Resources · glossary
The vocabulary, defined in plain language.
Packaging has an unusually large amount of jargon for an industry that mostly sells folded paper. These are the terms that come up in quotes and specifications.
- Terms
- 56
- Categories
- 6
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16 terms
Board & construction
- Basis weight
- The weight of a liner or medium expressed in pounds per thousand square feet. Higher basis weight generally means stiffer, stronger board.
- Board certificate
- The round stamp on a bottom flap declaring construction, burst or edge crush rating, size limit and gross weight limit.
- Butt joint
- A manufacturer's joint where two edges meet without overlap, taped or stitched. Weaker than a glued lap joint and a common failure point on used boxes.
- Combined board
- Finished corrugated: liners and fluted medium glued together into a single sheet.
- Delamination
- Liners separating from the fluted medium. A box can look square and still fail suddenly once delaminated and is usually a reason to reject it.
- Double wall
- Two fluted layers between three liners. Heavier shipping cartons and light bulk containers.
- ECT
- Edge Crush Test. The force in pounds per inch that a one-inch strip of board withstands on edge. The best single predictor of stacking strength.
- Flute
- The wave-shaped medium between liners. Profiles A, B, C, E and F differ in height and count per foot, and determine cushioning, compression and printability.
- Kraft liner
- The outer facing sheet, made largely from virgin softwood fibre for strength, or from recovered fibre in recycled grades.
- McKee formula
- The relationship used to estimate box compression strength from edge crush, board thickness and box perimeter.
- Medium
- The corrugated inner layer that forms the flutes, usually lighter and often higher in recycled content than the liners.
- Mullen burst
- The pressure in psi required to rupture board. Predicts puncture and rough-handling resistance rather than stacking.
- Score
- A crease pressed into board so it folds predictably. Repeated folding at a score is one of the three things that genuinely wears a box out.
- Single wall
- One fluted layer between two liners. Standard shipping carton construction.
- Triple wall
- Three fluted layers between four liners. The classic octabin and shallow tray board.
- 4-wall / 5-wall
- Trade shorthand for heavy bulk container constructions above triple wall. Usage varies between manufacturers, which is why payload matters more than the label.
10 terms
Containers
- Bulk bin
- Generic term for any large container sized to a pallet. Interchangeable with gaylord on most docks.
- Bulk box
- See gaylord. Regional preference decides which term you hear.
- Cap / telescoping cap
- A lid that slides over the outside of the box body, protecting the top edge from rain, dust and forklift contact.
- FIBC
- Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container — a woven polypropylene bulk bag, also called a super sack or tote bag.
- Gaylord
- A large corrugated bulk container sized to a pallet, typically 48 × 40 at the base, with typical ratings that vary widely by wall count.
- Half gaylord
- A bulk box on roughly half a pallet footprint, commonly 41 × 28 × 25, used where aisle space or reach is limited.
- Liner
- A poly or foil bag fitted inside a box to isolate the product from the board and vice versa.
- Octabin
- An eight-sided bulk container with a separate base and cap, used for free-flowing material that would bridge in a square corner.
- Sleeve
- The body of a bulk container, separate from its base. A worn sleeve can sometimes be replaced on a sound base.
- Tote box
- Another synonym for gaylord, more common in recycling and waste industries.
7 terms
Grading & condition
- 1A – 5A
- A common five-rung way to describe used box condition. There is no governing standard, so ask each supplier how they grade.
- Creep
- Slow deformation of board under sustained load. The reason a stack that held for a week fails after three months.
- Derate
- To reduce a published rating because of observed condition, storage time or humidity.
- Edge crush damage
- Physical crushing of the vertical edges, usually from forklift contact or overhang. The most consequential real-world damage a bulk box suffers.
- Moisture content
- Water held in the board as a percentage of weight. Higher moisture means lower strength, and very damp board is usually rejected.
- Out of square
- A box whose diagonals differ. Indicates overloading, bad storage or crush, and predicts failure better than surface appearance.
- Single trip
- Packaging designed and rated for one filling cycle. A 5:1 FIBC is single trip; reusing it for the same duty is unsafe.
8 terms
Pallets & handling
- Block pallet
- A pallet using solid blocks rather than stringers, giving true four-way forklift entry.
- Deck board
- The top and bottom boards of a pallet. More top boards spread load better under a heavy bulk box.
- GMA pallet
- The 48 × 40 inch grocery industry standard pallet, and the footprint most gaylord boxes are sized to.
- ISPM 15
- The international standard for treating wood packaging used in export, commonly by heat treatment to 56 °C for 30 minutes, evidenced by a stamp. Check current regulations for your route.
- Overhang
- A box extending beyond the pallet edge. Transfers handling load onto the bottom edge of the corrugated and destroys reusability.
- Slip sheet
- A thin sheet used between a load and a deck or floor, often to prevent moisture wicking from concrete.
- Stringer pallet
- A pallet built on longitudinal stringers, with partial four-way entry if notched.
- Unitising
- Securing a load into a single handling unit with banding, wrap or dunnage.
7 terms
Freight
- Backhaul
- A return movement on a truck that would otherwise run empty. The main reason used boxes are affordable at distance.
- Dunnage bag
- An inflatable bag used to fill voids in a trailer and stop loads shifting.
- Floor-loaded
- Freight placed directly on the trailer floor rather than palletised.
- LTL
- Less Than Truckload. Shared trailer space for shipments too small to justify a dedicated truck.
- Pallet position
- One 48 × 40 floor space in a trailer. A 53-foot dry van holds about twenty-six by footprint.
- Roll-off
- A large open container dropped at a site for staged accumulation and collected when full.
- Truckload / TL
- A dedicated full trailer. Usually the cheapest per unit for larger volumes.
8 terms
Recycling
- Bale
- Compressed recovered material strapped into a handling unit, such as a bale of old corrugated.
- Contamination
- Anything in a recovered stream that the receiving mill cannot process — wax, plastic, food residue, metal.
- Diversion
- Material kept out of disposal by reuse, recycling or another route.
- Fibre length
- The physical length of pulp fibres. It shortens with every recycling loop, limiting corrugated to several cycles.
- Furnish
- The mix of fibre inputs a mill uses to make board, including the virgin and recovered proportions.
- OCC
- Old Corrugated Containers — the grade name for used corrugated collected for recycling, traded on a market price.
- Repulping
- Breaking recovered board back into fibre slurry with water and agitation, the first step of recycling.
- Waste hierarchy
- The ranking of source reduction, reuse, recycling, recovery and disposal — in that order of preference.
Related
Where these terms get used.
Units
Conversions worth memorising.
The handful of numbers that come up in nearly every packaging conversation, in one place.
| To get | From | Multiply by |
|---|---|---|
| Cubic feet | Cubic inches | ÷ 1,728 |
| Cubic yards | Cubic feet | ÷ 27 |
| US gallons | Cubic feet | × 7.48 |
| Litres | Cubic feet | × 28.32 |
| Kilograms | Pounds | × 0.4536 |
| Tons (US short) | Pounds | ÷ 2,000 |
| Millimetres | Inches | × 25.4 |
| Load weight | Cubic feet × density | lb/ft³ |
| Practical fill | Gross cube | × fill fraction below 1 |
| Round bin volume | π × r² × height | ÷ 1,728 |
Jargon translation
What people say, and what they mean.
Phrases that turn up in quotes from across this industry, translated honestly.
- “Good used condition”
- Means little. Ask how the supplier grades, and ask for photographs of the actual lot.
- “Like new”
- Usually means 1A, first use or unused surplus. Occasionally means the seller has not looked at the bottom of the pallet.
- “Mixed load”
- Unsorted by size and grade, priced by the load. Legitimate and cheap, provided it is described as such.
- “Food grade”
- On used packaging this is a claim to check with your own QA. This site does not offer specialised compliance.
- “Heavy duty”
- Not a specification. Ask for a wall count, an ECT or Mullen figure, and a typical payload to confirm with the supplier.
- “Available now”
- Used stock is finite, so availability depends on the supplier. Ask for photos of the actual lot.
- “Sustainable packaging”
- Ask what that means in practice. Reusing a box avoids making a new one, and corrugated is widely recycled where facilities accept it.
Questions
Packaging terms, answered.
What is a gaylord box?
A large corrugated bulk container sized to a pallet, typically with a 48 by 40 inch base and rated to carry a few hundred to a couple of thousand pounds, depending on construction. Bulk bin and bulk box mean the same thing on most docks.
What is the difference between ECT and Mullen ratings?
ECT, the edge crush test, measures how much force a strip of board withstands on edge and is the best predictor of stacking strength. Mullen burst measures the pressure needed to rupture board and predicts puncture and rough-handling resistance.
What do 4-wall and 5-wall mean?
They are trade shorthand for heavy bulk box constructions above triple wall. Manufacturers use the labels inconsistently, so the rated payload tells you more about a box than its wall count.
What is an octabin?
An eight-sided bulk container with a separate base and cap, used for free-flowing resin, powder and granulate that would bridge in the square corners of a standard gaylord box.
What is delamination, and why is it usually a reject?
Delamination is when the liners separate from the fluted medium. A delaminated box can still look square and dry, yet it can fail suddenly under load, so it is usually rejected at every grade.
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