Methods and equipment for three-dimensional forming of fibre-based materials in China

Abstract

Fibre-based materials is a material group that contains many varied materials and is widely used in packaging and printing industry with the various packaging types. The aim of this thesis is to summarize different three-dimensional forming methods and equipment of fibre-based materials in China, which include the principle of the method, the forming process of the method, which material or materials are suitable for the method, the research status of the method, the comparison of different methods, and the existing problems of the method. The summary and analysis of the literatures and company information are the main research methods used in this thesis.

Pulp molding is an easy method to form pulp molding products with various shapes such as plate, tray and cushioning pad. Thermoforming (form-fill-seal) is a fast-growing forming method and widely used with plastic-coated paper for the manufacturing of pouches. Folding and gluing is the most common forming method and suitable for various fibre-based materials to form different packaging types like cartons, bags and boxes. Paper cups forming method is mainly for the forming of paper cups and similar structured containers. Die cutting is also mentioned and the digital die cutting and laser die cutting would have an improvement in the future. There is still a great gap for packaging machinery in China comparing with advanced countries and regions like Germany and the United States. Although the equipment manufactured by China is economical, the automation level, flexibility, production efficiency and low energy consumption of the packaging equipment need to be improved to promote the market competitiveness.