A berry box must be strong and distinctive
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The journey of berries from the field to the end user often involves several stages. The box must be durable and keep the berries protected, even in changing conditions, and help to get the fresh berries safely to the consumer. Adara Pakkaus Oy, which has been manufacturing corrugated packaging in Finland since 1933, is aware of the needs of this industry. One of its new products is a box made from uncoated kraftliner, which combines top-quality print with a natural feel and gives great strength.
"Berries are often transported in large quantities from farms to markets and supermarkets, so the box structure needs to be particularly robust. Thanks to the fresh fibre materials used to manufacture the boxes, moisture-resistant adhesive and sturdy construction, the boxes are easy to handle and have a high stacking strength even in varying conditions," says Mikko Järvinen, Adara's Head of Manufacturing and Development. "The corrugated cardboard box can be easily recycled, and the primary fibre packaging is valuable for recycling thanks to the strong fibres used in its construction."
The design of the box was based on contrasting colours with green and red accentuating each other. This makes the red berries in particular stand out in a particularly attractive way. The dark base colour, fades out any marks caused by the berries, keeping the overall look neat and attractive.
The box was printed on a new Göpfert Ovation printing press and MetsäBoard Natural WKL Bright 160 g/m2 was chosen for the surface liner.
"Often, uncoated liners are printed using vector graphics, but now, with Adara's new, modern and highly register-accurate press, which was introduced last year, the right raster can be optimised for each job, depending on the board quality and printing theme. The end result is photographic printing even on uncoated liners and bigger flute profiles - like the C flute on our new berry box," says Lari Seppälä, Printing Manager of Adara.
The challenge with thicker corrugated profiles is traditionally the so-called washboarding phenomenon, where the difference in height between the valley and bottom of the flute and the surface liner causes a difference in print tones. "With Metsä Board's high-quality kraftliner and Marvaco's FullHD flat top dot printing plates optimised for our press, this phenomenon can be significantly reduced, and a high-quality end result is achieved," Seppälä continues. "When using Metsä Board's liner, the line count of the board can also be raised higher than normal, because the flatter the corrugated surface, the higher the line count that can be used. Increasing the line count has a direct effect on the overall appearance of the print, as the higher the line count, the sharper the image. A high quality kraftliner and a top quality printing press allow a very high quality image to be printed, even on uncoated surfaces."
