Explore the current situation and development trend of China's paper packaging container manufacturing equipment

[Abstract] This paper introduces the current situation and development trend of major paper packaging containers manufacturing equipment, such as corrugated cardboard boxes, color paper boxes, honeycomb paperboard, and pulp molded products. Only by daring to innovate, vigorously adopting high technology, and implementing a "joint development" strategy can we improve the performance and quality of China's paper packaging container manufacturing equipment as soon as possible, narrow the gap with the world's advanced level, and remain invincible in international competition.

Keywords: Corrugated carton; Colored carton; Honeycomb cardboard

Pollution-free, pollution-free "green packaging" has attracted worldwide attention. The paper packaging containers that can satisfy various requirements such as breathability, moisture resistance, earthquake resistance, pressure resistance, etc., and are easy to recycle and do not cause environmental pollution undoubtedly have broad development prospects. The development of paper packaging containers depends on the development of the national economy and the progress of science and technology. In a sense, it is reflected in the level of its technical equipment.

Paper packaging containers include cartons, cartons, paper cups, paper trays, paper tubes, paper drums, pulp molded products, and the like. Looking at the status quo and future of major paper products manufacturing equipment such as corrugated boxes and color paper boxes, it is of great significance to formulate a development strategy for our country's paper packaging products manufacturing equipment and to make this industry bigger and stronger.

1 Present situation of paper packaging container manufacturing equipment

1.1 Corrugated box manufacturing equipment
Corrugated board production originated in the United States. In the 1940s, an automatic production line for corrugated board began to appear. In 1968, Langston introduced a modern carton production line with a width of 2.2m and a speed of 212m/min. At the same time, molding and die cutting were introduced. , folding, gluing combination of various models of equipment, which began a new leap in the field of carton machinery new technology. After entering the 1990s, the carton (box) industry entered a stage where computers and high-tech technologies became more widely used. Microprocessors and microelectronics digital technologies were used not only in the electrical control devices and mechanisms of carton (box) machines. It is also widely used in the control and regulation of the entire production process. At present, the width of foreign corrugated board production line has reached 3.3m, and the speed is developing to a level of 300~350m/min. In 1994, the Netherlands began to manufacture more difficult equipment, requiring higher corrugated base paper weights of only 90 g/m2 in lightweight corrugated boxes.

China's corrugated paper box equipment has gone through the path of introduction, absorption and development, and is gradually shrinking with the advanced level in the world. At present, there is still a certain distance between similar equipments of developed countries in terms of equipment operation and flexibility (that is, changing specifications without stopping, adapting to multiple varieties, and small batches) and speed and width indicators.

1.2 Carton manufacturing equipment

Cardboard cartons are a wide variety of widely used sales packaging containers. Its manufacturing process is relatively complex, and it needs to go through a fixed-width paper cutting-decoration printing, a light laminating film, a die-cutting indentation, a folding paste box and the like. In the past, each process was mainly based on single-function single-function production, and some were supplemented by manual operations. The production efficiency was low, the labor intensity was high, and the quality of the paper box was not high. With the application of CAD/CAM, CNC, laser and other high-tech technologies in the carton industry, the mechanization and automation of the carton have been greatly improved. For example, the emergence of fully automatic flat die-cutting presses with a top speed of up to 7500s/h is nearly 10 times faster than that of manual card-holders. The successful development of fully-automated folding and pasting machines has ended up with common papers. Box history of manual paste boxes. The use of CAM equipment such as automatic cutting machines, automatic machete machines, carton proofers, and CNC laser pattern cutting machines can be described as a technical revolution in the production of carton die-cutting plates.

Due to the wide variety of types and complicated structure of the carton, the processing technology and the related subject knowledge are extensive, so it is very difficult to realize the generalization, standardization, and serialization of manufacturing equipment. And because the foundation of China's carton industry is weak, there is a big gap between its manufacturing equipment and the international advanced level. Therefore, there is a large space for the development of carton machinery in China, and the task of further developing carton manufacturing equipment with advanced performance is very heavy.

1.3 Honeycomb Paperboard and Carton Production Equipment

Honeycomb cardboard was first introduced in the 1960s, and its lightweight and reasonable bionic structure, high compressive strength of the same nature, and good cushioning, vibration isolation, heat preservation, sound insulation, etc. The favor of other industries, in many aspects of the packaging industry also showed unparalleled superiority and good development prospects.

The structure of honeycomb paperboard is composed of two layers of panel, honeycomb paper core and adhesive. At present, the honeycomb paper core is mainly manufactured by the method of stretch molding.

In the late 1980s, China began to develop a honeycomb cardboard boxing equipment. The research and development work was carried out on the basis of digesting and absorbing the honeycomb paperboard production lines imported from Korea, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, and achieved a series of gratifying results. E.g:

The FBJZl2/1600 Honeycomb Paperboard production line developed by Huangyan Huayi Honeycomb Technology Co., Ltd. has a novel overall design concept, good processability and a high degree of standardization. The technology of lateral gluing, honeycomb gluing, and synchronous operation speed are innovative. The FBJD-12/1300 honeycomb paperboard group automated continuous production line developed by Beijing Huansen Honeycomb Paperboard Products Co., Ltd. uses 4~6 rolls of paper at the same time and longitudinally spreads the rubber lines and displaces them into a paper core layer, which is fed by stepper and controlled by computer. The three technologies of cross-cutting wicking strips of different widths and connecting them into a continuous paper core, and finally adopting a gradient-type speed-pulling roller to unwind the honeycomb paper core, etc. have reached international advanced level, and successfully realized the completeness of the paperboard from paper feeding to finished products. Process automation continuous production.

At present, China's production of honeycomb paperboard production line has basically reached the advanced level of foreign countries in the 1990s. Domestic and foreign honeycomb paper core, cardboard production equipment, the main technical specifications of the basic parameters are similar, the height of the honeycomb paper core, honeycomb paperboard thickness user requirements are different, in the paper core speed can reach 20 ~ 50m/min. However, the speed of plate making can reach up to 30m/min in foreign countries. However, domestic production equipment for making cores and plates is connected into a single production line. The speed of plate making is only 5~8m/min. In addition, the domestic honeycomb paperboard production line still has a certain gap compared with advanced equipment, which is mainly manifested in: 1) a small variety of production equipment; 2) a low degree of automation, it is difficult to achieve the standardization and serialization of the honeycomb products; 3) the processing accuracy of the equipment is not High; 4) The supporting equipment used for forming and processing honeycomb paperboard products is basically blank. Accelerating the development of supporting equipment is a top priority.

1.4 Pulp Mold Production Equipment

The pulp moulding industry has a history of more than 80 years. At present, it is a relatively large scale in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Iceland and Canada. China began with the introduction of a drum pulp molding line from the French company Err in 1984. By 1988, the first pulp molding production line developed in-house in China was developed. The pulp molding industry in China started from scratch and ended pulp. Moulding equipment relied on the history of imports, but before 1993, the products were single and their grades were low, mainly based on trays for eggs, fruits and beer. With the increase of export trade and the requirement of environmentally friendly packaging for export products, since 1995, the pulp molding industry has seen a new leap forward in China. By the late 1990s, it began to move toward scale and industrialization. Domestic pulp molding equipment is now not only able to supply domestically, but also has its production lines exported to foreign countries. Pulp molded products are mainly produced equipment: hydraulic pulper, pulp pool, molding machine, dryer, hot press, trimming machine. Pulp moulding machine is one of the main equipments for producing pulp moulded products. It is classified into several types according to the forming method. Among them, the rotary moulding machine has the highest efficiency and is suitable for the production of fruit trays, egg trays and bottle holders. The styling special products; injection molding machine is mainly used for the production of fast food tools, speaker paper cones and other simple shapes, lighter weight of paper pulp molding products; die casting machine is mainly used to produce a large bearing capacity requirements, positioning function The paper pulp moldings; reciprocating and reversing molding machines make the current models of pulp molding buffer shockproof packaging products the main models. In China, 95% of the molding machines are reciprocating molding machines, which have low production efficiency, high energy consumption, and poor adaptability of raw materials. It is urgently needed to return the rotating molding machines to solve the defects of the reciprocating molding machines. The return molding machine was introduced into China in the mid-1990s and was able to rapidly develop and improve. With the continuous advancement of the technology of domestic rotary molding machines, it has increasingly demonstrated its superiority and advancement.

According to the degree of automation of the molding machine, there are semi-automatic molding machines and fully automatic molding machines. Although most manufacturers in the pulp molding industry in China use semi-automatic molding machines with small deformation, low production efficiency, and low automation degree, However, initial development has also been achieved in the research and development of fully automated molding machines with high quality and high productivity. Guangzhou Huagong Huanyuan Co., Ltd. took the lead in the development of a variety of models of fully automatic molding machines. Its stable and reliable working performance is as good as imported equipment. This has enabled China's pulp molding industry to have a new level of technical equipment. So far, China's pulp mold equipment can use advanced air control technology, PLG plus human machine interface and other technologies, and can adopt a unique design to meet the requirements of pulp molding process to meet the needs of different types of products. In the case of ensuring the effect of molding and product quality, it is possible to mass-produce the same product as well as produce a variety of products at the same time; it is also possible to flexibly determine the quantity of equipment according to the scale of the product; and achieve automatic control.

After more than ten years of hard work, although China's pulp molding equipment has made considerable progress, there are still many deficiencies, mainly in the following aspects: 1) The mold manufacturing methods are backward, inefficient, and costly, resulting in poor product processing quality. High; 2) 95% of China's molding machines are reciprocating, the three-station setting is very low-key, the overall level of automation is not high, and production efficiency is low. The hot press in the equipment still uses electric heating within a certain range, which consumes a lot of energy; 3) It is mainly used for imported paper and plastic gadgets; 4) The domestic pulp model molding has not been standardized. (to be continued)