Cardboard is really just very thick paper. The machine that makes it is slightly different because the card is not wound onto a reel at the end, but cut up into sheets. For making strong, light boxes, corrugated cardboard is often used. This has paper pressed into a ridged shape sandwiched between two outer sheets.
We’ll discuss how strong cardboard boxes are, and why they are important for being able to carry anything.
The truth is, they seem disproportionally strong, and many are able to hold up to anything from 30 to 80 pounds, depending on both size, and quality, but if you get a double-walled cardboard box, you can minimally put about 60 pounds in there, up to 150 pounds in item weight. That’s huge!
How does this work? Cardboard is a single corrugated sheet, and a single wall one is made from kraft paper and glue, and three sheets are essentially stuck together with an adhesive of cornstarch, and then folded into the shape of a box, and from there assembled. This might seem so simple, but it allows for a strong container.
So, how does it get the strength that it does? The secret is the construction of it, which is easier to understand when you equate it to normal construction processes. You can imagine something being created? With pillars, beams, and the like, you’ll notice that those tend to be much smaller than the rest of the building, but they are capable of adding valuable and necessary support to a structure that would otherwise collapse. Those small parts are what keep it together.
The corrugated parts of this are what help with strength, and the middle, in turn, acts as a type of support that allows for strength to be utilized to the outer sheets as well. Standard steel I beam, for example, is simple, but it has a design that allows for lots of support. The same is for cardboard. The small corrugated areas are essentially tiny I-beams, and it works in the same way a bridge does, where it uses truss structure to bring more strength to both the interior and the exterior walls, so you’ll get double walled cardboard that’s much stronger than others.
Picture Credit : Google