Glossary

Corrugated Container: One of the most efficient forms of distributing packageable goods, a corrugated container is manufactured from containerboard — linerboard and medium. In its most common form, a corrugated box is made from two layers of linerboard and a layer of medium. The layers are combined on a corrugator, a machine that presses corrugations into the medium and laminates a ply of linerboard to each side. The resulting corrugated sheets are printed, folded and glued or stapled to form a finished box. Corrugated containers are designed primarily to protect a product during shipping, but increasingly feature graphics, which improve a product’s appeal.

Linerboard: Linerboard is the grade of paperboard used for the outer “facings” of a corrugated box. Kraft linerboard is made from wood fiber derived by the kraft process and typically contains no more than 20 percent recycled material. Recycled or testliner may be made of 100 percent recycled material.

Market Pulp: Pulp is a fibrous material produced by reducing woody plants into their component parts from which pulp, paper and paperboard sheets are formed after proper slushing and treatment. Market pulp is any pulp that is produced for sale on the open market. Applications include photographic paper and magazine paper.

Medium: The paperboard grade used to form the inner fluted layer of corrugated board is medium. Like linerboard, medium can be made of recycled material or wood pulp.

Miniflute/Hybrid Packaging: The arches in corrugated medium are known as flutes, which provide vertical compression strength and cushion to a corrugated container. Flutes come in several standard shapes or flute profiles, ranging from A-flute, the largest, on down. F-flute, for example, is extremely small. The smaller flutes are called miniflute and provide enhanced structural and graphics capabilities for retail packaging. Boxes with miniflute are sometimes called hybrid packaging because they combine the structural strength of corrugated containers with the graphics capability of a folding carton. Lithoflute® is Smurfit-Stone’s brand name for this litho-laminated miniflute.

Solid Bleached Sulfate (SBS) and Solid Bleached Paperboard (SBL): A premium grade of folding carton board. SBS is a solid sheet of paperboard manufactured from bleached kraft pulp and generally clay-coated on one side. Solid bleached paperboard is similar to SBS but with a lighter basis weight.

White Top/Mottled White Linerboard: Manufactured with a layer of white pulp over unbleached kraft material, this linerboard provides an improved surface for graphics.