Heavy Duty Cardboard Boxes
Bespoke heavy-duty corrugated boxes manufactured in Hertfordshire for large, heavy and difficult-to-pack products. Double and triple-wall boxes, oversized cartons and pallet boxes manufactured to your dimensions, with low-volume runs available.
Heavy duty corrugated boxes are made on our own box-making machines in Letchworth, so the board grade, dimensions and construction are chosen around your product rather than picked from a stock list. This page sits alongside our bespoke packaging manufacturing and our heavy-duty and large-format sector page.
Heavy-duty boxes manufactured to your dimensions
We manufacture in-house, with design and sampling on the same site as production. That means the box is built around the internal dimensions your product actually needs, rather than forcing a heavy item into the nearest stock size and filling the rest with void fill.
Because we control the production schedule, we are not waiting on another manufacturer's slot for samples, urgent replacements or short runs. Where appropriate we produce a physical sample so you can pack the real product and test it before committing to a production quantity.
Made to measure
Internal sizes set by the product, not a stock range.
Made in Letchworth
Our own machines, our own production team.
Often no tooling
Many case-maker styles need no cutting forme.
Samples first
Test the pack with the real product before you commit.
Double wall and triple wall detailWhich grade suits which product
Double wall and triple wall cardboard boxes
Heavy duty means the right grade for the job, not simply the thickest board available. Our corrugated grades guide explains flutes, liners and board testing in more detail.
Double wall
Two layers of fluting between three liners. This is the workhorse grade for heavier products, palletised loads and boxes that need to survive general handling and multi-drop transit.
Liner weights and flute combinations can be uprated where a product is dense for its size, or where boxes are stacked for long periods in a warehouse.
Triple wall
Three layers of fluting, giving much greater rigidity and compression resistance. Used for very heavy, dense or awkward items, pallet boxes, tall stacks and export loads.
On suitable applications triple wall can be an alternative to a timber crate: lighter to freight, faster to pack and recyclable through a single stream.
Reinforced and stitched construction
For the most demanding applications, boxes can be stitched rather than glued or taped, and areas that take the strain can be reinforced.
We choose the construction around the failure you are actually seeing, whether that is a burst corner, a crushed lid or a split base.
Large and oversized heavy-duty boxesUp to 2.8m board width
Large and oversized heavy-duty boxes
Our large-format box-making capability handles corrugated board up to 2.8 metres wide, allowing us to manufacture exceptionally large and oversized cases that are beyond conventional box-making equipment. Where a conventional stock box would need joining, double boxing or excessive void fill, we can usually design a single purpose-made pack around the product instead.
That matters most on long, tall and heavy items, where every extra joint is another point that can fail in transit.
- A single correctly sized outer case instead of double boxing
- Heavy-duty double or triple wall board
- Integrated or separate corrugated fittings
- Foam protection where required
- Reinforced areas on load-bearing edges
- Pallet-compatible designs
- Stitched construction for demanding applications
- Packs designed around how the product is actually loaded
Industrial products, inserts and pallet boxesWhat we pack and how we protect it
Heavy-duty packaging for industrial products
Most of our heavy-duty work is industrial: parts that are dense for their size, sharp, oily, or simply too big for anything off the shelf. We supply heavy-duty boxes for engineering components alongside machinery, furniture and framed artwork.
- Engineering components, castings and housings
- Automotive parts and assemblies
- Machinery, equipment and spares
- Furniture and interior products
- Large framed artwork and mirrors
- Doors, panels and long products
- Export loads travelling by road or sea
- Awkward or oversized manufactured goods
Heavy-duty boxes with protective inserts
A strong outer box on its own is rarely the whole answer. Corrugated fitments, partitions, trays, pads and foam hold the product away from the walls and stop heavy items moving inside the pack. We supply the box and the internal protection as one item, and where it helps we assemble the pack so your team collects a single ready-to-use unit rather than three separate components.
Heavy-duty pallet boxes
Pallet boxes and pallet-stable packs sit squarely on a standard pallet footprint, so the load travels as one unit and can be stacked without crushing the box below. Triple wall construction, reinforced edges and matched lids and bases keep bulk loads and heavy assemblies stable through handling and transit.
Short runs and low-volume manufacturing
Heavy duty does not have to mean a pallet load of boxes. Samples, one-offs and small quantities are all commercially viable on our case-making equipment, with no cutting forme required on many styles.
If a larger quantity would materially reduce your unit cost, we will show you the difference, and we can hold the balance in our Letchworth warehouses for call-off so you are not paying for the space yourself.
Stock holding and call-off
Manufacture economically, take stock as you need it.
Own delivery fleet
Local delivery on our own vehicles, national supply available.
Heavy-duty box manufacturer in Hertfordshire
Barton Jones Packaging is based in Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, and has been manufacturing and supplying packaging since 1993. Heavy-duty boxes are made here and delivered on our own vehicles across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Buckinghamshire and North London, with national supply available for requirements further afield.
We are FSC® certified under licence C214479 and our storage and distribution operation is certificated to BRCGS Storage & Distribution. See the areas we cover on our delivery page, or read why customers move to Barton Jones.
Visit our manufacturing facility
Customers are welcome to come and see the boxes being made. It is the quickest way to understand what is possible on a heavy-duty or large-format job, and what is not.
Heavy duty box FAQsStrength, weights and grades
Heavy duty box FAQs
- What is the strongest cardboard box?
- The strongest corrugated boxes use triple wall board, which has three layers of fluting rather than one or two. Strength also depends on the liners used, the flute combination, the box style and how the box is closed, so a well specified double wall box can outperform a poorly specified triple wall one. We specify the grade around the product weight, the way it is handled and how it is stacked or shipped.
- What is the difference between double wall and triple wall cardboard boxes?
- Double wall board has two layers of fluting between three liners and is commonly used for heavier products, palletised loads and applications requiring greater stacking and transit strength. Triple wall board has three layers of fluting and is much more rigid, so it is used for very heavy, dense or awkward products, tall stacks, pallet boxes and export loads where a timber crate would otherwise be the default.
- How much weight can a heavy duty cardboard box hold?
- There is no single figure, because capacity depends on the board grade, the box dimensions, the box style, how the load sits inside and how long the box is stacked. Rather than quoting a headline weight, we specify board around your actual product weight and transit conditions, and where it matters we can review the specification with test data from the board supplier.
- Can you manufacture very large cardboard boxes?
- Yes. Our large-format box-making capability handles corrugated board up to 2.8 metres wide, allowing us to manufacture exceptionally large and oversized cases that are beyond conventional box-making equipment.
- Can heavy duty corrugated replace wooden crates?
- On many applications, yes. Correctly specified triple wall and heavy-duty double wall packs can provide an alternative to timber-based packaging while being lighter to freight, quicker to pack, easier to store flat and recyclable through a single stream. It is not right for every load, so we will tell you where timber is still the sensible answer.
- Can you manufacture one-off or low-volume heavy duty boxes?
- Yes. A wide range of case-maker styles can be manufactured without a cutting forme, which makes samples, one-offs and short production runs commercially viable rather than something you have to buy a pallet load of.
Send us the product and the problem
Send us the dimensions, approximate weight, quantity required and how the product will be transported. We will recommend the board grade and box construction. Not sure where to start? Use Packassist to narrow it down first.