How to produce high-quality paper cups---Sharing from a standard manufacturer

Paper cups (buckets) such as ice cream cups, cold drink cups, coffee cups, and KFC take-away buckets are all familiar paper products. As a paper cup manufacturer, how can we produce high-quality paper cups to attract customers’ attention? How can we improve our production capacity to get the orders from our customers? Here the quality control team of Fujian Yibaili Package Material Co., Ltd gave you some small experiences based on the actual production work.

Customer's requirements for paper cups

paper cups range from ice cream, cold drink cups, hot drink cups for the fast food industry, KFC take-away buckets to milk cups (fresh cups), and popcorn buckets for leisure and convenience. , Coffee cups and disposable milk cups. Customers of different products have different requirements for paper cups, but in general, the requirements for safety and hygiene, appearance and paper cup forming are the same.

1. Safety and health requirements

Since paper cups are in direct contact with the human body, the hygiene of paper cups is the focus of customers' attention. Customers require paper cups to be non-toxic and odorless. Among them, heavy metal content, fluorescent substances and microbiological indicators are the key test objects, which can be tested in accordance with the requirements of GB1 680-1989 "Hygienic Standard for Raw Paper for Food Packaging".

2. Appearance and molding requirements

Customers generally require paper cups to have high color uniformity, no obvious color spots, no oil stains on the surface, clear and complete outline of the pattern, and color registration accuracy ≤1.0mm. After the paper cup is formed, the mouth of the cup should not be dented or wrinkled, the bottom of the cup should not be dented, and no white edges should be exposed. The curling mouth, the bottom of the curling and the welt must be kept flat and not bursting. The wax layer of the waxed cup is even and penetrated. Uniform, the coating of the coating cup is uniform and no leakage.

In addition to the above two aspects, different customers have different focuses. For disposable milk cups, customers are more concerned about the leakage performance and printing smell of the paper cup; whether the seal is easy to seal during filling; while the customers of ice cream cups are more concerned about the appearance of the paper cup, such as whether the printing color is bright, the color registration is accurate, and whether there are pattern butt deviations on the formed paper cups, and the requirements for paper cups with lids are relatively strict; customers of hot drink cups and S-TYPE hot cups are most concerned about leakage performance, paper cup stiffness and whether the lid is suitable. Some paper cup customers are concerned about the appearance of the product, such as whether there are scratches and scratches on the outside, whether there is scorching at the bottom of the cup, etc.

In addition, physical properties such as paper cup capacity and paper cup size deviation are also key points that customers should pay attention to.

Custom paper cups

After fully understanding the customer's requirements, the paper cup manufacturer began to tailor paper cups for the customer. Among them, 3 points are more important.

1. Choose the base paper that meets customer requirements

The paper cup production plant chooses different base papers of different basis according to the different requirements of customers and different products. Relatively speaking, the base paper used in small-size paper cups has a slightly lower basis weight, which will not affect the use of paper cup products by consumers and reduce costs. For paper cup products of different purposes, paper cup manufacturers also have different recommendations of -6 scoops. For example, when producing cold drink cups and ice cream cups, it is recommended that customers choose double-sided PE coated paper, because cold drink cups and ice cream cups will condense on the surface of the paper cup during use. If there is no PE film on the surface, Water vapor will penetrate into the paper layer, causing the paper cup to become soft. For hot drink cups, it is recommended that customers use single-sided PE coated paper and base paper with a relatively high basis weight. The printing ink uses flexographic printing water-based inks, which can avoid hot drinking cups and heavy ink smells. Water-based inks are environmentally friendly inks. The use of FDA-certified water-based inks can ensure the safety and sanitation of food packaged in paper cups.

2. Paper cup printing quality control

In order to control the quality of printing and molding, Yibaili Package has a dedicated pre-press and printing department. The pre-press department is responsible for reviewing customer manuscripts to ensure that the molded paper cups will not have text, barcode position errors, and patterns that are not the same. In the arc, the cup body and bottom of the full-page printed product have quality problems such as whiteness.

After reviewing the original manuscript, strict requirements are imposed on the printing ink used, and the ink provided by the supplier is required to have a certificate of FDA certification. Each batch of ink must provide a test report to prove that the ink supplied is qualified, and the supplier is required to send samples to a third party on a regular basis for food safety testing.

Before starting printing, the printer chief and the quality inspector jointly check the printing color and layout. During the printing process, the printer itself has an automatic correction function, and a computer display screen magnifies the printed pattern. The operator can find out at any time through observation unusual phenomenon. The printed paper cup products must reach a certain drying time before they can be molded on the paper cup forming machine. During molding, operators and quality inspectors will also check the ink adhesion of the product.

3. Perfect paper cup detection method

After the material selection and printing meet the requirements, testing becomes a link that cannot be ignored. It is an indispensable means to produce high-quality paper cups. In order to improve the detection accuracy of paper cups, Fujian Yibaili Package introduced a pressure leak tester in 2003. The detection principle is to add an appropriate amount of solution into the paper cup, and under a certain pressure, judge whether the paper cup is qualified or not according to whether the solution seeps out from the edge and bottom of the paper cup. In addition to the use of precision instruments, three inspection passes must be checked during the production process of paper cups.

(1) The operator checks the appearance, leakage performance, bonding area and cleanliness of the paper cup every half an hour.

(2) Quality control personnel conduct inspections 5 times per shift. In addition to inspecting the above items, they also inspect the paper cup parameters, printing effects and cup lid compatibility.

(3) The quality control of the paper cup products that are formed into boxes shall be rechecked according to the sampling ratio.

For different paper cups, different testing standards and testing methods are adopted. For example, for cold drink cups and hot drink cups, we will use two methods of reagent and pressure for leak detection. In addition to using the above two methods for leakage detection, S-TYPE hot drink cups are also tested directly with coffee to ensure that the products meet the special requirements of customers.

Develop your paper cup market

From the increasing use of paper products in daily life and the convenient and environmentally friendly characteristics of paper products, it can be seen that paper products such as paper cups / bowls/ buckets will be the most viable green tableware in the future. This is a big opportunity for the majority of paper cup manufacturers, and how to seize the opportunity depends on the strength of the company itself. Following points are worth attention.

1. Maintain the existing market

Paper cup companies should do their work meticulously and thoughtfully, give full play to the factory's expertise, and maintain existing customers and the market.

2. Develop new markets

Attract more customers by developing new products. For example, Yibiali Package developed a tube shape paper cup for a customer to hold ice cream. The ice cream can be easily squeezed out, which is convenient for eating. At the same time, the beautiful shape can attract consumers to buy this product. It can be seen that adding personalized elements to the small paper cups has played a role in opening up the market.

3. Establish strict industry standards

The entry of some irregular paper cup manufacturers has brought disorderly competition to the paper cup market. The price war has overwhelmed paper cup manufacturers. A set of packaging hygiene and safety management measures have been established and stricter industry standards have been established. Raising the barriers to entry into this market has become a top priority for the industry;