Innovations in Metal Packaging Keep the Can Industry Moving

By Robert Budway

The new age of canned convenience demands a can that is easy to open, safe, and convenient.

Revolutions in metal packaging design are underway and the innovations already are enticing today’s shoppers, who are packaging sophisticates. Many of the breakthroughs in metal packaging designs that have shown up in Europe are now crossing the Atlantic and gaining consumer acceptance from Americans. These innovations will build on the strong image of the metal food can.

Consumers are letting marketers know that their hectic lives, the needs of their children and even advancing age demand packaging that is easy to open, safe, and convenient. They want portability, resealability and, why not, snappy and distinctive shelf appeal—what Tom Hale, vice president of Ball Corporation’s sales and marketing, calls “a little more sizzle.” Metal packaging innovations reflect these needs and demonstrate the packaging industry’s renewed interest in serving customers better and in meeting consumer needs.

Innovations are the answer to consumers

Today’s grocery shoppers will be able to select from an array of easy-to-use and convenient metal packages, including:

• Containers with twist-top, resealable metal lids
• Easy-open cylinder cans with pull-tab lids
• Rectangular cans with a convenient peelable opening system
• Distinctive easy-to-grasp metal cans shaped like bowls, kettles, and even squares
• Self-heating cans to deliver a piping hot 12 ounces of coffee
• Self-cooling cans to deliver a real cold brew
• Microwaveable cans—yes, microwaveable metal cans

What’s driving today’s packaging innovations? What often drives progress: consumers. For its part, metal packaging manufacturers are involving consumers more often—and earlier— in their research of innovations in metal packaging. Silgan Containers, a leading can manufacturer, has for the past three years solicited grocery shoppers for feedback on new can ends and other innovations. With that information in hand, Silgan engineers refine their new-product offerings and designs.

As a result, Silgan’s pop tabs on the EZO lids are significantly larger. “Consumers believe that it’s easier to open a can if there is a larger tab to pull up, making it much easier to remove the lid,” explains Tom Snyder, Silgan’s vice president of sales. In fact, many of the technology advances deal with reducing the pressure consumers feel when using the easyopen feature of a metal container.

A self-heating can of coffee is only the beginning of a wave of can innovations to go from the future to the present.

Another producer, Crown Cork & Seal, enlists customer focus groups to assess new packaging prototypes and that input has led to shorter cycle times and improved success rates. “As designers, we’re influenced by number-driven factors and we focus on the ease of opening or whether the sound of the crown has improved,” says Dan Abramowicz, president of Crown Technology. “These are pieces of information our engineers never fully appreciated.”

Underscoring the ease-of-use features of the new metal packaging technology, recent innovations range from easier-to-open can lids and resealable tops to different shaped cans and containers that heat themselves or can be used in a microwave. The major new technologies are:

Pull-Tab EZO Lids – Can ends that do not require a can opener are called EZO (short for “Easy-to-Open”) and use a metal ring-tab or pop-top lid. Already, the EZO serves an estimated 35% of the U.S. market and that percentage is predicted to climb to more than 60% by 2008.

• The Peel Seam™ (click Here) – This easyto- open system, still in its infancy, consists of a metal ring sealed with a peelable, flexible aluminum lid and seamed to the base of the can at conventional speeds. Capitaine Cook Tuna Salad sales rose 30% after it introduced an all-metal package that used this easy-peel seam technology.
• Dot Top™ – Easy to open, resealable, and no sharp edges. Consumers simply peel back a plastic dimple (Dot) in the center of the lid (Top). This releases the vacuum that holds the lid in place, allowing the consumer to easily lift the lid off the container. If contents remain unused, the consumer simply snaps the lid back on and stores it for later use.
• Shaped Cans – Food manufacturers are eager to differentiate their metal food packaging with unique shapes and sizes, popular among consumers who like eye-catching cans that contour to the hand. These shaped cans range from metal bowls for ready-to-eat meals and soups in kettle-shaped cans to square cans that have a great billboard effect on the shelf.
• Self-heating, Self-cooling Cans – The consumer activates the heat by pushing in a button on the base of the can, producing a chemical reaction between water and quicklime contained in separate compartments in the can base. The coffee is heated to 140º F within three minutes, and insulating materials keep a consumer's fingers and lips from being burned.
• Microwaveable Cans – Specially designed steel cans that are shallower than traditional cans let consumers pop a favorite can of soup or vegetables into the microwave to heat them up.

Food can makers foresee significant technology advances ahead, which will make the can even more attractive. Twist-top food cans that are safe, recloseable and simple to use already are under development in North America. Look for blends of new polymers, including biopolymers, in conjunction with metals for innovative new technologies in packaging.

As computer software gets increasingly sophisticated, researchers already are experimenting with various metalforming properties and checking the structural performance of new combinations of metals and polymers. New and dynamic packaging innovations will undoubtedly result.

Robert Budway is president of the Can Manufacturers Institute. Please visit www.cancentral.com or call (202) 232-4677 for more information.