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

THE PRINTING DEPARTMENT

NEARLY all of the larger paper box manufacturers are operating their own printing departments. Many of the smaller paper box-making concerns are also operating private printing plants, and when managed efficiently, the printing department is a profitable investment for any paper box factory, large or small.

The writer knows of several large printing concerns, of New York City and Philadelphia, who are specializing in the production of wrappers and other printed matter for paper box manufacturers. All of these printing establishments are continually busy, and from all indications, are earning substantial profits on their work. In fact, it is certain that these printing concerns are making money on their specialty lines, for they have been in business for a long time; are paying their employes the standard scales of wages, and are keeping their plants in first class physical condition by installing new machines and labor-saving devices immediately as they are placed on the market. Now unless a printing firm is earning a fair margin of profit on all of its product, certainly it would not be in the financial position to do the things which have just been mentioned.

If a printing company can afford to operate a large plant, running almost exclusively on work for paper box manufactures, there is no reason why the box-makers themselves cannot make money by having their own printing plants. The writer, however, has heard some box manufacturers complain about not earning any profits from private printing plants, and in this article the writer will attempt to point out to the box-makers the ways and means of profitably conducting a printing department. With my eighteen years experience as a practical printer and executive, I feel that I am capable of offering information regarding the printing business which should prove helpful to paper box manufacturers in general.

EQUIPMENT SUGGESTED FOR A MEDIUM-SIZE PRINTING
DEPARTMENT

It is my intention to suggest the newest material and mechanical equipment for a printing plant rather than material and machines which are not quite up-to-date, and this will explain why I shall mention such things as steel composing-room furniture, and automatic feeders for platen presses.

One 14 × 22 Hartford, or John Thomson press, equipped with individual motor.
One 10 × 15 Chandler & Price press with individual motor.

No. 2005 Tracy Cabinet—Job Side.

One 10 × 15 Chandler & Price press, equipped with automatic feeder and individual motor.
One 12 × 18 Chandler & Price press, equipped with automatic feeder and individual motor.
One “Pony” cylinder press, equipped with individual motor.
One Oswego, or Seybold paper cutting machine, 44-inch, fitted with individual motor.
One Bronzing machine—one of the new vacuum models.
Roller Cabinets, Ink Cabinets, Drying Racks, Stock Tables, etc.
Two or Three Steel Type Cabinets, each Cabinet containing two tiers of Type Cases, Cases filled with a well-selected assortment of Type Faces, suitable for all kinds of box-maker’s printing.

No. 2005 Tracy Cabinet—News Side.

One Steel Imposing Table, fitted with galley racks, drawers and chase racks on one side, and with complete assortment of printers’ wood furniture on the other side.
One Indexed Electrotype Cabinet.
Series of Cases for Leads, Slugs, Labor-saving Metal Furniture, Brass Rules, Borders, Quads and Spaces.
One Proof Press.
One Lead and Rule Cutter.

A printing plant, equipped with the machines and materials mentioned in the foregoing, could be classed as ideal. It would be adapted to any kind of printing which may come to the paper box manufacturing plant. The 10 × 15 and 12 × 18 Chandler & Price presses, fitted with automatic feeders, would be capable of handling long runs of wrappers at high speed, while the Hartford (or John Thomson) press would be engaged on fine color work, embossing, etc., and the Pony cylinder press could be used for larger work, printing cartons, two or more wrappers together on one sheet, and so forth.

Steel composing-room equipment has been suggested because of its great durability and improved design, but hard-wood printers’ furniture, like that made by the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, of Two Rivers, Wis., and the Kramer Woodworking Company, of Philadelphia, will serve just as well as steel equipment in the average printing office. On pages Nos. 161 and 162 are illustrations, showing front and back views of the Tracy Type Cabinets (Hamilton Manufacturing Co.) which are very popular in many composing-rooms.