What Are The Factors That Can Affect Eggtray Quality
From raw material and additives to egg tray packing process, every step can have impact on finnal eggtray product quality. Since the egg tray quality is the key price factor for eggtray producer, it’s important to know which steps in the egg tray production line will affect the quality, AGICO will introduce to you the most important tips for following aspect: Pulp and additives prepare; forming (molding) process; drying process. Better control of these 3 factors can help you produce eggtrays with high quality and good appearance, if you follow this instruction , you will make more profit from pulp molded eggtray production now!
Raw Material – Pulp Composition Analysis and Safety
Main Components and Potentially Harmful Substances in Pulp Egg Trays
The selection of the right raw materials for pulp egg trays directly impacts their safety. After several visits to eggtray production plants, our engineers have learned the following info:
- Basic Ingredients for Pulp: Primarily natural fibers such as wood pulp and sugarcane pulp. Some eggtray plants use recycled pulp (processed from waste paper) to save costs. Recycled pulp, if not sterilized at high temperatures, can easily harbor harmful bacteria such as E. coli.
- Supplementary materials: Calcium carbonate and talc are added to make the eggtrays more rigid, and polyol adhesives are used to bind the fibers together. While these additives comply with national standards, they may migrate from contact with acidic substances. Therefore, avoid using egg trays for sour fruits like lemons.
- Key Risk: Before 2025, some egg trays contained fluorinated oil repellents (PFOS/PFOA), which have long been a concern due to endocrine disruptors. Since the implementation of the new national standard, the fluorine content of samples tested has consistently been below 1mg/kg, significantly lower than the 20mg/kg limit.
Toxicity Test Data and Safety Standards:
Let’s use a laboratory approach and examine the core indicators in the test report:
- Market supervision data: In the second quarter of 2025, spot checks in Shanghai and other places found a 100% pass rate for egg products, indicating that the packaging is quite safe. However, it should be noted that these spot checks did not include products from small workshops.
- New national standard: GB/T 36787-2025 incorporates Nordic standards, requiring three tests: biodegradability (≥90%), disintegration (≥90%), and ecotoxicity (germination rate ≥90%). This adds 12 tests to the old standard.
- Recommendations for home use: While natural fiber structures are breathable and moisture-resistant, they are prone to mold growth in humid environments. It is recommended to store egg trays in a dry place and sterilize them with a UV lamp for 30 seconds before use.
Molding Process For Eggtray Shape And Dimension Accuracy
Eggtray mold plays a key role in eggtray molding process, which is the key to the physical form and initial structure of the egg tray, which directly affects the appearance, dimensional accuracy and basic strength of the egg tray, which is specifically reflected in the following 2 points:
- It uses vacuum to make the slurry adhere evenly to the mold. If the slurry adheres unevenly, it will lead to inconsistent thickness of the egg tray wall, the thin parts are easy to break and the thick parts are easy to deform, which directly affects the load-bearing capacity during use.
- The eggtray mold’s fit and vacuum control will determine the egg tray’s shape integrity (such as whether there are missing corners or depressions) and dimensional accuracy (such as whether it meets standard specifications). If there is a problem in this link, subsequent drying will not be able to repair these structural defects.
Eggtrays Drying for Improved Strength and Stability
Eggtray drying with different equipment may have different drying efficiency and effect, the key is to control the temperature stable with proper time setting. Although the eggtray drying process does not change the basic shape of the egg tray, it will affect its final strength and stability. It is a “guarantee link” for quality and mainly affects 2 aspects:
- If the drying temperature is too low or the drying time is insufficient, the egg tray will have too high a moisture content, resulting in insufficient hardness, easy to be affected by moisture, and unable to be stored for a long time or bear weight; if the temperature is too high or the time is too long, the egg tray will become brittle and crack, and will also lose its use value.
- The uniformity of the heat source (such as GAS, steam) will also affect the drying effect. Local overheating or under-drying will cause the egg tray to become “partially brittle” or “soft and collapsed in the same part”, which will destroy the overall quality consistency.
Other Factors Affects Eggtray Quality
Although raw material selection and pulping are fundamental factor that can impact eggtray quality, it can be controlled more easily than the other 2 factors, here is why：
- If there is a problem with the purity of the raw materials (waste paper products) (such as impurities), it can be filtered through the screening process during pulping; if the pulp concentration during pulping is inappropriate, it can be corrected by adjusting the proportion of additives, which will not directly cause irreversible quality defects like eggtray molding and drying.
- The eggtray packaging finishing only affects the protection during transportation and does not change the inherent quality of the egg tray itself.
Why Choose AGICO
AGICO is a 1-stop sales service – pulp molding solution provider in China. We can supply a series of small reciprocating eggtray making machines, and large drum type eggtray making machines. And we can offer tailored eggtray production lines for with different egg tray drying system methods: natrual drying, civil engineer drying, multi-layer metal drying, carbinet tray dryer, etc. Pulp mold dies manufacture: eggtray mold, bottle tray mold, seedling tray mold, shoe insert tray mold, egg carton tray mold, fruit tray mold, coffee cup tray mold, disposable bed pan tray mold and industrial package tray molds. If you are looking for a reliable pulp molding solution provider, contact AGICO now for the best offer!