Die-Cut Boxes.

It's a plywood base with steel cutting and creasing rules bent to follow your dieline, pressed into the board to cut and score each blank in one stroke. Every die-cut box starts from one. The die is made once for your structure and then reused on every reorder.

That's why the first run carries a tooling charge and later runs at the same size don't.

Yes, we cut prototypes on a digital cutting table, which follows the dieline with a blade and needs no steel. That lets you fold and test the structure before paying for tooling. It's the step where locking features, tuck depth and fit get corrected.

Digital cutting also handles very short runs. For 500 units and up, a steel die is quicker on the press.

Grain direction decides whether each fold helps or fights the carton, so we set it against the major folds when laying out the dieline. Board is stiffer in one direction than the other. Get it right and the panels stay flat and the box stands square on the shelf.

Get it wrong and a well-printed carton bows, gaps at the tuck or leans once it's erected.

Board has thickness, and every fold uses some of it, so the inside of the box ends up smaller than the numbers on a flat drawing. On 24pt board or E-flute the difference is noticeable on a snug fit. We draw the dieline from your internal dimensions and add the caliper allowance at each panel.

Always give us the internal size you need, and label it as such. Mixing up inside and outside measurements is the most common reason a product doesn't fit.

Nesting is how many blanks fit on one press sheet, and the board between them is waste you pay for. An odd shape with long flaps can leave large gaps on the sheet. Small changes to flap length or a tab position often let another blank fit, which lowers the unit cost across the whole run.

We look at the nest before quoting and will suggest a tweak if one saves board without hurting the structure.

It depends on the run and the board, with litho for high-quality carton print, flexo for corrugated and digital for short or variable runs. Hot foil, embossing, spot UV and soft-touch lamination are available on top. CMYK and PMS colours are both supported.

We don't offer holographic finishes or window patching on this product, but perforated tear strips and custom closures can be cut in the same die.

The minimum is 500 cartons per die and design, and one order can run as high as 100,000. A second design on the same structure can share the die, so a range of products in one size keeps tooling to a single set. SBS from 14 to 24pt, kraft and recycled PCW grades all run on it.

Prototype quantities below the minimum are handled on the digital cutter before the steel is ordered.

Samples take 5 to 7 business days, and bulk production follows in 7 to 10 business days once the proof is approved. Rush production shortens the run to 5 to 7 business days if you're working to a launch. The dieline and design help are free throughout.

The sample fee counts toward the production order, so the prototype stage isn't money spent twice.