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

Extension bottom boxes, or to use the old term, boxes with “French edges,” may also be wrapped on the Stokes & Smith device, but for this class of work wrappers of still another shape than that shown by Figure 3 are necessary. Again, for work of this character, the machine must be equipped with an Extension Bottom Covering Attachment. The change in the shape of the wrappers is made by equipping the Double Corner Cutter with the proper sub-presses, knives, and dies.

Another advantage of the Stokes & Smith Wrapping Machine is that it will apply printed or lithographed wrappers to the paper boxes, therefore making it unnecessary to have printed labels pasted on the boxes after they have been covered. These facts are not presented for advertising the Stokes & Smith Company. In offering these facts we merely desire to acquaint the reader with all that is new in the way of paper box machinery, and were we to omit mention of the Stokes & Smith Wrapping machine, we would feel that this series of articles would not be complete.

HOW WORK IS HANDLED.

In plants where this machine is in operation, the work is handled as follows: First, the sheets are cut square or oblong to the required size. Second, the corners for regular paper boxes, or the corners for extension bottom work, are cut from the paper. Third, the wrappers are fed through a gluing machine, which by means of rollers, places a thin coating of glue on one side of the paper. Fourth, the sheets, with the glue-side up, are placed on a revolving table which is really a part of the wrapping machine. Fifth, from the revolving table the operator of the wrapping machine lifts up a wrapper with one hand, and with the other hand takes an uncovered box, placing it bottom down on the glued paper, being careful to see that the bottom of the box is accurately centered between the cut out corners of the wrapper. Sixth, the box and wrapper are then placed on a form on the wrapping machine. The action of the machine thereafter is “almost human.” The box and its wrapper pass down through a series of brushes and rollers which draw the wrapper closely to the sides of the box, neatly folding the paper at the corners and ends, and turning in the edges of the wrapper on the inside of the box. At the end of a complete revolution of the machine the box emerges from the machine in a finished condition.

In some of the larger paper box manufacturing plants, where Stokes & Smith machines are being used, a great deal of time is being saved by grouping the machines, and by working the operators in teams. For example, two wrapping machines and two gluing machines are so arranged that the boxes and the lids are finished, inspected and assembled with all of the work being done in one small “department.” In not a few shops the boxes and lids are covered on machines which are located a considerable distance apart, resulting in a waste of time when the boxes and lids are assembled. The accompanying illustration will give the reader an idea of how the machines may be properly grouped so as to eliminate unnecessary handling:

Figure 4. Illustrating how time and labor may be saved in the plant
by grouping the machines properly, and by working
the operators in teams.

SHOULD STUDY FLOOR PLANS.

Paper box manufacturers should devote time and study to floor plans of this character. With the shorter work-day being adopted in all parts of the country, and with skilled labor becoming more scarce every day, it behooves the manufacturer to work out plans by which time and labor may be saved, and which will make an increased amount of output possible. This may be accomplished through following plans that will effect real efficiency in the factory. No matter what kinds of machines the manufacturer may be using, they may be grouped in such a way as to make it possible for the various operators to work closely together in teams.

Within the last few months the writer visited a paper box making plant where the staying machines were located at one end of a spacious room, and where the covering machines were located at the other end of the room. In about the center of the room the topping machines were placed. Think of the great number of unnecessary foot-steps which are made by the workers in this shop during the course of a day! Consider the large amount of time that is being wasted every day in carrying the material from one machine to another! The reader can readily understand that by grouping the staying machines, the covering machines, and the topping machines in small “departments,” so to speak, the boxes and lids could be finished, inspected and assembled simply by passing the work from one operator to another as the different processes are completed.