Glossary

Clay-coated Recycled Boxboard (CRB): CRB is a key paperboard grade for folding cartons. CRB is made from recycled material — mainly old newsprint and old corrugated containers — and coated with a layer of clay to provide a smooth, white surface for printing graphics.

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.

Folding Carton: A folding carton is a paperboard package designed to protect the product during shipment and on the store shelf. Folding cartons typically feature high quality graphics to maximize shelf appeal in retail outlets and to provide information about the product and its use. The market is primarily consumer nondurable goods. Most folding cartons are made from a single ply of paperboard (e.g., recycled boxboard for food, paper, soap; solid bleached sulfate for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals).

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.

Multiwall Bag: A bag made with three or more layers is a multiwall bag. Manufactured with kraft paper as the raw material, multiwall bags are designed to safely and effectively ship a wide range of industrial and commercial products including fertilizers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, building products, concrete and pet food.

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.