Custom Box Manufacture
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A TOUR OF THE BOX DEPARTMENT.
Based on the client's needs, the box is designed not only to serve its function, but also to look good. A well-designed box will make you want to pick it up. While its overall style may be similar to others, the proportions of the box are open to wide variation. Innovation is important. The final design will be practical yet appeal to the eye.
Once the original design is completed and approved by the client, production commences. The first step is to make wooden blocks to fit the inside of both the lid and the bottom trays of the box for the staying and covering processes. Making a block requires great accuracy as a bad fit will cause problems such as bubbling and creasing of cover-papers during the manufacturing process.
The materials must be pre-prepared to allow uninterrupted production. The cardboard is cut, scored and then trimmed to size, producing something like a "noughts and crosses" board. The corner squares are "notched" or cut out, leaving the centre piece with four wings. The papers that will be used to cover the box must be trimmed to size and then cut to a special, complex shape to allow them to "wrap around" the box form in the covering machine.
When they are ready the box blanks are turned from a "flat" to a "3-D" box by a process known as "staying". This is done in a single operation by a machine which folds up the four "flaps", taping together all four corners of the box at once! In this form it is ready to be covered.
The covering process consists of several steps. The cover-paper has a film of glue rolled onto it as it lands on a conveyor glue-face up, where it is carried to the operator who places or "spots" the stayed box on it. This combined unit is then carried on to the covering machine, which takes it in and automatically wraps the cover right around the box. At a specific stage of the cycle the covering block, which consists of two halves, separates and with a mechanical sleight-of-hand, the "turn-in's" are poked into position, the top section of the block drops back to its original position and the cover-paper is neatly folded over the edge of the box onto the inside. The completed box is passed to a finishing-operator who inspects the finished article and hand corrects any minor imperfections.
When the cover-paper has properly dried on the box all decorative finishing is done. Assembling the components of a complicated box, which may involve plinths and hinges; cutting thumbholes; attaching ribbon decoration or embossing is usually done by hand to achieve high quality and prevent defects.
When completed each box is labelled with the "Mastertouch" logo (our emblem of quality) and is packed ready for despatch.