Lighter
Less weight in the packaging means less paid in freight on every single shipment.
Corrugated packaging · Lahore
Heavy-duty boxes
Cartons specified for weight — 5-ply and 7-ply board for industrial loads, bulk supply and export, where a lighter box would not survive the stack.
Specified for the stack, not just the weight
The obvious question about a heavy box is how much it holds. The more useful one is what happens to it over the next six weeks — because heavy cartons rarely fail from a single drop. They fail from compression: the box at the bottom of a stack carrying everything above it, slowly taking up moisture from the air until the board gives.
So a heavy-duty specification is written against four things together: the weight inside, the size of the panel, how high it is stacked, and how long it stays there.
A match factory's outer carton is the everyday case of this: a light load, stood many high in a godown for weeks, through the monsoon. See matchbox cartons.
Where heavy board earns its cost
| Use | Why it needs the board |
|---|---|
| Machinery and parts | Dense, awkward loads with weight concentrated in one place rather than spread evenly. |
| Export shipments | Long journeys, container stacking and humidity — often in place of a wooden crate. |
| Bulk and wholesale | Large master cartons that get stacked several high in a warehouse for weeks. |
| Chemicals and industrial goods | Heavy drums, tins and sacks that punish a light board at the base and the corners. |
Instead of a wooden crate
No timber paperwork
Solid wood packaging attracts heat-treatment and fumigation requirements for export. Corrugated board does not.
Flat until needed
Cartons arrive flat and are made up when packed, rather than stored assembled.
Recyclable
It goes into the same waste stream as the rest of your cardboard.
Not every job — a very dense or sharp load may still want a crate, and we will say so rather than sell you board that is wrong for it.
What to send us
The weight, the internal dimensions, how many stack on a pallet, how high, how long they are stored, and where they travel. That is enough to specify the board properly.
If you are choosing between 5-ply and 7-ply, start with 3-ply, 5-ply or 7-ply, then GSM and BF explained for the paper grade that sits underneath the ply count.
Common questions
What counts as a heavy-duty box?
In practice, anything specified in 5-ply or 7-ply because the load, the stack or the journey is beyond what single wall carries. There is no formal cut-off — the specification follows the weight, the box size, how high it is stacked and how long it stays under load.
Can a corrugated box replace a wooden crate?
Often, yes. A 7-ply triple wall carton is lighter than a wooden crate, cheaper, easier to handle, and does not need heat treatment or fumigation certificates for export the way solid wood packaging does. For very dense or sharp loads a crate may still be the right answer, and we will say so.
How much weight can a 7-ply box carry?
Above what 5-ply manages, which is typically in the 20 to 45 kg range — but the honest answer is that ply alone does not decide it. Board grade, box size, stacking height, storage time and humidity all move the figure, so heavy jobs are specified against the actual load rather than from a table.
What makes a heavy box fail?
Usually not a single drop. It is compression over time — the box at the bottom of a stack holding the weight above it for weeks while it slowly takes up moisture from the air. That is why storage conditions and stack height matter as much as the weight inside.
Do heavy boxes need hand holes?
They help, but they remove board exactly where the wall is carrying load, so on a very heavy carton they have to be placed and specified deliberately rather than added as an afterthought. Tell us the weight and how it will be lifted.
Can heavy-duty boxes be printed?
Yes — usually one or two colours carrying contents, weight, handling marks and shipping marks. Heavy cartons are working packaging, so the printing is there to be read in a warehouse rather than to sell from a shelf.
Before you specify
Worth reading first
GSM and BF explainedThe two numbers that decide how strong a carton really is — what they mean, how burst factor is calculated, and what to ask a supplier for.3-ply, 5-ply or 7-plyWhat the ply number counts, roughly how much weight each construction carries, and how to choose without paying for board you do not need.
No price list, and that is deliberate
Tell us what you need to pack
Every job is specified for one customer, so cost depends on size, board, quantity and print. Describe the product and the journey it makes, and we will propose a specification and quote it.
Request a quote