Top Editors ... In the CAN

Title: In the CAN
Date: 09/05/2007
Autor: By Claire Rowan

Innovation and convenience continue to fuel demand for both steel and aluminium cans for a wide range of applications

Can producers have been working hard to meet the demand for greater choice in shape and texture; ease of opening, and convenience of use, as is borne witness by the innovations that have picked up awards during the past year.
At the Can of the Year award ceremony in Spain, Impress scooped the Gold Award in the Two-Piece Food Can category for the Club Luncheon Meat cans it developed for Daesang in South Korea for the relaunch of Daesang’s luncheon meat range. Produced in 200ml and 340ml sizes in France, the cans feature a drawn rectangular aluminium body with printed Easy Peel foil membrane closures. The design allows the meat to be easily released due to a special gold internal lacquer and a shoulder at the top of the can, according to Impress.
Crown Food Europe was the winner of the 2006 UK Packaging Award in the Metal Packaging Category as well as the Silver Award in the Can of the Year’s Food Category for its distinctive shaped can for Crosse & Blackwell’s Waistline low-calorie food range.
The ‘waisted’, three-piece can is designed to reinforce the healthy image of the Waistline brand and features EOLE III steel easy-open ends for greater convenience, as well as decorative shrink sleeving for dramatic on shelf appeal. Ithe cans run on existing machinery without any change to the filling, seaming or retort processes, according to Crown Food Europe.
“This technology clearly demonstrates how creative package design can support a brand and provide a powerful platform to differentiate products from the competition,” said Steve Thomas, marketing manager – public relations, Crown Food Europe, who pointed out that the can also picked up a Highly Commended award for Technical Innovation.

Technology

OSL Ltd in the UK has been investing heavily in technical innovation recently for the development of its Hotcan system, which has been used extensively for the military and emergency services for the past 30 years and now has increased potential for use for retail applications. Working alongside the Manufacturing Advisory Service East Midlands (MAS EM) to refine the self-heating can’s technology to make it more robust and marketable, OSL has developed an automated assembly process for the Hotcan products as well as the possibility of using different methods of activating the can’s self-heating features.
“We have been working with the MAS EM for six months to prototype a new component that makes the Hotcan more reliable and customer-friendly,” said Anthony Brownlow, director, OSL.
The Hotcan technology is currently a can within a can with a water sachet layer in between. When the whole pack is opened it causes limestone granules and water in the outer layer to activate and cause the contents of the inner can to heat. It is fully retortable and used for a wide range of products such as beans, casseroles, soups, pasta and meatball dishes etc, which are heated to 70oC within 10 minutes for a standard 400 to 410g can.
“The technology is cheaper and safer than any other self-heating technology available,” said Graham Taylor, director, OSL. “We have worked with a manufacturer in Australia to develop a self-heating cat food, and have partners
coming on stream throughout Europe who can work with manufacturers to develop self-heating products in cans, and soon in other forms of packaging using our new self-heating sachet technology.”
Heating in the microwave is the latest focus for Arcelor and its new Creasteel steel, which features deep-drawing performance that allows a wide range of shapes to be created.
“Creasteel is definitely a revolution in the making,” said Catherine Jung, product manager, Arcelor Packaging. “For many years, metal packaging suffered because it was limited in terms of its heating possibilities, and in particular because it couldn’t be used in the microwave oven. Today, everything has changed. In addition to developments in microwave oven technology, progress in steel performance has made it possible to create tray-type packaging that is particularly well suited to microwave heating.”
The electric arcs produced by metal objects no longer cause damage to the magnetron, the element that produces the waves in a microwave oven. But oven manufacturers do not publicise this fact, and metal packaging shapes in the past were not suitable for use in the microwave, according to Ms Jung.
“Throughout Europe, the market for trays of all materials used for pasteurised prepared meals is growing by 10 to 12% in a market where plastic has a 95% market share. This represents an extremely exciting growth potential for metal trays,” she said.
“Microwaveable steel trays are already commonly used in Japan, and the first aluminium trays are arriving in Germany. France is sure to follow suit in the near future.”