History of Custom Boxes

Custom Boxes are the crown jewel of modern packaging industry. Besides being strong and light weight at the same time they are affordable and easy to manufacture and transport a variety of goods. This is the reason that they are around one form or another more than last two centuries.

When we look at history of packaging that dates back before the last two centuries the means of storage and transport of goods were limited to the ancient man. The anthropologists and the archeologists believe that there were no massive means of transport in the olden days. The food was consumed where it was produced.

As the civilization grew man invented new ways of transport so need to move goods increased and the packaging was born. The excavations of different sites in the world revealed many artifacts that showed the packaging that the man of that time used. It has been known that the primitive man used vessels and containers that were sourced from natural animal and plant life forms. They used the materials that were taken from tree leaves, lotus leaves, bamboo, palm leaves, gourds, sea shells, coconut shells and animal skin and bones. This era is dubbed as the Stone Age by archeology experts.

Later on when mineral, ores and chemicals were discovered, metal and clay pottery was developed. This lead to a new era in the prehistoric age when evidence was found that suggest that man started to create packaging from fabrics, lacquerware, metals, ceramics, wood wear, jade ware and certain types of paper. The Cardboard and custom packaging in the form of boxes was not invented until after the dawn of the Industrial revolution after the invention of the steam engine.

Custom boxes that are custom made are industrially fabricated boxes that are made according to the requirements of a particular individual or an organization. Cardboard custom boxes are primarily made for packaging goods and they can be easily recycled.

Specialist in the packaging industry do not use the term cardboard because custom boxes can made out of several different materials. The term cardboard can represent several types of heavy paper materials on a general note. In the world of packaging business that include material producers, container manufacturers, packaging engineers and standardization organizations try to be more specific when it comes to the terminology of “cardboard.” There is no complete and uniform definition for “cardboard”. This term is usually avoided because it fails to indicate any particular material.

The materials may vary from corrugated fiber board, paperboard or card stock. However there is no standard definition of cardboard and term can have different meaning depending upon locate, content, construction and personal choice.

The first non-corrugated paperboard was made by M. Treverton & Son in England in 1817. The cardboard packaging was made the same year in Germany.

In 1880’s, a Swedish chemist called Dr. Carl F. Dahl was the inventor of a chemical process that led to the creation of the kraft paper from wood pulp. Corrugated cardboard basically a layer two layers of paper glued with the third layer in between them is crimped. This gives extra strength and durability to the packaging product.

Corrugated board can be customized by folding in to packaging boxes and it also allows lavish printing on its surface that has become an important part of branding of this age.

Precut cardboard and paperboard boxes were introduced in 1890 by a Scottish named Robert Gair. He came up with the idea to manufacture flat pieces in bulk and fold them into boxes. The precut cardboard was invented by Gair as a result of an accident. He was a paper bag maker and printer around 1870’s. This invention came about when he was printing a seed back that was an order from one of his customers. A ruler with a sharp edge that was used to crease bags unknowingly shifted from its position and cut them. This led him to notice that cutting and creasing the material in one operation he was able to make prefabricated paper boxes. The application of this idea on corrugated material was eminent to follow and it became available after 1900. This approach was soon followed by a famous cereal company named Kelloggs to become the first cereal company to use cardboard boxes to package and sell cereals. The cardboard packages still remain popular till this day.

The corrugated or pleated paper is around 1856 and was patented and widely used as a liner for top hats in England. But, the first patented corrugated box first appeared on the scene until 20 December 1871. The first patent was issued in New York City to Albert Jones. This corrugated board was single sided (or single faced). Joes used these ccorrugated boards to wrap bottles and glass lantern chimneys for padding and protection.

G. Smyth made the first machine to mass produce corrugated boards in 1874. Later the same year Oliver Long invented the corrugated board with liner on both sides. This is the corrugated board that we know today and it is the product that is manufactured by most packaging companies and used as a material and it design in modern custom boxes. The first corrugated box that was manufactured in the US was in 1895. This was a very popular evolution of packaging material that replaced wooden crates and boxes in the early 1900. The custom boxes that could be tailored for the individual requirements of businesses sprouted from this culmination.

In 1908, the terms “corrugated paper-board” and “corrugated cardboard” became widely spoken in the packaging industry of that time. Corrugated custom boxes were perhaps the greatest invention of the packaging world and they are heavily utilized in the packaging and transport industry.

Corrugated custom boxes are extensively used for transporting goods from producers to consumers. It is most widely used product for packaging because it offers structural strength and provides protection to even the most delicate products throughout the transportation cycle.

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