Final Products

Aseptic Packaging Cartons

Cartons for liquids can be fabricated from laminates of liquid packaging board, foil, and polyethylene. Most are based on either Tetra Pak or SIG Combibloc systems. One option is to have the printed laminate supplied on a roll. The carton is cut, scored, and formed at the packager. A second option is to have the pre­assembled tubes delivered to the packager for completion and filling. These are suited for aseptic processing and are used for milk, soup, juice, etc.

Openings and closures

We offer two models of openings and closures and it’s growing fast. Choose from a simple perforation opening, to tear away tabs and lids, to one-step or two-step reclose able flip caps or resealable screw caps.
We’re also continuously updating our portfolio, fine-tuning it to increase the level of convenience we offer consumers, reduce costs for customers and improve the environmental profile of our packages even further.

Aluminum Easy Open Ends

The easy-open aluminum end for beverage cans was developed by Alcoa in 1962 for the Pittsburgh Brewing Company and is now used in nearly 100% of the canned beer market.
Most aluminum cans are made of two pieces. The bottom and body are “drawn” or “drawn and ironed” from a flat plate or shallow cup. After filling, the can “end” is sealed onto the top of the can.

Pull-Tab

Mikola Kondakow of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, invented the pull tab version for bottles in 1956 (Canadian patent 476789). Then, in 1962, Ermal Cleon Fraze of Dayton, Ohio, United States, invented the similar integral rivet and pull-tab version (also known as ring pull in British English), which had a ring attached at the rivet for pulling, and which would come off completely to be discarded. He received US Patent No. 3,349,949 for his pull-top can design in 1963 and licensed his invention to Alcoa and Pittsburgh Brewing Company, the latter of which first introduced the design on Iron City Beer cans. The first soft drinks to be sold in all-aluminum cans were R.C. Cola and Diet-Rite Cola, both made by the Royal Crown Cola Company, in 1964.
The early pull-tabs detached easily. The Journal of the American Medical Association noted cases of children ingesting pull-tabs that had broken off and dropped into the can.
Full-top pull-tabs were also used in some oil cans and are currently used in some soup, pet food, tennis ball, nuts and other cans.

Stay-on-tab

In 1975, Daniel F. Cudzik, an engineer with Reynolds Metals, filed a design patent application for a “End closure for a container.”This later became known as a “Sta-Tab.” When the Sta-Tab launched in 1975, on Falls City beer and, quickly, other beverages, there was an initial period of consumer testing and education. Cudzik later received patents for the “Easy Open Wall.”US 3967752, issued 1976-07-06 US 3967753, issued 1976-07-06. The validity of these patents was later upheld in litigation.
The similarly designed “Easy-open ecology end” was also invented by Ermal Fraze and Omar Brown. The patent application was filed also in 1975. This design reduced injuries and reduced roadside litter caused by removable tabs. The mechanism used a separate tab attached to the upper surface as a lever to depress a scored part of the lid, which folds underneath the top of the can and out of the way of the resulting opening.
Such “retained ring-pull” cans supplanted pull-off tabs in the United Kingdom in 1989 for soft drinks and 1990 for alcoholic beverages.

Wide Mouth

One of the more recent modifications to can design was the introduction of the “wide mouth” can in the late 1990s. The American Can Company, now a part of Rexam, and Coors Brewing Company have owned wide mouth design patent (number D385,192) since 1997. Other companies have similar designs for the wide mouth. Ball Corporation’s from 2008 has a vent tube to allow direct airflow into the can reducing the amount of gulps during the pour.

Sustainable Beverage Ends

The SuperEnd from Crown Holdings launched in 2000 was designed to use 10% less metal in production than standard beverage ends.

Press button can

One variation was the press button can, which featured two pre-cut buttons—one small and one large—in the top of the can sealed with a plastic membrane. These buttons were held closed by the outward pressure of the carbonated beverage. The consumer would open the can by depressing both buttons, which would result in two holes. The small hole would act as a vent to relieve internal pressure so the larger button could then be pressed down to create the hole used for drinking the beverage. Consumers could also easily cut themselves on the edges of the holes or get their fingers stuck.
Press button cans were used by Pepsi in Canada from the 1970s to 1980s and Coors in the 1970s. They have since been replaced with pull tabs.

Full Aperture End

A recent innovation to the beverage can is the full aperture end, where the entire lid is removed turning the aluminum can into a cup. Crown Holdings first designed the “360 End” for use by SABMiller at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. It has been used by Anheuser-Busch in Bev in China and Brazil and most recently by Sly Fox Brewing Company in the United States.

All Tinplate Can

The steel can was invented more than 200 years ago.
Cans were first used as containers for food during the Napoleonic wars. The idea for preserving food by heating it in containers was developed by Nicolas Appert. He used glass jars, which were sent to French troops on the Russian front. In 1810, British merchant Peter Durand was granted the patent for a method of preserving food and other perishable items using vessels made of various materials, including steel.
Not surprisingly, food safety is still one of the most important benefits of canned food packaging.
However, food storage is only one of the many applications of steel packaging.
Steel packaging is durable, tamper-resistant and convenient. It is also ‘shelf-stable’, meaning that it can protect the contents from deterioration for a long time. In addition to these attributes, the steel used in packaging also has an aesthetic function. After all, packaging is designed not only to store the product but also to advertise it to the consumer.
An industry built on innovation
In some countries, steel cans are also referred to as tin cans or simply tins. There are thousands of applications, from the familiar soft drink can to unusually-shaped paint tins that are easy to hold in one hand and retro designer biscuit tins. Steel packaging is used for:
• Food
• Beverages
• Promotional materials
• Aerosols
• Paints and chemicals
• Bottle tops and caps
The majority of steel used in packaging is tinplate, which is steel that has been coated with a layer of tin to prevent corrosion. Although tinplate only accounts for around 1% of steel production, it is a highly visible and dynamic industry. Brands and products compete for consumers’ attention on the shelves of supermarkets and other retailers.
The manufacturing processes used in steel packaging are high-tech and sophisticated. Commercial production began in 1812, in a canning factory near London that supplied food to the British army. In 1846, cans were manufactured at the rate of 60 an hour. Modern can-makers can produce up to 1,000 cans a minute.
Once the steel is coated with tin, the tinplate can be coated with polymer, lacquered and printed. The final result is an attractive, safe and functional product.