Converting is everything that happens to a printed sheet after it leaves the press. The sheet is cut to its outline, creased where it will later fold, windowed if the package needs a clear view of the product, and then either folded and glued or formed into its final shape. Printing puts the design on the board; converting is what turns that board into a package that can be filled, closed, and shipped. At OlymPak, every one of those steps happens in our Mora, Minnesota facility, so a job moves from press to finished package without leaving the building, under one set of eyes and one quality standard.

The structure of the package decides the path. Cartons, sleeves, and boxes with square corners and flat panels are folded along their scored creases and glued on the folder/gluer, which produces a package that ships flat and pops open at the point of use. Trays, clamshells, and lidded containers that need smooth corners and a rigid, seamless wall go to the forming machines, where the blank is pressed into its final shape in one step. Both paths start with the same printed white paperboard and the same cutting and creasing operations, so the choice comes down to how the package will be handled and what it needs to hold. Our team reviews that with you during design, so the structure is matched to the right process before the first sheet is printed.

Forming is the converting process that gives flat printed paperboard a three-dimensional shape in a single pressing step. Instead of being folded along scored creases and glued, the blank is placed in a forming machine and pressed into a tray, clamshell, or lidded container with smooth corners and a rigid wall. Pizza clamshells, food trays, and serving containers are the products that take this path, because they need to hold their shape under weight without a glue seam. Formed packaging is typically produced on grease-resistant barrier boards, so the printed paperboard stands up to oils, cheese, and sauces without staining or softening. Containers leave the forming machines ready to fill, so there is no assembly step before the food goes in.