At EasyBag, we don't just focus on selling and printing finished products from our warehouse stock. For clients with large volumes, we carry out complete turnkey custom-made production. We can produce not only luxury gift packaging with various types of lamination, but also fully machine-made paper bags with flat or twisted handles in a wide range of modifications.
Machine-made paper bags from custom-made production are usually manufactured from a minimum quantity of 5,000 pieces, with a significant reduction in the price per piece already achieved for orders from 10,000 pieces. Let's take a look at how the entire process works, what technological possibilities this production offers, and what you need to prepare for before placing an order.
What is a machine-made paper bag?
The term "machine-made bag" (often referred to in the industry as a Kraft bag) is derived from the very method of its production. The entire process is 100% automated and takes place without any manual labor involved.
These paper bags are made from white or brown sulfate paper (Kraft), or in basic colors such as blue, red, green, and black (printed white or brown paper). They are fitted with either a flat or twisted paper handle, which is protected on the inside by a glued paper strip.
Structural specifics of machine production:
- Jagged top edge: The bags do not have a straight or folded hem; instead, their top edge is jagged. This finish is a technological standard that allows for extremely fast cutting on the line and ensures a low price.
- Absence of a cardboard bottom: Machine-made bags typically do not include a reinforcing cardboard insert in the bottom. If you require one for your goods, we supply cardboard inserts separately, and their insertion into the bags is done manually by the client after delivery.
Production line: How are paper bags made from a giant roll?
The basis of the entire process is a fully automated printing and forming line. On one side, a giant roll of paper weighing up to one ton enters the machine, and on the other end, finished, printed, folded, and counted paper bags come out.
Given that the line must handle many technological operations in one uninterrupted run, it is a massive industrial facility consisting of several sections:
1. Unwinder: A mechanical arm that holds and continuously unwinds the roll of paper.
2. Flexography tower: A system of printing cylinders, where each printing color has its own independent unit. The paper is printed while still a flat strip, before the bag itself is formed.
3. Drying zone: Hot air or UV dryers, which must fix the flexography ink within a fraction of a second so it does not smudge in the next phase.
4. Forming section: Here, the flat printed paper is bent over metal forming templates into the shape of an endless tube, and longitudinal adhesive is applied.
5. Bottom and handle section: The mechanically most complex part of the machine. The line instantly folds and forms the bottom, shapes paper handles from a paper cord (or strip), glues them inside, and cuts off the finished bag.
This process takes place at extremely high speeds. The advantage is unrivaled economic efficiency, while the disadvantage is a slight mechanical tolerance, since millimeter precision cannot be guaranteed on every piece at such a pace.
Production capabilities of custom-made production
Custom-made production is the ideal solution if you plan an order of 10,000 pieces or more and your graphics contain elements that cannot be technologically printed on ready-made warehouse bags (e.g. edge-to-edge printing, printing on side gussets, bottom printing, or printing under the folded bottom on the back side).
As part of custom-made production, we are able to implement:
- Fully colored bags in precise shades according to the Pantone U color chart.
- Combined printing (e.g. colored base paper with a specific logo).
- Full-color printing in CMYK mode (suitable for complex graphics).
- Paper bags with colored handles – for flat handles, any Pantone U shade can be chosen, while for twisted handles, we select from a palette of predefined color batches.
- Use of special materials, such as water-resistant paper (ideal for chilled food and gastro) or sustainable paper made from hemp fibers.
We standardly use paper with a basis weight of 80 to 110 g/m². Production takes place in fixed defined sizes (see table below), because the machine is always structurally set for specific formats and cannot be changed arbitrarily to millimeters.
We print with water-based inks (Pantone U and CMYK). It should be taken into account that these pigments partially soak into the material, so the colors are not vividly bright. For example, white printing on brown paper will show slight show-through of the base, which gives the packaging a natural, ecological character.
Custom-made production dimension table
What factors affect the final price?
The unit price of a custom-made bag depends on several key parameters:
1. Order volume: For fully automated lines, a direct proportion applies – the higher the ordered quantity, the more significantly the price per piece decreases.
2. Initial costs for printing plates: For the first order, a one-time price is calculated for the production of flexography printing plates. This depends on the size of the graphics and the number of colors. For full-color CMYK printing, 4 plates must be produced. For repeated identical orders, these plates are reused free of charge.
3. Handle type: Bags with a flat paper handle are more economical than variants with a twisted handle.
4. Material consumption: Larger bag dimensions naturally increase the price due to higher paper and ink consumption.
Quantity tolerance in industrial production
When calculating custom-made production, it is necessary to take into account the so-called quantity tolerance. Due to the speed of the machine and technological waste during line setup, machines cannot be stopped at an exact piece count.
- For orders in the volume of 5,000 to 9,000 pieces, the tolerance is ± 20%.
- For orders from 10,000 pieces and above, the tolerance is ± 10%.
This means that for an order of 10,000 pieces, the final produced quantity may range between 9,000 and 11,000 pieces. Invoicing is always based on the exact number of actually completed and delivered pieces (after deducting production defects). The client is then issued either an additional payment or a credit note.
Is it possible to obtain a physical sample before production?
In custom-made machine production, it is not technologically possible to produce a single test piece with your own design. Preparing the line (producing plates, mixing colors, adjusting rollers, and starting up the machine with technological waste) would mean costs in the order of tens of thousands of crowns for a single sample.
However, to verify the quality of the material and dimension, we standardly send our clients physical samples from previous productions free of charge (only the shipping cost applies).
How to request custom-made production?
If you are interested in large-volume custom-made paper bags, send us an inquiry by email to [email protected]. For quick processing of the offer, please state the following parameters:
- Required quantity
- Exact dimension of the bag (width x depth x height)
- Color of the base paper (white / brown)
- Type and color of the handle (flat / twisted)
- Specification of the motif (ideally send print data in vectors with Pantone U or CMYK color definitions, or state the percentage coverage of the bag surface by color).
Our team of experts will go through the inquiry with you, check the print data, and propose the most suitable solution. Do not forget that a company bag is an effective mobile billboard that represents your brand everywhere on the streets.