Custom Full Overlap Containers
Custom full overlap containers built to your internal size in B or BC flute, from 100. Where a standard shipper takes a knock on the top and bottom, the FOL doubles the board there — and we send the dieline with the price the same working day.
A regular slotted box with the weak faces fixed
- Board
- B flute single wall; BC double wall for heavy or pallet-stacked goods
- Builds
- Full overlap (FOL), partial overlap (POL); glued manufacturer's joint
- Sizing
- Cut to internal dimensions; best value on long, narrow formats
Get a price for Full Overlap Containers
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
What the overlap actually buys you
Three things. Stacking strength on the top face, because the flaps span the whole width and brace each other. Drop resistance on the bottom, for the same reason. And a sealed edge: the flap edges land on the box wall rather than meeting over a gap, so there is no seam for a blade or a corner to catch. Anything long, heavy or edge-fragile — framed prints, tiles, bound books, machine parts — is what the FOL was designed around.
For contents that need separating rather than bracing, cells inside the box do more than a heavier grade.
Full overlap, partial overlap, and when each is enough
A long, narrow box gains most from the FOL, because the outer flaps on an RSC of that shape are a narrow strip that flexes under a stack. A square box gains least.
| Full overlap (FOL) | Outer flaps meet edge to edge. Double thickness across the whole top and bottom. |
|---|---|
| Partial overlap (POL) | Outer flaps overlap by an inch or two. Cheaper on board; most of the sealing benefit, less of the stacking. |
| Regular slotted (RSC) | Flaps meet in the center. The default shipper; fine for most parcels. |
It uses more board, and the quote shows exactly how much
The overlap is extra material on every box — roughly the width of the box again across two flaps. On a large container that is a real share of the board, and it is the reason to confirm the FOL is needed rather than specifying it out of caution. We quote it beside a plain RSC in the same grade so you can see the difference, and a plain sample of each is available if the stack test is worth running.
Sealing a double-thickness flap
For anything a customer opens, tape. Our shipping box range for e-commerce covers the tear-strip and self-seal options if the FOL is arriving on a doorstep rather than a loading bay.
- Tape across the full length of the seam and over both ends — the double layer holds tape better than a single flap.
- Hot-melt glue on a packing line, applied to the inner flaps before the outer close.
- Staples for the heaviest industrial containers, with a corrugated pad inside to protect the contents.
Print, and why the flaps are the place for it
The wide outer flaps are a large flat panel that is always on the outside, which makes them the natural home for handling marks, a logo or a "this way up" that is not lost on a seam. Flexo in one or two colors on kraft is the standard; a white liner if you need a brand color to read true.
Print orientation is set on the dieline, so check which face is the top before you approve it — on an FOL the top is not always the obvious face.
Full Overlap Containers — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Board
- B flute single wall; BC double wall for heavy or pallet-stacked goods
- Builds
- Full overlap (FOL), partial overlap (POL); glued manufacturer's joint
- Sizing
- Cut to internal dimensions; best value on long, narrow formats
- Closure
- Tape, hot-melt or staple; tear strip on request
- Flexo 1–2 colors on kraft; white top liner for brand colors
- Supply
- Flat, bundled; sample of FOL and RSC available side by side
- Minimum
- 100 containers
On every job
- Print process
- Flexo in one to four colors straight onto the liner; litho-lamination where the box needs full color or a photograph.
- Color
- Flat colors on kraft. Full color needs a white top liner or a laminated sheet, because brown shifts every color warm.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1.5 mm. The flute compresses, so corrugated runs wider than folding board.
- Tooling
- No die on a regular slotted box, which is cut on a slotter. Die-cut mailers and trays need one, made once and kept.
- Food contact
- Food-grade liners and a vented build where the box carries hot food.
- Sustainability
- High recycled content through liners and flute as standard, and the box recycles whole if it is sealed with paper tape.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build full overlap containers on
Corrugated is a fluted sheet glued between two liners, and the flute decides nearly everything: how it prints, how it dents, how high it stacks. These are the grades we run.
E flute
About 1.5 mm. Prints well and folds crisply; dents under a stack. Retail boxes, mailers and light shippers.
1.5 mm, single wallB flute
About 3 mm. The working default for parcels — takes print reasonably and stacks reasonably. Most shipping boxes are B.
3 mm, single wallC flute
About 4 mm. More cushioning than B, slightly less stacking strength per weight. Common on grocery and produce cases.
4 mm, single wallBC double wall
B and C glued together, about 7 mm. Heavy or fragile goods, pallet stacking, anything over roughly 15 kg.
7 mm, double wallKraft liner
Brown, strong, absorbent. One or two flat colors flexo print well on it; photographs drink into the brown and go muddy.
Outer and inner linerWhite top liner
A bleached outer liner for full-color print on corrugated. Costs more and marks more easily than kraft.
Outer liner onlyRecycled-content corrugated
High post-consumer fiber through liners and flute. The default for shippers; a slightly greyer brown and no loss of strength at grade.
All flutesCoated and water-resistant
A coating or a wax-free barrier liner for damp stores and cold chains. Check the recycling stream before printing a claim on it.
B and C fluteNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Corrugated takes fewer finishes than folding board, and the ones it takes it takes well.
Flexo on kraft
One or two flat colors straight onto brown. Cheap, fast, honest.
Litho-lamination
An offset sheet glued to the flute: full color and photographs on a shipper.
Aqueous varnish
Scuff resistance with no film, so the box still recycles whole.
White top print
Full color flexo on a bleached liner; brighter, and it marks more easily.
Inside print
A second pass on the inner liner — the panel a customer sees first.
Printed tape seal
The brand applied at the last moment, on paper tape that recycles with the box.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing a corrugated box against the carrier, not the catalog: full overlap containers
Corrugated is cut to your internal size, so the box goes round the product rather than the product going into a stock size. That is where the money is: a box 20 mm smaller each way is often a whole postage band cheaper.
- Internal dimensions
- Length, width and depth of the space you need. Board thickness is added outside that, and the flute is thicker than people expect.
- Clearance and void fill
- 5–10 mm a side for a rigid product. Size it properly and you need no void fill at all, which is cheaper and better received.
- Stacking
- Tell us how high the boxes stack on a pallet or a shelf. Edge crush grade is specified from that, not guessed.
- Weight
- The contents weight sets the flute and the liner grade. Over about 15 kg we move to double wall.
- Score allowance
- Corrugated needs more room at the folds than boxboard. The dieline accounts for it; a box drawn from flat dimensions comes out tight.
- Cutting tolerance
- Plus or minus 1.5 mm on corrugated, wider than folding board because the flute compresses.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Build your Full Overlap Containers in 3D
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a board and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about full overlap containers? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What is a full overlap container?
A corrugated box on which the outer flaps run the full width of the box, so they overlap completely and the top and bottom are two layers of board thick.
When should I use one instead of a normal shipping box?
When the contents are heavy, long, or fragile at the edges, or when the boxes will be stacked high. For a light parcel a regular slotted box is enough.
Does it cost more?
Yes, because there is more board in each box. We quote it beside a standard box in the same grade so the difference is visible.
What is a partial overlap box?
The same idea with a shorter overlap of an inch or two. It seals the seam and costs less board, but gives less stacking strength than the full version.
Which flute do you recommend?
B flute for most jobs; BC double wall where the weight or the stack height calls for it. We set the grade from the contents weight you give us.
Can it be printed?
Yes. One or two colors flexo on kraft is standard, and the wide flaps are a good place for handling marks and a logo.
How is it sealed?
Tape along the seam and over both ends for most users; hot-melt glue or staples on an industrial line.
What is the minimum order?
100 containers.
Do they arrive flat?
Yes, flat and bundled with the manufacturer's joint glued, ready to open and fill.
Can I get a sample before ordering?
A plain sample at the finished size is available on request, and we can send an FOL and a standard box together if you want to compare them under load.
Is a full overlap box good for long items?
It is one of the best formats for them. On a long narrow box a standard flap is a thin strip that bends under stacking; the full overlap braces it across the whole width.
Do you send a dieline?
Always, with the quote. Check the print orientation on it, because the top face of an FOL is not always the one you expect.
Same range
