GUIDE

How to read an ECMA code.

An ECMA code is a standard designation for a folding-carton construction. A short string like A20.20.03.01 replaces a drawing. It records which construction group the carton belongs to, how its bottom and top ends close, and which panels those closing flaps hang from. Two people who exchange the code have agreed on the structure; only dimensions and board remain to be settled.

What ECMA stands for

ECMA is the European Carton Makers Association, the trade body for the folding-carton industry. It publishes The ECMA Code of Folding Carton Design Styles, the classification this catalogue follows and the reason a carton can be ordered by code rather than by drawing.

An ECMA code classifies a construction, not a size. A 40 mm pharmaceutical carton and a 400 mm display carton can carry the same code if they fold the same way. Dimensions, board grade and finish are agreed separately. The code fixes the structure and nothing else.

Why the industry codes cartons at all

Without a shared classification, specifying a carton means exchanging artwork. A drawing has to be drawn, sent, opened in the right software, interpreted and checked. Every one of those steps can let a misunderstanding into a job that ends in a die and several thousand sheets of board.

A code removes the round trip. It is language-independent, so it survives across a European supply chain. A converter in Istanbul and a brand owner in Cologne reading A20.20.03.01 see the same construction without translating a word. Codes are also searchable, which is how this catalogue is organized.

The construction groups

The leading letter places a design in a construction group, and the group decides how the rest of the code is read. The blocks are not universal. The same four two-digit fields mean different things in group A and group B, so the letter has to be read first.

Group A covers long-seam-glued cartons with rectangular surfaces. The carton is glued into a sleeve along one long seam and arrives at the packer flat. Group B covers unglued self-locking trays, which hold their shape through geometry rather than adhesive. The published code defines further groups beyond these two; this catalogue currently holds 56 group A structures and 15 group B structures.

Reading a group A code

Take a code from the catalogue and read it left to right. In group A the two leading blocks are the closure systems, bottom first and then top. The two trailing blocks record which panel each closure's flap is connected to.

A20.20.03.01

AConstruction groupA long-seam-glued folding carton with rectangular surfaces.
20Bottom closure systemTuck-in flap closure: a single flap folds over the end and its tuck slides between the panels.
20Top closure systemTuck-in flap closure again, so both ends close the same way.
03Bottom flap attachmentThe bottom closing flap hangs on panel 3.
01Top flap attachmentThe top closing flap hangs on panel 1.

Panels are numbered 1 to 4 starting from the glue seam, which is what makes the last two blocks readable at all. Panel 1 and panel 3 sit opposite each other, so a code ending .03.01 puts the two tucks on opposite faces of the carton. Trade practice calls that a reverse-tuck arrangement. Had both blocks read the same panel, the tucks would close toward the same face, which is a straight tuck.

That single digit separates the two most common retail carton constructions, which is why the panel blocks are worth reading rather than skipping. A reverse tuck presents an unbroken face to the shelf; a straight tuck is faster to close by hand.

Open the A20.20.03.01 carton

Group A closure systems

The closure blocks carry most of the engineering intent in a group A code. These are the values this catalogue can source and publish:

Block	Closure system
01	Without flaps. The end stays open, as on a sleeve or an open display carton.
10	Full overlapping closure: the flaps overlap across the whole face, doubling the board where the end takes load.
20	Tuck-in flap closure: the everyday retail closure, quick to close by hand and reopenable without damage.
30	Tuck-in flap with scissor lock: interlocking dust flaps resist the end being pushed open from inside.
40	Winged flap closure without dust flaps, for work that does not need full dust protection.
55	Self-locking envelope closure: panels fold in sequence and lock into each other without glue.
60	Automatic pre-glued closure, also called the crash-lock base. It is glued during manufacture and springs into place as the packer squares the sleeve.

The published code records further closure values. Where a template in this catalogue carries one we cannot source, its page states the block structurally rather than naming it. The same rule applies here.

Reading a group B code

Group B reads on a different schema. There is no glue seam to number panels from and no separate top and bottom closure, so the four blocks describe the tray itself: its shape, how its flaps lock, its dust flaps, and the cover that goes over it.

B15.06.00.53

BConstruction groupAn unglued, self-locking tray construction.
15Tray shapeAn unglued tray with four single walls.
06Flap locking systemA claw lock.
00Dust flapsNone recorded for this construction.
53Cover systemA three-winged cover with open corners.

A cover block turns a tray into a two-part system. Several group B constructions in this catalogue publish the lid as its own template, because a lid and its tray are cut as separate blanks and a converter needs both dielines.

Open the B15.06.00.53 tray

Group B block values

Tray shapes, in the first block after the letter:

Block	Tray shape
10	Unglued self-locking tray with four double walls.
14	Unglued self-locking tray with four buffer walls.
15	Unglued tray with four single walls.
20	Unglued self-locking tray with two double walls.

Flap locking systems, in the second block:

Block	Locking system
06	Claw lock.
07	Claw lock with locked dust flaps.

Only the locking values this catalogue can source are named here.

Cover systems, in the fourth block:

Block	Cover system
50	Tuck-in flap cover.
51	Double-walled tuck-in cover.
52	Two-flap winged cover.
53	Three-winged cover with open corners.
54	Three-winged webbed cover.
55	Cover with claw lock.

The fifth block: group X feature codes

Some codes carry a fifth block, as in A10.01.03.00.32. That trailing value is a group X feature code. It records a feature added to an otherwise standard construction rather than a change to the construction itself.

Block	Feature
31	Tuck-in closure with a securing counterflap.
32	Tuck-in closure with locking lugs.
50	A reclosable opening embedded in the carton.
85	A carrying handle formed as a gable top of two tuck-ins.

A feature code this catalogue cannot source is reported on the template page as present but unnamed.

ECMA and FEFCO are different systems

The two codes are often mentioned together and are not interchangeable. ECMA classifies folding cartons: die-cut carton board, creased and printed, the packaging you see on a shelf. FEFCO classifies corrugated fibreboard cases, the shipping carton those folding cartons travel inside.

They also read differently. An ECMA code opens with a letter and carries four two-digit blocks; a FEFCO code is four digits with no letter, where the first two place the design in a series. If a code starts with a letter, it is describing a folding carton.

Where the official code comes from

The authoritative source is ECMA itself, which publishes the code as a reference document for its members and the wider trade. This guide explains the system in its own words and against its own catalogue; it does not reproduce ECMA's publication, and anyone specifying production work should hold the current edition.

The block meanings above are the ones Packdroid can verify. Where the catalogue meets a value it cannot source, the template page says so plainly rather than guessing. A wrong closure name in a production specification costs more than an absent one.

See the codes in the catalogue

Every structure below is a parametric template. Enter your dimensions and the same model generates the cut-ready dieline and the 3D fold.