How Paper Boxes Are Made / A practical and instructive book telling how the beginner may manufacture all kinds of paper boxes, with special chapters on the printing department for paper box plants, embossing, gold-leafing, label work, etc.

by Robert F. Salade

HOW EFFICIENCY IS ACCOMPLISHED.

Efficiency in the production of hand-made paper boxes, as well as efficiency in the production of machine-made boxes, is accomplished by keeping the workers, or the machines, abundantly supplied with material, and by having boys or girls carry the material to and from the tables or machines, instead of having experienced operators attend to such work. When a force of operators start work at a table, or at a group of machines, there should be a steady flow of material to keep them constantly employed. This is the system now being followed in the leading box-making factories, and it is a system which should be adopted by every box manufacturer, no matter how small his shop may be. Keep your skilled help plentifully supplied with material. Do not allow your best operators to waste time in carrying stock from place to place when boys or girls, with the aid of light trucks, can do this class of work just as well.

This leads up to still another important suggestion which we will offer to the manufacturers in general: Do not keep your apprentices working for long periods at menial tasks, such as carrying stock, sweeping floors, running errands, etc. Push the apprentices ahead as rapidly as possible. Train them to become first-class box-makers.

A brief description of the Hobbs Automatic Ending Machine will doubtless give the reader an idea of how end-pieces are attached to the flanges of boxes mechanically: This machine is equipped with a form, pasters, a hopper and a feeder, all being adjustable to provide for paper boxes of various sizes. The machine is designed to apply end-pieces to the bottom and sides of a box, causing the ends to adhere to the in-turned flanges at either end of the box. The body of the box is placed upon the form by the operator with the flanges lying flat upon the surface. The end-pieces are placed in a hopper, and the machine automatically feeds the undermost end-piece forward, applies paste to three edges as it is being fed, registers the end accurately with the box-body upon the form, and then presses the end-piece firmly to the flanges. This completes the ending operation.