Cardboard
Cardboard is a generic term for heavy-duty paper-based products having greater thickness and superior durability or other specific mechanical attributes to paper; such as foldability, rigidity and impact resistance. The construction can range from a thick sheet known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple corrugated and flat layers.
Despite widespread general use in English and French,[1][2] the term cardboard is deprecated in commerce and industry as not adequately defining a specific product.[3] Material producers, container manufacturers,[4] packaging engineers,[5] and standards organizations,[6] use more specific terminology.
Types[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Doot_Collection_View_2.jpg/220px-Doot_Collection_View_2.jpg)
Various card stocks[]
Various types of cards are available, which may be called "cardboard". Included are: thick paper (of various types) or pasteboard used for business cards, aperture cards, postcards, playing cards, catalog covers, binder's board for bookbinding, scrapbooking, and other uses which require higher durability than regular paper.
Paperboard[]
Paperboard is a paper-based material, usually more than about ten mils (0.010 inches (0.25 mm)) thick. It is often used for folding cartons, set-up boxes, carded packaging, etc. Configurations of paperboard include:
- Containerboard, used in the production of corrugated fiberboard.
- Folding boxboard, comprising multiple layers of chemical and mechanical pulp.
- Solid bleached board, made purely from bleached chemical pulp and usually has a mineral or synthetic pigment.
- Solid unbleached board, typically made of unbleached chemical pulp.
- White lined chipboard, typically made from layers of waste paper or recycled fibers, most often with two to three layers of coating on the top and one layer on the reverse side. Because of its recycled content it will be grey from the inside.
- Binder's board, a paperboard used in bookbinding for making hardcovers.
Currently, materials falling under these names may be made without using any actual paper.[citation needed]
![block of egg carton](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Stack_of_egg_cartons.jpg/222px-Stack_of_egg_cartons.jpg)
Corrugated fiberboard[]
Corrugated fiberboard is a combination of paperboards, usually two flat liners and one inner fluted corrugated medium. It is often used for making corrugated boxes for shipping or storing products. This type of cardboard is also used by artists as original material for sculpting.[7]
Recycling[]
Most types of cardboard are recyclable. Boards that are laminates, wax coated, or treated for wet-strength are often more difficult to recycle. Clean cardboard (i.e., cardboard that has not been subject to chemical coatings) "is usually worth recovering, although often the difference between the value it realizes and the cost of recovery is marginal".[8] Cardboard can be recycled for industrial or domestic use. For example, cardboard may be composted or shredded for animal bedding.[9]
History[]
The term has been used since at least 1848, when Anne Brontë mentioned it in her novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.[10] The Kellogg brothers first used paperboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later, when they began marketing it to the general public, a heat-sealed bag of wax paper was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This development marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box. The Kieckhefer Container Company, run by John W. Kieckhefer, was another early American packaging industry pioneer. It excelled in the use of fiber shipping containers, particularly the paper milk carton.
Examples of different end use[]
A postcard from 1908
Posters and display boards at science fair
Hardcover book
Punch card, early digital storage
Mat used for framing picture
Corrugated box used for storage of archives
Business cards
Fiber tubes for roll of paper
Paperboard jigsaw puzzle
See also[]
![]() |
Look up cardboard in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Cardboard box
- Carton
- Corrugated box design
- Folding carton
- Juicebox (container)
- cardboard furniture
- Paperboard
References[]
- ^ "Definition of CARDBOARD". www.merriam-webster.com.
- ^ "Oxford Languages | the Home of Language Data".
- ^ Walter Soroka, Illustrated Glossary of Packaging Terminology, p. 154
- ^ What is Corrugated?. Fibre Box Association. Archived from the original on 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
- ^ Soroka, W. Illustrated Glossary of Packaging Terminology (Second ed.). Institute of Packaging Professionals.
- ^ D996 Standard Terminology of Packaging, and Distribution Environments. ASTM International. 2004.
- ^ Art, Langan. "Langan Art". Langan Art.
- ^ AGR Manser, Alan Keeling, Practical Handbook of Processing and Recycling Municipal Waste (1996), p. 298, 8.1.2.
- ^ Nicky Scott, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: An Easy Household Guide (2007), p. 31.
- ^ "cardboard". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- Paper products