Carton box cardboard making corrugator is a series of machines working in a continuous line to convert corrugated paper and craft paper into corrugated cardboard. The principle is based on bonding fluted paper between flat liners.
Key Stages:
1. Unwinding & Preheating: Rolls of craft paper (liners and medium) are fed through preheaters to remove moisture, ensuring glue sets correctly.
2. Forming the Flute (Single Facer): The medium passes through heated corrugating rolls. These intermeshing rolls shape the medium into a wavy "fluted" structure(A/B/C/D/E flutes). Starch adhesive is applied to the flute tips, and a liner is bonded to one side, forming single-face cardboard.
3. Bonding (Double Backer): The single-face cardboard meets a second liner. The assembly passes through a heated double backer section, where heat and pressure cure the adhesive, creating the final rigid double-wall corrugated cardboard.
4. Slitting & Cutting: The continuous sheet is cut into precise blanks by rotary shear cutters and a cutoff knife.
In essence, the process relies on heat to shape the paper and cure glue, pressure to ensure strong bonding, and precise speed synchronization across hundreds of meters of machinery to produce flat, rigid corrugated cardboard.
Corrugating machines are typically classified based on the degree of integration and automation within their production processes, falling primarily into the following three categories:
· Standalone Units (Traditional Modular Combinations): Composed of independent machines—such as corrugators and gluing units—that rely on manual operation. These systems require low initial investment and have a low barrier to entry; however, they suffer from low efficiency and difficulty in quality control, making them suitable for small-batch production or businesses in their startup phase.
· Single-Facer Corrugators: Semi-automatic equipment capable of continuously performing both the forming and bonding processes to produce single-face corrugated cardboard. Offering superior efficiency and quality compared to standalone units, they are a common choice for small to medium-sized manufacturing plants.
· Corrugated Cardboard Production Lines: 3/5/7 Ply corrugated cardboard production lines,fully automated, complete systems capable of executing every step of the process—from raw paper input to finished corrugated cardboard output—in a single continuous operation (including heating, bonding, drying, and cutting). These lines offer the highest levels of efficiency and quality, making them ideally suited for large-scale mass production.
Corrugating machines primarily employ the following four heating methods, each differing in terms of operating principles, cost, and environmental impact:
1) Steam Heating: The most common and traditional method. It utilizes a boiler to generate steam that circulates to provide heat. This method ensures uniform temperature distribution and results in high-quality cardboard; however, it necessitates the installation of a boiler and a complex condensate recovery system, entails high initial investment costs, and faces significant environmental regulatory pressures.
2) Thermal Oil Heating: Employs thermal oil as the heat transfer medium, enabling the system to achieve higher temperatures (exceeding 250°C) under low-pressure conditions. Its advantages include temperature stability and high thermal efficiency; however, it still requires a coal-fired boiler and consequently faces similar environmental restrictions.
3) Electric Heating: Achieves direct heating via built-in electric heating elements. It features a simple structural design and is pollution-free. Its drawbacks include the highest energy consumption among the four methods, as well as slightly inferior temperature uniformity across the roller surface—a factor that can potentially compromise cardboard quality.
4) Oil-Electric Heat Exchange: A hybrid approach that utilizes electric heating elements to heat thermal oil, which then circulates within a closed loop inside the roller. This method combines the environmental cleanliness of electric heating with the temperature uniformity characteristic of oil heating. It features moderate energy consumption and is currently considered a solution offering superior overall performance.
