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

Some of the larger-size paper boxes which are constructed with flanges and end-pieces, have a strong linen thread running around the sides of the box, near the top, for the purpose of strengthening the corners, the paper covering of the box concealing the thread. Other paper boxes with flanges and end-pieces, have the corners stayed on the outside with Kraft paper in the same way as the smaller-size set-up boxes. Others still have the four top edges and the four corners of the lid stayed with Kraft paper, also the four bottom edges and the four corners of the box stayed with the same material. This makes a box and lid of very strong construction, and as a rule, a box and lid of this kind are not covered with glazed paper, or in fact, paper of any kind, the box-board being allowed to show in its natural color. Many of the larger-size envelope boxes are made in this manner, the corners and edges stayed, but no covering paper applied to either the inside or the outside of the box or lid.

Shoe boxes, in nearly all instances, are stayed at the corners, and afterwards are covered with white glazed paper of an inexpensive grade.

MANY TWO-PIECE BOXES.

Although the great majority of paper boxes of the larger sizes seem to be made on the plan of the flange construction with separate end-pieces, there are also many boxes made from two pieces of box-board—one continuous side-piece, folded and joined at one corner, and a “set-in” bottom-piece. A square-shaped box containing a “neck”, such as is used by manufacturing chemists for magnesia, etc., is often made on this pattern. Writing paper boxes, and other boxes which are high and square in form, are also made in this way.

When a paper box is made on this plan—with one continuous side-piece and a set-in bottom-piece—there is practically no wastage of box-board, for the reason that no corner-pieces are cut out of the stock as would be the case with a one-piece set-up box. The continuous side-piece is scored at three corners, and is joined and stayed at one corner. The body is then set on a form, of the same size as the interior of the box, and while the body remains on the form, the bottom-piece is set in. Strips of stay paper are then pasted to the four edges of the bottom-piece, and to the four bottom edges of the box, so as to hold the body and bottom-piece together. When an extra strong box of this design is wanted, gummed linen tape is used instead of stay paper for holding the body and bottom-piece together. Sometimes the stay paper, or linen tape, is pasted on both the inside and the outside of the box, along the edges of the bottom-piece and body, for the purpose of making an exceptionally strong box.

Paper boxes of the kind which have been described in the last few paragraphs are usually covered, after the staying material has been applied to the corner and at the bottom of the box, with cheviot paper, or with glazed paper in white or color. A large-size, high and square box of this type looks particularly handsome when covered with light gray cheviot paper. The high, oblong box also makes a nice appearance when covered with the cheviot. Trimming of white glazed paper, at the top edges of the lid, and at the bottom edges of the box, forms a good “color scheme” with the cheviot paper, and the trimming enhances the general appearance of the box.

When large-size paper boxes are made with either flanges and side-pieces, or with continuous side-pieces and set-in bottoms, the lid is made on the same pattern as a lid for a plain set-up box, that is with cut-out corners, and with the corners joined together with staying material. In the case of a large-size “telescope” box, however, the lid is made in the same way as the box, the size of the lid being large enough, of course, for the lid to fit over the sides of the box. A “telescope” box is the kind generally used for holding suits, coats, shirt waists, men’s underwear, etc. Boxes of this class are usually low in depth, say about three inches, and are therefore made with cut-out corners, or with folding corners. Some telescope boxes, in the larger sizes, are made as high as 12 inches, both the box and the lid being formed of two separate pieces. We shall endeavor to explain how folding suit boxes are made in another chapter.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED FOR SMALL PLANT.

While holding an interview with a manufacturer of paper box making machinery who has furnished complete plants for many box-makers during the last two decades, the writer asked the manufacturer to mention the equipment that would be required for a small paper box factory just starting in business. The manufacturer answered that it would be difficult for him to specify the kinds and sizes of the machines necessary for a small new plant, without knowing exactly the class of work which was to be produced. The manufacturer explained, however, that for an ordinary plant where a general line of plain set-up paper boxes were to be made, the following equipment would probably be sufficient in the beginning of the venture: