Engineering

Materials science

Coating

Paperboard

Durability

Mechanical engineering

Hot press

Formability

Composite material

Compression (physics)

Tray

Carton

Forensic engineering

Extrusion

Procedia Manufacturing

Press-forming is a process, which is used for manufacturing containers, for example plates or trays from fibre-based materials, such as paper or paperboard. These materials offer a renewable alternative for oil-based plastics in applications, such as food packaging. In many applications, such as food packaging the material is coated with plastic layer or other materials. The stability and mechanical strength of the trays manufactured from these composite materials is highly important to ensure the functionality of the packages in production processes and logistics. Based on previous work it is known that heat has a significant effect on the formability of the materials. However, the effects of heat input on the stability after manufacturing has not been yet researched. The objectives of the paper were to investigate the effect of heat input and the presence of the plastic coating, based on the dwell time and the heating temperature, on the compression strength of the formed trays and the durability of the tray corner area. A series of experiments was performed using an extrusion-coated three-layer paperboard. The manufactured trays were analysed and the strength values were quantified experimentally. The experiments were performed on coated and uncoated paperboard to investigate the effects of the polymer layer. The results show the effect of the heat input on the tray properties. Based on the results, suggestions for process parameter optimization are given.

The Effect of Heat Input on the Compression Strength and Durability of Press-formed Paperboard Trays