Proper Scoring In Recycled Board

score recycled board

“As soon as that recycled board filters into all the plants, we’ll be receiving a lot more calls on scoring profiles,” Don Kemp, a leading sales representative from Corrugated Replacements, said jokingly to a colleague back in 1997 when recycled corrugated board was first introduced into the marketplace.

When machine operators started running recycled board through converting machines, it became quickly realized the techniques for converting board to boxes would have to change. Recycled board was much more brittle than board produced from non-recycled Kraft liner. This difference made it difficult for previous scores to make a deep enough impression in order for the boxes to fold properly. Many operators compensated for this by increasing the pressure of the score ring against the board. However, this led to what many in the industry call a “rolling-score”’ causing boxes to fold improperly along multiple lines. Without an adequate score, a box will not fold square which can cause problems later in automatic box loaders.

Stone Container realized this as a significant problem and called upon Corrugated Replacements to resolve the issue. Kemp says, “We raised the score in our score rings to increase the score bead so the box would have memory for the fold in the folding section. In addition to this, we dropped the durometer or hardness of the urethane to reduce cracking in the board.” After testing on several machines, the results showed a significant improvement scoring in box converting. Corrugated Replacments decided to take it a step further and asked the question, “Should scores be solid milled or have a small ring sandwiched onto the score head?”

The advantage of a sandwiched score ring was in price; it was significantly cheaper to replace a thin slice of metal rather than a bulky ring. However, Corrugated Replacements discovered in tests that this thin slice of metal could move too easily during scoring. “With a sandwiched style score ring you get irregular wear of the score bead. They have varying outer diameters only after a few months,” Kemp says. This would lead to poor scoring and increased replacement of scores. Even though many different designs have arisen over the years, Corrugated Replacements still stands by this simple design. “We’ve been using this system since 1997 and our customers have been satisfied. They should be. It works well. I offer it to all my customers with confidence.”

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