The world of box manufacturers is one that is little known by the general public. Yet, corrugated boxes, regular cardboard boxes, storage packaging, and folding cartons are used on a daily basis by most people in one way or another. This article will give you some insight about the issues that certain box manufacturers might face. It’s meant to be exploratory and a simple look into a new world, one of cutting foam and crafting it to fit into an assortment of different boxes.
Some of those basic techniques for cutting foam are thermoforming, hot wiring, simple cutting and CNC routing. The names are strange but they aren’t that difficult to understand. If you see that these machines may be useful for your own projects, you might just springboard off of the tactics of box manufacturers!
Commercial box manufacturers use hot wires to cut their foam, often, because they are very effective, quick, and do not require a great deal of upkeep.
The wire is thin and is a part of a larger machine. It is heated to a high temperature and simple vaporizes the foam as it gets close and then eventually cuts right through it. Large amounts of foam can be cut at once with these machines, and they create highly accurate, straight cuts. As opposed to simple cutting with knives or scissors, hot wire cutters are industrial jobs to get the basic cuts, while hand cutting would be required for touch ups or more detailed cutting.
Another form of industrial foam cutting used by box manufacturers is CNC routing, or computer numerical controlled routers.
These are machines that are controlled by machines that can be programmed and operated from a remote location. You might have a large foam piece being cut in a cutting room, and nearby there is an operating room that can set the parameters for a precise job. This is nice because once the computer is set, workers don’t need to supervise the process extremely closely.
Then there is thermoforming, where foam is put into a heated mold and is formed to fit that mold. Usually the mold is a kind of heated plastic that will gently shape the foam into it and then the foams excess with be dissolved or will be easily cut off.
There’s much more to these processes, but these are the very basics. This foam is then used by the box manufacturers and put into corrugated boxes, for example, to produce an excellently strong and supported shipping package.
