Scratches on Folding Box Packaging

1. Scratches On Folding Box
Packaging

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Outline And Impact Of Problem
• Printing products must exhibit a certain amount of resilience against the mechanical forces of
the printing process, finishing work, and transport. Printing stock surfaces, the printing ink
used, and the inline coating applied all play roles.
• When transporting printed materials for further print processing or to the end-customer, it is
important that they be sufficiently protected so that no damage comes to the print stock
surface, the printing ink, or the coating layer.

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Challenge And Solution
• A coating that is not optimally applied can result in damage to surfaces during handling or
transport.
• This is why it is important to choose the correct varnish, and to adopt appropriate controls
during the printing process.
• Test coatings should be performed in doubtful cases when starting on a new order.

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Case Study
• The contents of a pharmaceutical product were poured into 0.2 l glass bottles (6.75 ounce)
and sealed. After being transported by truck, the recipient refused delivery citing
pronounced scratch marks on the folding boxes.
• FOGRA was sent the rejected packaging, unprinted cutouts from different production runs,
printing ink, and varnish samples to investigate.

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Visual Evaluation Of The Rejected
Folding Boxes
• The folding boxes, protected by an aqueous coating, showed very clear scratch marks in
various spots, as seen in illustration Nr. 1.
• Numerous furrows can be seen, which partly peel back the varnish and printing ink surface,
as well as the coating on the cardboard.
• These observations indicate that the damage occurred either because the cardboard surface
was too soft, or because of some aggressive contaminant.

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Abrasion Test On The Folding
Boxes
• An abrasion gauge was used to run a comparative abrasion test on samples from the rejected
batch and on samples from earlier production runs.
• In every instance, the printing ink and varnish bonded sufficiently for an aqueous coated
product.

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Abrasion Test On The Folding
Boxes (Cont’d)
• No differences could be established between the rejected production run and earlier
productions.
1
Damage to the
cardboard surface
from hard particles.

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Imaging With The Scanning
Electron Microscope (SEM)
• One of the glittering particles was imaged using SEM. Illustration Nr. 2 shows a hard and
smooth-surfaced particle, still partially embedded in cardboard.
• The form of the embedded particle indicates that this could be a glass splinter from one of
the filled bottles.

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• In order to confirm this suspicion, glass splinters from one of the bottles in the delivery were
imaged.
Imaging With The Scanning Electron
Microscope (SEM) (Cont’d)
2
Glass particles
embedded in the
cardboard.

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• The tests showed that the folding box prints for aqueous coating demonstrated a normal
resistance to abrasion.
• Results were identical in both the earlier, acceptable delivery and in the rejected delivery.
• The hard particles observed in some cutouts, are embedded glass splinters apparently
originating from the packaged bottles.
• The freedom of movement between individual packings plays a large role in cases where
released particles can be dispersed.
Conclusion

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CONTACT US
Rajendra.Prasad@heidelberg.com
www.heidelberg.com

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