Paper Tubes

About Paper Tubes and Paper Tube Manufacturers Including: Cardboard Tubes, Shipping Tubes, Coin Bank, Mailing Tubes, Paper Cores & Sonotube

Paper tubes and paper caps are made from a variety of paper Products, such as fiberboard, composite materials, paperboard and Kraft paper. They have numerous applications, including telescopic cans, lab and medical containers, donation cans, rocket bodies, coin banks, pencil caddies, shipping and cores for winding various goods. Products requiring paper cores could be anything from paper towels to carpet rolls to wrapping paper and packaging tape. Paper tubes may be seamed or require an end cap. They are often labeled, either with a colorful wrap or printed right on the tube. Paper tubes do not necessarily have to be cylindrical; they can be square, rectangular, triangular or cone-shaped.
 
When choosing paper tubes or paper caps for a specific application, it is important to consider the diameter, thickness of the walls, length, liner, labeling requirements (i.e. color) and type of end closure. Typical sizes for diameters run from 1.25” to 12”, but can be as small as .317” or as large as 2’. Paper tube manufacturers produce thicknesses ranging from .025” to 1”. Length varies greatly, as well, from as small as .25” to 45’ or more; just remember to factor in length needed for an end cap that fits inside. Some paper tube manufacturers offer printed liners, water or rust resistant liners, wax, poly, silicone and glassine liners and release papers. End closures include pinched end/self-sealing, seamed-on tin, paper cuff, self-locking metal end, plastic cap, paper caps, screw top, shaker top, curled, disc and 2- or 3- piece telescopic-type closures.
 
Paper tube manufacturers can have different insulation materials available, especially for spiral wound tubing. Vulcanized fiber (fish paper) is a cotton rag base paper that is highly abrasion resistant, can withstand temperatures up to 2211/4F/1051/4C and offers superior tear resistance, bonding surface and electrical insulation. Electrical grade Kraft paper can withstand temperatures up to 1941/4F/901/4C and offers excellent dielectric strength. Phenolic Kraft paper exhibits electrical properties and excellent structural integrity. Kraft can be combined with other foils, decorative colors, plastic films or other substances with no difficulty in order to fulfill application specifications.
 
Paper tubes offer many benefits, as opposed to other types of materials. Paper does not promote condensation on parts. It’s tough, yet flexible. Paper is made from a renewable, recyclable resource and, therefore, is environmentally friendly. It offers great mechanical protection. It can also handle high temperatures, up to 4001/4F/2001/4C. Most importantly, paper is inexpensive.

Paper Tubes and Paper Caps Image Provided by Ace Paper Tube Corporation

Paper Tubes and Paper Caps Images Provided by Valk Industries, Inc.

Types of Paper Tubes

• Cardboard Tubes are any tubes made from spiral wound cardboard material.  They serve many purposes from cores for various products to storage containers and shipping purposes.
  
• Coin bank is a small paper tube used to hold specific monetary amounts of coins of the same denomination.
  
• Corrugated tubes are tubes made from composite paperboard, which is a layer of fluted material sandwiched between two layers of linerboard.
  
• Fiber tubes are tubes made from fiberboard and can be used for individual roll storage, to protect sensitive fabrics from crushing, to separate secure small lots, to provide a location for return goods and to make “bottom” rolls accessible when an entire roll is not cut.
  
• Mailing tubes are cardboard tubes that paper products are rolled up into for compact shipping that does not bend or crease the material being shipped.
  
• Shipping tubes, also called mailing tubes, are tubes, potentially having graphic advertisements printed on them, which are used for the express purpose of shipping items that fit conveniently in a tube. End cap materials include wood, metal or paper.
  
• Sonotube is a large, water-resistant cylinder paper form used in concrete pouring applications.
  
• Paper tube cores are tubes that are typically spiral wound and used for any material that requires a center, including such things as paper towels, fax paper rolls, tape and film products.
  
• Paper cans are composite containers typically made from paperboard material with an inner liner that provides a protective barrier.  Thicknesses and sizes vary, as do types of closures and label options.
  
• Spiral wound paper tubes have longer cores.

Common Terms Related To Paper Tubes

Composite or Paperboard Can - A package comprised of a body with two ends made from a variety of materials and available in many shapes and sizes. The container bodies are paper tubes and various liner materials to achieve barrier requirements and a printed label for package graphics of paper tubes.
 
Corrugating Medium - The fluted middle portion of a corrugated boxes or paper tubes that are made from paperboard and typically produced on a Fourdrinier machine as a single layer, using varying combinations of virgin and recycled fibers.
 
Cylinder Paperboard - The paperboard produced from recycled fibers on a cylinder machine consisting of multiple plies that are bonded together in the papermaking process.
 
End Closure - Rigid metal caps, film caps, plastic caps, paper caps or paper structures that are mechanically attached to the end of a package or a layered plastic film, foil or paper membrane heat-sealed to the end of a rigid package.
 
Engineered Carriers - Paper tubes, Cardboard Tubes, and cores of paper or plastic that serve as product carriers for film tubes, paper tubes, tape tubes, textile tubes, metal tubes and more.  The carrier tubes are highly engineered to permit take-up of these materials at extreme speeds.
 
Fiberboard - A composite material made from compressed wood fibers and glue.
 
Fourdrinier Machine - A machine divided into a wet end, a press section, a drier section and, typically but not always a calendar section that is employed in the manufacture of all grades of paper tubes and board.
 
Kraft Paper tube - A coarse paper made from a type of chemical wood pulp, whose color is dark brown but may be bleached to lighter shades of cream. Taking its name from the German word for strong this paper is typically used for wrapping and packaging.
 
Mandrel - The core elongated mold around which resin-impregnated fiber, paper, fabric, tape or filaments are wound to form pipes, tubes or structural shell shapes.
 
Membrane Closure - A flexible material attached to the end of a rigid package with a peelable heat seal.  This material can be a coax plastic film or a layering of plastic film, foil or paper with a heat-seal coating.
 
Paperboard - A subdivision of paper that is generally heavier in basis weight, thicker and more rigid than paper. All sheets of 12 points (0.012) or more in thickness are considered paperboard with some exceptions, such as blotting papers, felts and drawing paper in excess of 12 points, while some corrugating medium, chipboard and linerboard of less than 12 points are still categorized as paperboard.
 
Recovered Paper - Paper and paper derivatives separated, removed or diverted from solid waste disposal for the purpose of sale, use, reuse or recycling, whether or not such material necessitates further separation and processing.
 
Spiral Winding - The process in which cut ribbon of cardboard, coated with adhesive is wrapped in a helix pattern around a set round mandrel to produce spiral wound paper tubes.  It's done at an angle that will produce a continual flow of product that can be cut to any specification.