Metsä Board Further Develops Elevated Drink Box Structure

 

Metsä Board’s (Finland) patented Elevated Drink Box works like a standard ‘beverage box’, but its base incorporates a unique design feature that makes it easier and more convenient to use.

Unlike traditional beverage boxes the Elevated Drink Box does not need to be placed at the edge of a table, which gives the consumer the freedom to use this liquid packaging anywhere. The box does not take up additional shelf space in-store as the elevated base is inside the packaging, ready for assembly by the consumer before use. When empty, the plastic bag is easily removed from the box, helping with material separation for recycling.

The original Elevated Drink Box structure was designed for a 1.5 liter capacity, but in recognition of the demand for a 3 liter version, the structure has now been developed to carry the heavier weight. Different corrugated boards were produced and tested for the larger size and the development work also focused upon the die cutting to ensure that the pieces correctly fit together to create the required level of stability for the 3 liter weight.

 

 

The B-flute version has MetsäBoard Prime WKL 185 g/m2 as the surface liner and MetsäBoard Natural WKL Bright 200 g/m2 as the inner liner. The EE-flute version uses MetsäBoard Prime WKL 145 g/m2 for the surface liner and MetsäBoard Natural WKL Bright 160 g/m2 for the inner liner. Each version was offset printed and laminated by TFP Grafika in Poland.

The box compression tests (BCT) clearly demonstrated that the adapted structures of both the B-flute and EE-flute corrugated boards gave good support to the final product. In addition, the two versions offer customers different cost structures and a wider choice of printing methods (flexo post and preprint, offset). To help with deciding which option to use Metsä Board’s Technical Team can make a recommendation based upon the required production and printing techniques. The patented design can be used for free when manufacturing it from Metsä Board’s white kraftliners.

Metsä Board launched the original Elevated Drink Box in 2016 and it won an iF Design Award in 2017.