Over the years, I have puzzled many different brands and have found some have had little to no puzzle dust while others had a small amount, and ironically, several other high quality brands have a ton. Yes, I am talking to you Ravensburger!

This made me wonder what is the rhyme or reason for so much puzzle dust at the bottom of a box? And why can some brands that are considered cheaper quality and made in places like China figure out how to get rid of the puzzle dust whereas brands like Ravensburger and White Mountain sometimes have almost a teaspoon full at the bottom.

It does not make a lot of sense to me. Why can’t puzzle manufacturers add one step to their assembly line process that takes the cut pieces for a particular puzzle and runs it through some sort of sifter / shaker type tray that would get rid of the dust before it is bagged and put in the box? Seems simple enough to me, but maybe the process is more complicated than I think. However, it couldn’t be that difficult because lots of manufacturers do it quite well.

So I looked to Google AI for some assistance on what causes this. Here’s what I discovered:

Leftover cardboard residue generated during the manufacturing and cutting process can generally be attributed to one of the following reasons:

• Skipped Cleaning Steps — high-volume manufacturers sometimes skip cleaning the cutting dies or vacuuming the pieces before packaging them into bags and boxes.
• Friction in Transit – During shipping and handling, loose pieces rub against one another inside the sealed bag, grinding down rough edges and shedding extra paper dust.
• Different Boards Shed Differently – some boards are softer or have more internal fibers that when compressed give off more dust.

I still think all manufacturer’s have the ability to cut down significantly on the amount of puzzle dust that ends up in their shipped boxes before they leave the assembly line. I don’t know if anyone out there is listening to this, but truly how hard could this be to improve? Even if by just a little bit?

Thank you for listening to my rant!