20.01.2010

Lighter and lighter, better and better: The beverage can celebrates its 75th anniversary

The first beer can was launched on the US market on 24th January 1935

Ratingen, 20th February 2010 - Anyone who wanted to drink Krueger's beer from the can launched 75 years ago needed strong muscles: At the time the beverage can weighed five times as much as it does today and had to be opened with a separate "bodkin". Much has happened since then. Nowadays the beverage can is a lightweight whose development has been characterised by constant improvements to the benefit of the environment and consumers. The classical cylindrical form remains unbeatably convenient and popular with consumers.

Whether beer, cola, energy drinks, coffee-mix drinks, green tea, exotic cocktails or wine, there is hardly a drink which is not sold in cans today. Seventy-five years ago, however, the news that a beverage such as beer was being offered in "tin containers" was positively revolutionary.  Since then the beverage can has captured a fan community which grows year by year worldwide. In 2008 some 53 billion beverage cans were sold in Europe alone, five percent more than in the previous year. Since it was invented, research into how to improve the cylindrical packaging even further has been carried out right up to the present day. And it is primarily the environment which benefits from the innovations of the past 75 years.

From zero to 200 million in the first year

The discovery of heat sterilisation first made it possible to use steel as packaging material: In the year 1810, exactly 200 years ago, the Frenchman Nicholas Appert was granted a patent by Napoleon. He had recognised that the lack of a means to preserve food for his soldiers posed a problem and he offered a prize for an appropriate solution.  In the same year, the Englishman Peter Durand was granted a patent for the use of tinplate to produce cans. The tinplate packaging was born. Canned food subsequently preserved the vitamins urgently needed by sailors and members of expeditions. The period of prohibition in America in the 1930s finally gave manufacturers the idea of filling beverages in cans. In 1933 the Gottfried Krueger Brewery in New Jersey signed a contract with the American Can Company which had in the meantime developed a practical beer can.  Finally 24th January 1935 was the big day - world premiere for the first canned beer: "Krueger's beer" was launched in a cylindrical tinplate can in Richmond, Virginia, and in the same year 200 million cans were sold.  The "original can" weighed 100 gram at the time.

"Easy life - with beer from cans"

The German packaging producer Schmalbach-Lubeca which was taken over by Ball Corporation in 2002 was involved right from the start when it came to developing can enhancements. The first beer can produced by the company, a three-piece bottle can with crown cork seal, didn't take hold because it was too complicated to produce. Things were different for the three-piece black-plate can with which Schmalbach-Lubeca re-started production in 1951 after the war years. The simpler design comprising base, body and end only weighed 83 grams and was the first beer can to be launched on the market in Germany.  "Easy life - with beer from cans" was the slogan which the Henninger Brewery used to promote its product.
Two years later tin-plate was used, being less susceptible to corrosion but just as recyclable. 
In 1958 the first aluminium cans appeared in the shops.  These could be produced in just two pieces: the base and the body were made from one piece using the extrusion process and the end was seamed on later.

Press instead of tear

The breakthrough came at the beginning of the 1960s: The development of the so-called lift-tab – a metal strip integrated in the can end – made it possible to open beverage cans without any additional aid. The American, Ermal Fraze, had the technique patented in 1963. Since then research in the can making industry has been constantly focused on improving the closure technology. An invention from the year 1974 represented first significant progress: Dan Cudzik designed the stay-on-tab, also called ring-pull tab. In this case the opening tab was not torn off but pressed inside. This process is still usual today and it ensures that the small opening tab is recycled together with the can.  The Falls City Brewing Company from Louisville in Kentucky was the first to use this technology.

Neck in and apply end

Parallel to the more environmentally friendly design of the opening mechanism, the true environmental revolution surrounding the beverage can was, however, the continual light-weighting of both can and end. Since 1971 the diameter of the cylindrical can was reduced from 66 to 62 millimetres in the top section using a new type of necking process. As a result the can end diameter also decreased leading to significant savings in the amount of material used. The two-piece tin-plate can which had been developed in England in the meantime was presented on time for the Interbrau in Munich in 1971.  Overall the two developments led to material savings of 10 percent - at the time the can only weighed 38 grams.

Lightweights with good eco-balance

On its 75th anniversary, a 330 ml tinplate can weighs around 21 grams, an aluminium can just 10 grams. The 0.097 millimetre thick can walls are even thinner than a human hair. Just as important for the eco-balance of cans: The can is the most recycled packaging in the world. In Germany the recycling quota is now as high as 90 percent. As it is possible to recycle cans infinitely without quality deterioration, the use of recycled material today saves up to 95 percent of the energy which would be required to produce virgin material. Due to continual light-weighting and constantly rising recycling rates for steel and aluminium, today it is possible to produce around three times more cans than it was 30 years ago from the same amount of primary material.

Research surrounding the beverage can

Even in its 75th year, the beverage can has by no means lost its fascination as an object for research and development. The beverage can maker Ball Packaging Europe has its own research and development centre where some 70 experts are constantly working to enhance the can.  For instance, the world's first resealable can with the Ball Resealable End  which was launched in 2008 was one of the most important inventions of the innovation specialists from Ball.  Cans are already on the market which, thanks to thermochromic ink coating, indicate to consumers when the contents have reached the optimal drinking temperature of 5 to 6 degrees in the refrigerator. In future cans will exude appetising aromas, if required. Digital printing techniques are also being researched in order to provide cans with individual and pin-sharp designs.  And even the "communicating" can may not be just dreams of the future at some point in time: The can will then with the aid of loadable items and mobile phones be able to identify the consumer passing the supermarket shelf.  The text "Good day John Q. Public - please buy me!" will then appear on the can wall. 
 

Ball Packaging Europe

Ball Packaging Europe is one of the leading European beverage can manufacturers, employing 2,900 people at 12 sites in Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland and Serbia. The company is a subsidiary of Ball Corporation, a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2008 sales of approx. 7.6 billion US dollars.

Forward-Looking Statements
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