Lawrence Paper Co. Field Trip!!!

Lawrence Paper Company does not merely make boxes, they make displays, 2-in-1 shifting containers, and many more unexpected things.

For their materials, they primarily get their paper from paper mills including Green Bay Packaging and several others. Their forming technologies basically start with CAD drawings and renderings, and to prep the material for cutting, they bake it to cure the cornstarch within it. Their cutting technology is sophisticated for shelling out lots of the same cuts in a short period of time. They have 3 rotary dye cutters, and dye cuts which are custom made in-house. They also have two different types of dye cutting; Flat dye cuts and barrel dye cuts. The flat ones are used for more intricate box cuts because they take more time, and barrel dye cuts for simple designs. For joining boxes, they use special glues, as well as make it so the boxes fold in on themselves. For those particular folds, they generally score the lines to make them quick and easier to fold. For finishes, some boxes go out plain brown, while others are printed on with their industrial color printer, ink printed on, laminated over, or perhaps a combination of the formers.

All of their programming is custom-done in-house, and they make their ow ink as well as do their own color matching. Lawrence Paper Co. is one of the leading corrugated companies in the country, and has resided in Lawrence for 120 years. Quite a company, huh! Their factory is so efficient, and they have pretty much perfected the technique of box making, at least on a production scale.

Thank you to Lawrence Paper Co. for the tour!

-Randa Mortensen