Paperboard is a paper-based substance that is thick- it is essentially a thicker version of a normal paper which is usually 12 points thicker. It also boasts quality unlike normal paper and has several advantages such as foldability and stiffness. Paperboard can be either Single-ply or multi-ply, depending upon its application.
Paperboard can be readily cut and shaped to whatever shapes desired or whatever purpose it needs to serve, it is lightweight, and is thus widely utilized in packaging because of its many practical advantages. High-quality graphic printing, such as book and magazine covers or postcards, is another use. Paperboard is often utilized in the fine arts to make sculptures.
Manufacturing of Paperboard is distributed over various phases namely:
The fibrous raw material that is essential for Paperboard Production can come from either fresh source such as woods or recycled waste paper. Wood pulp accounts for approximately 90% of virgin paper production. However, given the negative implication on the environment recycled waste papers are often preferred and is gaining on the traditional manufacturing.
Chemical pulping over thermo-mechanical pulping process yields stronger pulp characteristics, however in comparison to Thermo-mechanical pulping it gives around 30% lesser pulp. Chemical pulping employs chemical solutions to turn wood into pulp whereas, Thermo-mechanical pulp is a two-stage process.
Because of the presence of lignin, virgin fibre pulp is naturally dark in colour. The pulp used to make paperboard can be bleached to reduce colour and enhance purity. Recycled paperboard may include residues of chemicals, and other residues that cause it to be grey in colour. However, bleaching is only required on specific applications. There are different bleaching procedures depending on variety of criteria such as the degree of colour change desired, the chemicals used, and the manner of treatment. Bleaching techniques are classified into three types:
Depending upon the end use, the pulp could be processed to muli-ply by adding additional layers of the same pulp. And since each layer of pulp is individually treated and shaped separately it has a greater quality for the desired purpose.
After the final pulping and Plies stage, each layer of paperboards is coated with either an option of layer composed of a pigment such as China clay, calcium carbonate, or titanium dioxide, or a mixture of the two or another option of an adhesive or binder such as styrene-butadiene emulsions or starches and water. These one or more layers of coating are applied to paperboard to increase its whiteness, smoothness, and gloss.
At Spento Papers, we have a totally automated setup which assures the quality of the paper boards and allows for considerably stricter supervision to maintain the manufacturing level. And at our facility we employ the industries best practice to bring out the best Paperboards