Laminations began as a joint venture between Great Northern Corporation and Hayes Manufacturing Group in 1972.

Great Northern had been acting as a distributor of edge protectors and corner guards, but when the supplier was sold to another company with its own sales system already in place, Great Northern was told that its services were no longer needed. Rather than surrender the edge protector and corner guard product line, Great Northern decided to start one of its own. However, their main expertise was in making corrugated products. Hayes, on the other hand, as a manufacturer of spiral-wound cores, was very familiar with laminated paperboard processes, particularly the narrow rolls needed to make edge and corner protectors. The two companies got together, hired an engineer to build a machine, and Laminations was born.

The original VBoard® machine was set up in the back of Hayes' core plant in 1972 for experimentation and testing. Once the manufacturing process was perfected, the companies leased space in a building in Neenah, Wis., moved the machine over, hired employees and went into production.

The first order was shipped on May 31, 1973: a single skid of VGuard®. It all began with one customer —a manufacturer of steel strapping who bought VGuard to place under the straps. Several months later the first salesperson was hired and Laminations began to grow.

Two decades later, in 1995, Great Northern Corporation bought out Hayes' interest, and Laminations officially became part of Great Northern Corporation's Specialty Group.