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Send to Kindle'Bottle can' springs from two new technologies
Currently two lines each producing 500 bottles/min are running in Daiwa’s Tokyo plant. Imayama says both will be upgraded shortly to produce 700 bottles/min.
The technology used for container shaping intriguing as it is is only half of what makes this container so significant. Also important is that these cans do not undergo the coating process that aluminum cans typically require. The inside coating of course prevents acids or other components in food and beverage products from attacking or pitting the inside of an aluminum can. The outside coating meanwhile enhances ink adhesion and facilitates the ironing process that gives the can its shape.
The problem with coating technology is that it involves solvent emissions and/or waste water issues both undesirable from an environmental standpoint. For at least the past five years everyone from Hoogovens to Alcoa to British Steel to Toyo Seikan has tried to develop alternatives that are “greener.” But few have been successful usually because the cost of the alternative technologies has been prohibitive.
Success with lamination
Daiwa Can apparently has been successful in developing film lamination as an alternative to conventional can coating. Its bottle can is made from aluminum coil that has had PET film laminated to both sides. Film thickness is considered proprietary. Daiwa is also rather guarded about the method of lamination it uses saying only that the film is added to the aluminum “by means of heat lamination.”
The significance of this laminating process is that it eliminates the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) because there are no solvent-based coatings to be cured. The bottle can represents Daiwa’s first successful large-scale application of this new technology.
When asked to comment on the cost of its laminating technology compared to available alternatives Daiwa Can elects not to. Industry insiders however wonder why laminating a discrete layer of PET film was chosen when extrusion a more direct process could eliminate costly handling steps like PET film winding film transport and film unwind.
For now specific questions about how Daiwa manages to produce its unique package profitably will have to remain unanswered. But there seems little doubt that Daiwa believes the bottle can is worth investing in. According to Imayama by the end of this year six more lines for producing bottle cans will have been added.
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