If paperboard is received into a sheet-fed carton[carton?:carton box sample cutting machine] plant in rolls, it must be sheeted in order to be able to be fed into the presses. This is the first step in the converting process, where raw material, paperboard, is converted into packaging[packaging?:DCP-H series packaging sample cutter plotter].
The slurry which enters the “wet end” of the paper[paper?:paper sample maker cutting machine] making machine is about 99% water and 1% wood fiber. Through the giant length of the machine, as water is pressed and dried from the wood pulp, the individual solid fibers are aligned in the direction the slurry is traveling as it makes its way toward the “dry end,” where the resulting paperboard contains about 5% moisture. This alignment is called grain, and in the carton shop, folding a score on a box that runs with the grain is much easier than folding it across the grain.
Back at the sheeter, a mill roll 28” wide is being pulled off an unwind stand and cut into sheets 28” X 40”. The grain direction always runs in the same direction in which the board was made, which in the sheeter is called the cutoff, in this case the 40” length of the sheet. For consistency, grain direction is always expressed as the second dimension of a sheet of paperboard. A good packaging designer will use grain to his or her advantage to make a box that sets up easily and closes securely. The way a box is laid out on a sheet can mean the difference between a tuck flap closure that locks securely or one that won’t lay flat and wants to pop open when it shouldn’t.
