How to read a FEFCO code.

What FEFCO stands for

FEFCO is the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers. It maintains the International Fibreboard Case Code, the numbering system the corrugated industry uses to describe box styles without drawings or language-dependent names.

The practical effect is that a specification becomes four digits. Instead of asking a supplier for “a normal shipping box with flaps”, a converter specifies FEFCO 0201, and both sides know exactly which structure, which joint and which flap arrangement is meant. That precision is why the system survives across borders and decades.

How the four digits work

A FEFCO code joins two pieces of information. It is not a serial number, so the codes do not sort by size, price or popularity.

The first two digits are the series, and the series is a construction principle: how the box is made, joined and erected. The last two digits identify one design inside that series. Codes that share their first two digits are made the same way and differ only in flap arrangement, wall build or lock detail. Once you know the series, you know roughly what you are looking at before reading the second half.

The series

The 02 series covers slotted boxes: one-piece bodies die-cut from a single blank, joined with a glued, stitched or taped manufacturer's joint, and closed by flaps at the top and bottom. Slotted boxes ship flat and erect quickly, which is why this series carries most of the world's shipping cartons.

The 03 series contains telescope boxes, where a separate lid slides over a bottom part. The 04 series holds folder-type boxes and trays: usually one-piece, unglued constructions erected by folding the die-cut blank around or under the product, holding their shape through locking tabs, ears and hinged lids rather than a glued joint.

Higher series continue the same logic: 05 for slide-type constructions of inner and outer sleeves, 06 for rigid Bliss-style cases assembled from a body and two end pieces, and 07 for ready-glued cases, which are glued during manufacture, delivered flat, and spring into shape in one movement at the point of packing.

This catalogue currently holds templates in the 02, 04 and 07 series, which is where converter demand concentrates.

Worked example: what FEFCO 0201 means

The 02 series, code by code

The slotted series is where most specification conversations happen. These are the codes this catalogue holds:

The 04 series, code by code

Folder-type boxes and trays. This series holds its shape by geometry instead of glue, and it is behind most food-service and display packaging.

The 07 series

Ready-glued constructions, where the glue is applied during manufacture rather than at the packing station.

What a FEFCO code does not tell you

A code fixes the structure and nothing else. It carries no dimensions: 0201 describes the construction of a regular slotted container at any size, and a specification is only complete once internal length, width and depth are stated alongside it.

It also says nothing about material. Flute profile, board grade, wall count and joint style are separate decisions, and they change the finished box. The same 0201 in single-wall B-flute and double-wall BC behaves differently under stacking load and needs different allowances to reach the same internal dimensions.

That is why a dieline is a starting point for production rather than a substitute for converter judgement. Confirm tolerances, board and joint with your manufacturer before committing to tooling.

FEFCO and ECMA are different systems

FEFCO classifies corrugated fibreboard cases, the transit packaging. ECMA classifies folding cartons, the printed carton board box on the shelf. A product often travels inside both.

The two are easy to tell apart at a glance: a FEFCO code is four digits with no letter, while an ECMA code opens with a letter and carries four two-digit blocks separated by dots. If you are holding A20.20.03.01, you are reading a folding carton.

Where the official code comes from

FEFCO publishes the International Fibreboard Case Code as the authoritative reference. This guide explains the system in its own words and against its own catalogue rather than reproducing that publication, and anyone specifying production work should hold the current edition.

Where this catalogue meets a construction whose published meaning it cannot verify, the template page describes the structure rather than naming it, which is the same rule that governs the tables above.