resorts to colloquial terms such as "corrugated cardboard" to avoid confusing consumers. Furthermore, different industries tend to refer to different materials with their own distinct labels. As a consumer, however, it is important to know these distinctions, especially for purchasing and recycling decisions.
Some advantages of corrugated fiberboard include:
As stated earlier, corrugated boxes are usually made from a specific form of high quality paperboard known as kraft paper. Although corrugated boxes or containers are usually made out of a paper-based material, they can be made out of other materials as well. After paper or wood products, corrugated plastic containers are commonly used, especially when a stronger material is needed.
Kraft paper is produced from elements such as recycled paper, sawdust and wood chip through a sophisticated process. During this process, the elements are adhered together with heat, pressure and an adhesive to produce heavy-duty paper. Although kraft paper forms the foundation of corrugated boxes, kraft paper and corrugated boxes are usually produced in separate environments (paper mills and corrugating plants, respectively) due to economic considerations.
More strictly speaking, the foundation of corrugated boxes is the humble pine tree. It is not uncommon for the largest manufacturers to own thousands of acres of pines as well as the paper mills to process the branchless trunks that are harvested from them. In these paper mills, pine trunks are initially stripped of their barks and reduced to small wood chips. The wood chips then undergo the kraft (or sulfate) process, in which they are"cooked" in a highly alkaline, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) based solution and dissolved into a fibrous pulp. After further refinement, this pulp is transported to a special type of paper-making machine known as a Fourdrinier machine. These machines form the pulp into paper, largely by massive dehydration.
Corrugated box manufacturers typically maintain an inventory of kraft paper reels which they receive from paper mills. In order to actually corrugate the paper, they use massive, football-field length machines known as corrugators. The kraft paper is humidified at high pressures in preheating rollers to soften it, making it easier to form the ripples or flutes. Next, the fluted board is formed by pressing corrugated molds on either side of the cardboard. A following set of rollers, comprising the single-facer glue station, joins the first flat liner with the newly corrugated material. The double-backer glue station adds the second flat liner to the other side of the corrugated material to form a complete piece of corrugated fiberboard. (The fluted paper is joined to both of these layers with a corn starch-based adhesive, effective for creating permanent bonds.) For the newly formed corrugated fiberboard to be ready for use, it must dry over steamy hot plates. The surface is often sanded until smooth and sometimes coated with a glossy, waterproof finish. At the end of the corrugator, the continuous fiberboard is divided into large sheets (or box blanks). The high-precision corrugators in use by many corrugated box manufacturers are typically able to produce 500 feet of corrugated fiberboard per minute.
Although raw material for corrugated fiberboard is usually processed in a separate location, the products of corrugated fiberboard are often not. After being formed in the corrugator, corrugated fiberboard is typically fed to another set of machines (box makers) for the production of actual boxes or containers. Most corrugated cardboard boxes are manufactured in high volumes and sold in bulk bundles, usually around 20 to 50 at a time. They are always sold flat, which saves space during the shipping process.
Container materials are formed from corrugated fiberboard because the corrugating process significantly strengthens the material without adding significant weight. Corrugated boxes are strong, durable and long lasting. While most corrugated boxes are used for storage and shipping, they can also be used for short term organization, such as in mail delivery applications.
Corrugated boxes are used for a wide variety of containers that most people encounter every day.
Many different kinds of commercial products are contained in corrugated material, including toothpaste, cereal, soap, computer paper and check refills, among many others. Pizza boxes, retail and clothing store boxes, gift boxes, jewelry boxes, bakery and cake containers, various display boxes, and many other boxes are all made of corrugated paper material. Some of the thousands of industries that depend on corrugated boxes include food processing, toys, automotive, publishing, electronics, and construction.
The corrugated packaging industry commonly follows standards set by ASTM International, a US-based organization involved in the collection and publishing of technical standards based on voluntary consensus. The following standards are the majority of ASTM’s criteria to assess various properties (e.g. breaking strength, tear resistance, etc.) of corrugated fiberboard and products made from them.
D1974 / D1974M -16 Standard Practice for Methods of Closing, Sealing and Reinforcing Fiberboard Boxes
D2658 – 04 (2013) – Standard Test Method for Determining Interior Dimensions of Fiberboard Boxes (Box Gage Method)
D3951 – 15 Standard Practice for Commercial Packaging
D4727 / D4727M – 17 Standard Specification for Corrugated and Solid Fiberboard Sheet Stock (Container Grade) and Cut Shapes
D5118 / D5118M – 15 Standard Practice for Fabrication of Fiberboard Shipping Boxes
D5168 -12 (2017) Standard Practice for Fabrication and Closure of Triple-Wall Corrugated Fiberboard Containers
D5639 / D5639M – 11 (2015) Standard Practice for Selection of Corrugated Fiberboard Materials and Box Construction Based on Performance Requirements
D6804 – 02 (15) Standard Guide for Hand Hole Design in Corrugated Boxes
There are well over a thousand corrugated box manufacturers in the United States alone. Thus, finding the right manufacturer for your packaging needs is critical.
Moisture undermines one of corrugated boxes’ main advantages – durability. As a result, keeping corrugated boxes dry is a fundamental part of their care.
Corrugated fiberboard should always be handled in accordance with its anisotropic qualities. Anisotropic material refers to material whose physical properties depend on directionality and orientation. Corrugated fiberboard will behave differently based on the directional orientation of its macromolecules, its flutes, etc. Consult with your corrugated box manufacturer to ensure you handle your corrugated fiberboard according to its anisotropy and not contrary to it.