Packaging technologists at Antalis’ Smart Packaging Centre (SPC) were tasked with minimising the use of corrugated board in a customer’s shipping cartons – one small and one large – without compromising performance. Following testing and a redesign, they were able to produce new cartons that used a third less material, equating to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 21 tonnes per year.
The client’s original cartons were made from a double wall B/S flute. Although strong, they consumed 61 tonnes of board annually. The technologists conducted a series of tests to establish the performance capabilities and make up of the cartons. They were put through their paces in the SPC’s testing suite, which includes box crush test: which puts pressure on the carton to assess at what load it begins to fail – a single wall box can withstand over 200 kg, more than double the weight of the average UK adult male; edge crush test: tests the compressive strength of the board itself; burst/Mullen test: puts a value to the amount of pressure required to puncture a box to the extent that performance is affected; and soak test: breaks the board down to its constituent paper parts and weighs them to assess their actual weight as opposed to their specification weight.
Using the test results, Antalis’ packaging technologists created theoretical parameters for replacement boxes that the team believed would achieve at least the same results, but using less cardboard per box. The theoretical box was made from a single wall C-flute board. On repeating the tests and comparing the results with those of the original, the theory was confirmed.
In addition to the reduction in cardboard used, once rolled out, the new cartons reduced the number of pallet movements required thanks to the increase in the number of cartons that per pallet – an increase from 140 to 180.
Head of sustainability, innovation and design at Antalis, John Garner, commented: ‘We knew in theory that a single walled carton in a heavier flute should match the performance, but we couldn’t be sure until we had carried out the tests. The results were fantastic. They show how a bit of clever cardboard engineering can make significant improvements in sustainability. Plus, we did it quickly: the whole process from taking the brief to delivering the first batch of new cartons took less than two months.’
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