Thermoforming corrugated board has been tried before, but it wasn’t commercialized. So says Thomas Strong, general manager for NaturePak, the company that worked with Racine Danish Kringles to develop the “Corru” tray used for RDK’s kringles. Strong confirms that RDK is the first company to use the Corru tray.
“We bought a thermoforming machine for [the kringle tray application],” Strong says. “The company that makes the machine is the same company that had tried to market thermoformed corrugated before, but at this point we cannot divulge who it is. There’s no other machine like this right now,” he believes.
Strong explains that the machine is specially modified for the corrugated board. The overall process, however, sounds much like that of plastic thermoforming. After proprietary pre-treating that involves adding moisture, the board is placed onto the forming section of the machine, which is equipped with male and female tooling. Heat and pressure create the tray, which has a 7/8” depth of draw. Operators stack trays, which are placed into a drying tunnel. Built by NaturePak, the tunnel helps remove moisture from the trays. Excess moisture could lessen tray performance. Nested trays are shipped to RDK.
