The Importance of a Good Box Wrap

Written by Maria Ceschan | Mar 28, 2017 12:34:42 PM

When it comes to making boxes, there are a few major components: board, tape, glue, and the wrap. Most of the time we, naturally, focus on the glue. Today, we are going to switch things up a little bit and talk about the importance of a good wrap.

Wrap Size

This is probably something you don’t usually pause to think about, but we promise it’s worth your time. The size of your box wraps is such an important detail you don’t want to overlook. If your wraps are not cut to the correct dimensions for your boxes, the turn-ins could be too short which could lead to issues with pop opens.

Wrap size is even more important when dealing with thicker paper weights. If the paper is stiff it will be hard to keep the turn ins down. This is another reason to make sure the turn ins are long enough.

How The Wrap Is Cut

Depending on how your wrap is cut (and how sharp the blades are that cut it), you could run into issues where there is a small burr on the edge of the wrap.

Essentially, this is a small unwanted lip around the wrap that could make it difficult to apply glue evenly. As shown in the photo, burrs will make it difficult for the glue to meet the edge of the wrap. This will cause those turn-ins to pop open.

Dyne Levels of your Wrap

The Dyne Level of a material is called its surface energy. When glue is applied to the wrap, its “wettability” is impacted greatly by its surface energy and that of the wrap.

In order for glue to bond, it must be able to wet the surface of the wrap. For a wrap to bond well with protein glue the dyne level generally needs to be 45 or higher. Protein glue could work at lower dyne levels, but we would recommend speaking with our lab to perform glue ups to determine which glue would work best.

Looking for a convenient protein glue troubleshooting resource for your rigid box equipment operators? Our troubleshooting guide was so highly requested, we decided to turn it into a magnet!

You can keep this right on your machines as a resource for your team.

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