Corrugated board: cardboard or polypropylene?

A corrugated board gets its stiffness from its structure, not its mass: two flat skins separated by a hollow core. At the same thickness, it weighs a fraction of a solid board. What remains is choosing the material, and that is where everything is decided: corrugated cardboard and corrugated polypropylene feel alike in the hand, but one is made for indoors and the other for the rain. The right question is not price, it is where the board goes and how long it stays exposed.

Corrugated cardboard, light and recyclable

10 mm Lightboard® is a corrugated cardboard: a hollow core between two smooth surfaces. It is one of the lightest materials in the range, which matters when hanging a graphic on a stand or carrying ten of them. Being cardboard, it is recycled as cardboard, which a plastic material does not allow. Its limits are clear-cut: moisture attacks it, and it does not hold up outdoors. Keep it for indoors, or for an operation lasting a few days. For finer point of sale displays, 1.5 or 3 mm micro-flute cardboard follows the same logic at a reduced thickness.

Corrugated polypropylene, for staying outdoors

Corrugated polypropylene applies the same principle in plastic: it does not absorb water and does not break down. As soon as a board spends a season outdoors — building site, property sale, event — this is the one you need, in 3.5 mm, 10 mm or the 3 mm recycled version depending on the size and your commitments. The price difference with cardboard is recovered as soon as the board has to be reused the following year.

Three questions that decide it

Where is the board going — indoors, under an awning, or in the open air? How long must it last — three days of a trade show, or a season? And does it then go for recycling, or into storage for next year? An indoor board that will not be reused calls for cardboard; everything else calls for polypropylene. Lamination does not play the same role depending on the material: decorative on a stand's cardboard, protective on polypropylene left outdoors. Both families share the same grid of 76 sizes and the same finishes, so that is never where the choice is made.

Cardboard or polypropylene: tell us where it will go

We print your boards in our workshop in Manciet, in the Gers, 100% Made In Occitanie. Still unsure? Tell us where the board will go and how long it needs to last. Cardboard goes out on express just as fast as polypropylene: it is the material, not the turnaround, that is being decided here.