Papermaking has become a world-wide industrial industry. Various paper and paper products have penetrated into all aspects of people’s lives, and pulp molded products have also developed in this environment. Some developed countries have more than 80 years of history in the pulp molding industry. At present, the pulp molding industry in France, the United States, Japan, Canada, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Singapore, the Netherlands and other countries have already reached a considerable scale. In the United States, paper for pulp molded products is basically waste paper, which is about 450,000 tons per year. Since 1994, it has grown at a rate of 40% per year, and in 2000 it has grown to 810,000 tons. Since 1989, there have been about 600 factories in the United States producing pulp, paper and cardboard and related products. Among them, 200 are basically using waste paper as raw materials, and another 300 are using waste paper 50% in the production process. The huge demand for pulp molded packaging has made it the third largest consumer of recycled paper.

Second, the development characteristics of foreign pulp molding

1. A wide range of applications. For example, automotive products, electronic products, hardware appliances, consumer goods, medical appliances, household goods, office products, etc., pulp molded products have even been applied to sales packaging.

2. A computer-aided design approach was adopted. The model of the pulp molded product is designed by using three-dimensional computer software, such as pro/Engineer, Solid-works, etc. According to the data file of the design model, the rapid prototyping machine can directly manufacture the molding die and the prototype of the product. It is also possible to transfer the data file into the manufacturing software Master cam and perform the tool processing directly in the CNC machining center. This technology is currently only available to individual companies in China.

3. Product design is standardized and modular. In the production of pulp molded articles, mold costs are one of the important costs. Foreign manufacturers pay attention to the wide application and versatility in the design and application of pulp molded products. For example, general-purpose braided linings, corner guards, partitions, etc., because of the large production volume, high mold utilization rate, simple design, and the cost of mold amortization will be greatly reduced.

4. The production equipment is advanced and the process is reasonable. Compared with China, it is characterized by pressure drying technology, direct hot pressing, no need of oven, energy consumption is greatly reduced; machine automation is very high, almost completely automated, saving energy and labor.

Third, the development of domestic pulp molding

The pulp molding industry has been developing in China for nearly 20 years. Since the 1980s, Hunan, Beijing, Shandong, Jiangsu and other places have introduced foreign pulp molding production lines for the production of egg trays. In 1984, Hunan Pulp Molding Factory invested more than 10 million yuan to introduce a drum automatic pulp molding production line from France mainly for the production of egg trays, which is the beginning of Chinese pulp molding. In the late 1980s, China began to research its own pulp molding line. In 1988, China developed the first domestically produced pulp molding production line, mainly based on egg trays, beer trays and fruit trays. The products were single and the grades were lower. Since the 1990s, pulp molded products have been used to package agricultural and sideline products, home appliances, electronics, instrumentation and other products.

After 1994, the development of the pulp molding industry has made a new leap. In the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong Province, coastal large and medium-sized cities have concentrated on J, producing manufacturers of lining packaging for pulp molded products. Egg tray production is mainly concentrated in Hunan. , Shandong, Henan, Beijing and other places; there are a number of manufacturers who design and manufacture pulp molding equipment, such as Xiangtan pulp molding factory. According to incomplete statistics, the production and equipment of pulp molded products have reached more than 200, distributed throughout the country.

It is allowed that since 1994, with the influence of environmental protection policies at home and abroad and the awareness of social environmental protection, China has invested a large amount of manpower and capital in the pulp molding industry. After efforts have been made to study pulp molded snack boxes, bowls, plates, etc. that meet the national conditions, the production equipment and process, formulation, hygiene and physical and chemical indicators of the fast food boxes are all very high. With the support of the relevant state departments, after the efforts of the majority of scientific research personnel, Chinese fast food box products have been continuously improved. China’s pulp molding production process and equipment have reached the world’s advanced level in certain performance indicators.

Fourth, the characteristics of domestic pulp molding development

The development characteristics of China’s pulp molding industry packaging mainly include the following aspects:

1. The pulp molding and packaging materials market is booming. By 2002, the four pulp molding technology development centers in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu and Guangdong have been formed in China, and the application of paper molds and packaging products has been formed. Has been spread across major brand products. Especially since 2001, related companies have increased at a rate of 20% per year. Once the country’s regulations on the total ban on the use of EPS are introduced, the market demand for pulp molding industrial packaging will increase rapidly.

2. The development of pulp molding industrial packaging has a comparative advantage.

Packaging high-value items in low-grade raw materials is the economic basis for better returns in pulp molding industry packaging materials. Pulp molding industrial packaging generally uses carton trim, old cartons and old newspapers as raw materials. Due to the high value of the package itself, the inner packaging cost acceptable to customers is relatively high.

3. Pulp molded packages have lower entry thresholds but are technically demanding. Pulp mold

Industrial packaging projects require less capital investment and lower equipment technology. In addition, there are many varieties of pulp molding used as industrial packaging materials, and – generally, the continuous production time of each type of product is not too long, so it is not easy to appear that the same product competes with each other.
Furthermore, the industrial packaging pulp molded products have complex geometric shapes, and the volume of the same type after stacking and packaging is large, and the long-distance transportation cost is high, and it is not easy to compete across regions. However, it should be noted that each type of pulp molded product is a special new product, which must be designed, molded, sampled, tested, modified, etc. to be officially mass-produced, plus profit and production process. It has a lot to do with the management level, so investors must think carefully. In addition to the funding problem, we must consider the issues of product structure design, mold manufacturing, professional training, process formulation and market development. The overall technical requirements are high.

V. Problems in the development of pulp molding technology

1. At the current state of the art, the thickness of the pulp molded article is approximately between 1 mm and 60 mm, and the thickness of the general product is about 2.5 mm.

2. From the current quality and application of pulp molded packaging products, the maximum load capacity can reach 150kg, and the product lining packaging with less complicated shape and weight less than 5Okg is the best choice.

3. The price of pulp molded products is generally considered based on the shape and structure of the product, the weight, the raw materials used, the requirements of the manufacturing process, the output of the product, the type and value of the package. Currently commonly used is the value converted into unit weight, such as yuan / gram or yuan / ton. From the situation in East China, the general product price is 6,000 yuan / ton to 10,000 yuan / ton; the product with higher appearance requirements and higher dimensional requirements is priced at 2,000 yuan / ton to 14,000 yuan / ton.

4. The pass rate of products in the production process of pulp molding industrial packaging and the reliability of the production line are big problems involving production costs. At present, the qualified rate of domestic products is about 85%-98%.