Converters say relationships with paper companies ensure a supply of substrate, but data is needed.

Trends toward shorter runs and the focus on packaging as a point-of purchase sales tool are providing a variety of challenges. 

Key in meeting these goals for packaging is the availability of substrate with printability and strength characteristics. Independent converters are particularly vulnerable to the effects of poor quality product. Shipments are measured in square footage rather than tons.

According to the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC), independents consume 6.6 million tons of containerboard products each year.

Independent converters, technical associations, and printers seem to agree that better information is needed about containerboard from paper manufacturers. Overall, relationship building between converters and their suppliers appears key in ensuring a supply of quality substrate. Building such relationships and requesting information are challenging, especially as small converters struggle for leverage within the consolidating paper industry. 

In the converting industry, business is associated with brown boxes, which require stacking and strength. The growth of consumer packaging has boosted demand for strong, yet lightweight, packages. There is a tradeoff between strength and printability characteristics, but packages are often strong enough to eliminate an inner carton, but smooth enough to hold advertising graphics. Such boxes may move into 10% to 15% of the current folding carton market.

Of  printing techniques used in corrugated converting, flexographic is the most common in North America and continues to grow. According to Bill Dowdell, president of the Flexographic Technical Association (FTA), the percentage used in North America for corrugated printing may be 85%.  

The flexographic corrugated press is suited for shorter runs that are needed quickly.

Currently, advances in digital imaging techniques for flexography -- including computer to plate (CTP) -- allow improvements in image definition so that finer typefaces are possible. 

According to Dowdell, one of the crucial issues for converters is receiving roll data with paper specification information -- basis weight, smoothness, brightness, porosity, moisture, strength parameters, and caliper. Dowdell says most converters would be unfamiliar with the proper tests, and that the data is necessary for creating a stable process. Since many converting facilities are ISO 9000 compliant, roll specification data is needed to allow quality tracking and to maintain certification. 

"Our organization tries to impress on converters and printers that this is a scientific manufacturing process, such as making an automobile, and not a craft," explains Dowdell. "Converters will often just run the substrate on the press, find out, for example, that they are not getting enough density of ink, and then have to make a time consuming adjustment. To avoid this, the first step is obtaining basic information on the substrate. Everyone understands that each tree is not identical, so it basically comes down to what paper manufacturers communicate about a particular roll and how the converter compensates for that." 

"No one makes money putting substrate on the press three times in order to get things right," he continues. "The answer lies in doing the preparatory work-understanding what our customer wants versus what the press can produce with the raw materials that are available." 

Pat Cathcart, a printing plate sales representative, finds that converters are not always familiar enough with the substrate. On the other hand, Cathcart, who worked in paper testing research for 20 years at a major paper company, says that paper companies are not always familiar enough with the converting process. 

"For many converters of corrugated and other paper products, it's a lack of information and a lack of education as to the product they are working with," she explains. "Converters need to understand the product enough to demand the proper characteristics from a substrate supplier so that they achieve their end goals. However, paper manufacturers need to understand their customer's converting process so that they  understand the parameters that are important to converters, and they need to be forthcoming with that information." 

It would seem that the industry would demand the kind of detailed roll information that advanced process control, information systems, and test laboratories at paper mills can provide. However, many converters do not feel that companies are always willing to provide this information. 

Converters may not always be cognizant of the exact test results they need in order to achieve the right end results. According to Cathcart, the standard tests performed by paper companies are not always those that are most indicative of end-product performance.  

To Greg Arvanigian, president of Arvco Container Corp., paper companies do not necessarily supply all relevant information about the product up front. Arvco Container is an independent converting company with one corrugator plant and three sheet plants. 

"In our business, paper is bought on very few variables," states Arvanigian. "These are generally mullen (burst strength), ring crush strength, and Sheffield smoothness. However, many other factors come into play."  

"In the corrugated converting world just seven or eight years ago, there was only kraft linerboard, recycled linerboard, semichemical medium, and recycled medium," he states. "Each had its place, and there were very few qualitative differences between them. Now, although kraft liner is still kraft liner, there are two or three different levels in quality in terms of recycled liner- and there is no system for differentiating between the three. People are trying to sell oranges as apples." 

Although some paper companies may provide data on a per roll basis, Cathcart is not sure whether the standard tests used today are as useful as they should be for converters. She notes that many of them have been done for as much as 50 years, including Sheffield smoothness, a test she characterizes as a "random number generator." 

"When converters hear a Sheffield number of 175, they see that as exceptional, getting very near vellum," Cathcart says. "But does that really relate to how it will perform on the press? Other tests, such as profilometry would better measure microfiber to fiber roughness versus the macro, which would be more indicative of formation." 

"Those light and dark areas in kraft papers will receive ink very differently," Cathcart explains. "The light areas will have less fibers  that are going to bond, so as you apply the ink, they may relax and stretch on the press, changing the tensile strength of the paper, which causes a variety of problems as it is converted and printed in line." 

Cathcart feels that paper companies create various test data that converters could benefit from. While this might be on a run rather than a roll basis, basic information about factors as far back in the papermaking process as chip refining can influence the printing process.  

According to Cathcart, one paper characteristic -- moisture -- is often ignored and handled incorrectly by both paper suppliers and converters. Moisture can affect strength characteristics needed to maintain tension during converting, as well as ink absorption.

"If average moisture content for a roll is 5.2 with a variation of plus or minus 5 points, you may get a roll that is 4.7 or 5.6," she explains. "That roll at 5.6 is going to pick up lots of ambient moisture, as well as moisture from the printing process, and the printing will appear much darker than a roll at 4.7." 

Arvanigian finds that specific mills tend to keep their parameters "pretty tight" and that his company actually has mills run to their specifications. However, he acknowledges that their specifications are "drawn from mill specifications, so there is not really much difference." 

Where does the answer lie in respect to what tests are done and what data is provided? To Cathcart, it lies in building strong relationships between suppliers and frequent communication. While she recognizes that many products that are converted are viewed as a commodity, she thinks that a better understanding of the repercussions paper process changes-many of which are geared at product improvements-can have for converters is a good basis for making decisions. 

"When mills get a charge to improve smoothness, for example, they either calender the paper or put on more starch, both of which affect the paper surface and, therefore, ink receptivity," she explains."A better understanding of product end-use might instead call for a change in headbox technology to improve formation." 

To avoid converting problems caused by lack of information from paper suppliers, as well as achieving a consistent supply of product, many converters do form strong relationships with their suppliers. These relationships are built, according to Arvanigian, by cooperation between both parties. 

For Arvanigian, choosing the right suppliers means finding the companies that do the best job "through thick and thin in supplying products for his company Overall, he says that paper companies generally provide "pretty much what they want to for independent converters," and that his company must decide whether or not to deal with particular suppliers. Ultimately he finds that relationships with converters often hinge on a paper company's level of integration. 

"The companies that are 50% or 60% integrated are the ones that need our business," states Arvanigian. "Those that are 90% integrated can do without us when things get tight, so you really have to selectively pick your partners." 

Arvco works with six paper companies and a total of 12 mills. Since his company is ISO 9000 certified, it is prohibited from receiving containerboard products from brokers. To provide a consistent end product, Arvanigian notes that his company pays strict attention to what product is purchased from what mill and what company 

"There are a number of adjustments that we make both in the printing process and the corrugating process, and the key really to doing a good job is hav ing consistency from roll to roll," state Arvanigian."For most mills, paper is fairly consistent from one run to the next. So, for example, we will we buy all our 42-lb supply from one specific mill, our 33-lb supply from another mill, and so forth. We tend to get much more consistency in our end product because of that." 

Arvanigian says the larger paper companies have done a good job at supplying uniform product as opposed to some smaller companies, especially in the area of recycled linerboard. He reports that many of the inferior recycled products come from smaller companies and attributes the discrepancy to large companies being able to purchase quality recycle furnish and state-of the-art cleaning equipment. 

"There are those in my industry that constantly buy from brokers and are always looking for the least expensive product they can find. But when supplies tighten, they can't get paper," he describes. "Then, there are other converters, like us, who are very consistent with our order patterns and pay in ten to 15 days. We are the kind of customer the mills like, so there is generally quite a bit of interest on the part of the mills to do business with us."

Technical and supply issues are not the only challenges independent converters have in dealing with paper companies. Chief among current concerns is the consolidation occurring in the paper industry.  

Independents are tasked with being  profitable on every roll that comes into their plants, and customer service pressures are great as they strive to maintain stable cash flow.

For the past seven years, Arvanigian has served as containerboard committee chairman for the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC), an organization that focuses on various issues affecting independents.

"There is a lot of market power in the hands of very few companies now" he states. "For example, I never thought that I would see a price increase successfully go through with 3.2 million tons of inventory floating around in a market that would typically be a down one. While there may not be any organized action among the big paper companies, they at least have a common understanding that prices must rise." 

"Integrated companies measure how many tons per hour they get off the corrugator, while we look at how many square feet of finished board we produce" he explains. "If they make $100/ton at the mill and lose $20 at the box plant, they still made $80/ton. Since we don't have that paper mill income to offset losing money at our plant, we need to make money off each roll that comes in."  

Arvanigian says that if paper prices remain at a high level for an extended period of time, plastic becomes a viable alternative to customers in some applications. And, once a customer has made changes necessary to package differently, it is very difficult to go back to corrugated. 

Source: Pulp &  Paper, v74n6, Jun 2000 pp.36-40.