Consumers, too, knew what to expect in a can: peas, tuna, soup. . . comfort foods, and familiar favorites, like soft drinks. Then Coke got this crazy notion. "Why not put Coca-Cola in cans shaped like our Mae West bottle?" They probably didn't refer to their glass icon that way. But you get the idea. Coke had switched out of stock PET bottles to ones with a chubby resemblance to the classic glass Coke bottle and had subsequently seen sales jump. I can hear them discussing it now: "If plastic bottles with curved walls hiked sales, imagine what contoured cans could do!" The atmosphere in the room the day Coke decided to kick their old comfortable can and go for something with a few more curves must have been electric. Anyone worrying about the fact that canmakers weren't yet capable of commercially producing carbonated soft drink cans with modulating walls kept silent or was shushed into silence. The euphoria must have been carbonating. If there were naysayers, they soon came to realize that the craziness of the notion was generating an excitement about cans that hadn't been felt since the emergence of the easy-open end in the early 1960s. Coke may have noticed that the European market holds its cans in higher esteem than we do in the States. Is that because Europeans have a wider choice of steel food can shapes, graphics and easy-opening devices than we do in the U.S.? When we look for pork and beans, our can choices are limited to size and a lack of dents. Not much excitement, adventure or romance in the process, either. And, the added value of excitement, adventure and romance is what Coke is looking for in its next generation of cans. There have been shaped beverage cans before, of course. Back in the 1970s Hamm's beer rolled out in barrel-shaped cans. And today you can find Sapporo Draft beer in elegant, 22-ounce silver fluted cans shaped vaguely like glasses. But those were and are three-piece containers. What Coke's looking for are two-piece contoured cans, something a little more shapely than the fluted cylinders American National Can Co. (Chicago, IL), Crown Cork & Seal Co., Inc. (Philadelphia, PA), Metal Containers Corp. (St. Louis, MO) and others can make. CarnaudMetalbox (Paris, France)-now part of Crown-may already have a commercial technology to satisfy Coke's thirst for new can angles. For some time now it has been blow molding two-piece cans for the French beverage syrup, Teisseire (photo at top). Yes, that's a blow-molded steel can. The Crown/CMB process is the focus of a technology alliance with Groupe Sidel (Le Havre, France). The goal is to be able to satisfy the shaped two-piece can needs of Coke (and other food and beverage packagers). Hoogovens Packaging (Ijmuiden, The Netherlands) says it expects to have a user for its pilsner-glass-shaped steel two-piece can (see page 84) that was prominently displayed at Metpack and interpack in May. Rasselstein-Hoesch GmbH (Neuwied, Germany) and Ball Corp. (Muncie, IN) are also working on technology for shaping two-piece cans. And Ball's Touch Top(TM) can end has finally reached the marketplace in Colorado (see page 2). Others on the two-piece curved can case are believed to include Reynolds Metals Co. (Richmond, VA) and SilganContainers Corp. (Woodland Hills, CA). Clearly, Coke's "crazy notion" has set the mad, mad, mad, mad world of canmaking to huffing and puffing to conjure up new ways to contour cans. This idea certainly is breathing new interest in one of our oldest container forms.
Shaping technology injects market excitement in metal cans
Until a couple of years ago, American packagers using cans seemed satisfied with the straight sidewall profile and functionality of most metal cans. The cans were strong, easy to fill and seam, and offered a number of labeling, case packing and stacking options.
Jun 30, 1996
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