Knowledge Base

1.0 Introduction to Gluing Problems

Gluing quality has become one of the most critical aspects of corrugated box manufacturing. In essence, there are only two types of gluing problems from a customer’s standpoint: Boxes stuck together and boxes whose glue joint fails.

Glue Joint Failure
Glue joint failure occurs when the glue joint is insufficiently glued and has insufficient strength to withstand the designed load. In this particular case, the corrugated box will typically fail in the customer’s case erecting equipment, during the box packing process, or even after product has been placed in this box. For customers, glue joint failure is a severe problem that can halt and shut down their automated packaging lines.

Boxes Stuck Shut or Together
The second major types of gluing problem occurs when boxes do not open, or are difficult to erect because improperly placed adhesive is now holding the box shut. Boxes get stuck together when glue has been placed or has migrated outside of the desired adhesion area. Corrugated boxes that are held shut with glue require a much greater force to open and typically result in a jam of the customer’s packaging line. A variation of this problem occurs when several boxes are held together. Again, this occurs because adhesive has been placed or has moved outside the adhesion area, exposing itself on the top or bottom of the box. When the boxes are pressed together during the bundling process, the exposed adhesive causes the boxes to adhere to one another. Without removing the strapping of the bundle, the boxes appear fine, and the defect will likely go undetected until the customer begins using the defective product.

More Detail
Although gluing defects may be lumped into these two broad categories, there are in effect over 10 different defect types that can lead to customer complaint, returned orders and quality problems. Please read the article titled “Gluing Problem Types” for more information on the various types of gluing defects.