Packaging History
Packaging is an ancient and modern topic, and it is also a subject that people have been researching and exploring from beginning to end. From the ancient primitive society and the farming era to the modern society with highly developed science and technology, packaging has gradually developed with the evolution of human beings, the appearance of commodities, the development of production, and the progress of science and technology, and breakthroughs have occurred continuously. On the whole, packaging has roughly experienced three development stages: original packaging, traditional packaging, and modern packaging.
original packaging
The history of human use of packaging can be traced back to ancient times. As early as the late primitive society about 10,000 years ago, with the improvement of production technology, production was developed, and there were surplus items that needed to be stored and exchanged, so original packaging began to appear. Initially, people used kudzu vines to bind prey, and wrapped items with plant leaves, shells, animal skins, etc. This was the embryo of the development of primitive packaging. Later, with the improvement of labor skills, people made the most primitive baskets and baskets with plant fibers, calcined stones, and soil with fire to make clay pots, bowls, and pots, etc., to hold and preserve food, beverages, and other items. , so that the convenient transportation, storage, and safekeeping functions of the packaging are preliminarily improved. This is the ancient packaging, the original packaging.
traditional packaging
Around 5000 BC, humans began to enter the Bronze Age. In the Xia Dynasty of China more than 4,000 years ago, the Chinese were able to smelt copper, and the bronze smelting technology further developed during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people mastered cast iron steelmaking technology and lacquer painting technology, and a large number of iron containers and painted wooden containers appeared. In ancient Egypt, glass vessels were blown as early as 3000 BC. Therefore, it has been thousands of years to process various packaging containers with ceramics, glass, wood, and metal, and many of these technologies have been continuously improved and developed, and have been used until now.
As early as the Han Dynasty, Cai Lun invented papermaking in 105 BC. In AD 61, Chinese papermaking was passed to Japan via Goryeo; it was introduced to Europe in the 13th century, and Germany was the first to build a large paper mill. In the middle of the 11th century, Bi Sheng in China invented movable type printing. In the 15th century, letterpress printing began to appear in Europe, and the packaging printing and packaging and decoration industries began to develop. In the 16th century, the European ceramic industry began to develop; the United States built a glass factory and began to produce various glass containers. So far, the packaging industry with ceramics, glass, wood, metal, etc. as the main materials has begun to develop, and modern traditional packaging has begun to transition to modern packaging.
modern packaging
Since the 16th century, due to the rapid development of industrial production, especially the European industrial revolution in the 19th century, the development of the packaging industry has been greatly promoted, thus laying the foundation for the emergence and establishment of modern packaging industry and packaging technology.
At the end of the 18th century, French scientists invented the sterilization method to package and store food, which led to the emergence of glass food cans and tinplate food cans in the early 19th century, which led to the rapid development of food packaging. In the 19th century, the packaging industry began to develop in an all-round way. In 1800, the mechanism wooden box appeared; in 1814, the first Fourdrinier paper machine appeared in Britain; in 1818, tinned metal cans appeared; In 1868, the United States invented the first synthetic plastic bag – celluloid; in 1890, the American Railway Yard Transportation Committee began to recognize corrugated boxes as transportation packaging containers.
In the 20th century, the development of science and technology is changing with each passing day, new materials and new technologies are constantly emerging, polyethylene, paper, glass, aluminum foil, various plastics, composite materials, and other packaging materials are widely used, aseptic packaging, shockproof packaging, anti-theft packaging, insurance Packaging, combination packaging, composite packaging, and other technologies are becoming more and more mature, and the functions of packaging have been strengthened in many ways.
Since the middle and late 20th century, with the rapid development of international trade, packaging has been valued by all countries in the world. About 90% of commodities need to be packaged in different degrees and types. Packaging has become an indispensable and important link in the production and circulation of commodities. Electronic technology, laser technology, and microwave technology are widely used in the packaging industry. The packaging design has realized computer-aided design (CAD), and the packaging production has also realized mechanized and automated production.
The development of the packaging industry and technology has promoted the formation of packaging science research and packaging science. The discipline of packaging covers physics, chemistry, biology, humanities, art, and other aspects of knowledge. It belongs to the comprehensive science in the interdisciplinary group. It organically absorbs and integrates new theories, new materials, new technologies, and new processes of different disciplines. From the point of view of system engineering to solve the comprehensive problems in the circulation process of commodity protection, storage, transportation, and promotion of sales. The classification of packaging disciplines is quite diverse, and it is usually classified into sub-disciplines such as packaging materials, packaging and transportation, packaging technology, packaging design, packaging management, packaging decoration, packaging testing, and packaging mechanics. More than 40 colleges and universities in China have opened packaging engineering majors, and the packaging talent team is growing day by day.
Hangzhou ONLYMAILER Packaging Co.,Ltd produce paper mailing bags and paper carrier bags.