A TOAST

Being taken for granted in metalworking can represent the same thing that imitation does everywhere else – the sincerest form of flattery.

If whatever equipment, person, supplier or product proves so reliable over time that the same assumption automatically attaches to them without verification or proof, they are taken for granted. That’s a good thing. And if whatever equipment, person, supplier or product is taken so for granted that they can have a profound impact without even being noticed, then that’s a very good thing.

So it is with that most reliable, most ignored technological innovation: the aluminum can.

The aluminum can is so routinely taken for granted that most of us don’t notice the profound impact it has made in our lives over the past 50 years. That’s right. The production of the first seamless and recyclable aluminum can by Coors (Golden, CO) was recently celebrated as a Historical Landmark of ASM International (Materials Park, OH), the materials information society, and chances are you didn’t even know it.

For that reason, in remembrance of all the soda, soups, adult beverages and energy drinks you have ever consumed from aluminum cans, let’s toast the CoorsTek facility in Golden where the first two-piece aluminum can was produced under the direction of William K. Coors, Joseph Coors and their colleagues on January 22, 1959.

This invention revolutionized the beer and consumer packaged goods industry and spurred recycling efforts nationwide. In 1957, Bill Coors was president of Adolph Coors Company and began researching the feasibility of a recyclable aluminum container for beer with his staff engineers. At that time, beer was packaged in tin containers that introduced an aftertaste and a trash problem. Aluminum allowed Coors to deliver fresher tasting beer without needing pasteurization. And it was 100 percent recyclable.

“Over the following 25 years, aluminum would eventually replace steel as the material of choice, and cans would replace bottles as our favorite containers,” notes George Krauss, professor emeritus at the Colorado School of Mines and past president and Honorary Member of ASM International, who presented the ASM Historical Landmark award to Coors as he strolled back through the evolution of this simple giant of genius.

“Back then, there were two basic designs that dated back to the 1930s,” recalls Krauss. “One had a top that looked like the Tin Man’s hat. It was made cone-shaped so that breweries could fill them on their standard bottling lines. The second type was the flat-top can. Those first cans needed an opener with a sharp point to puncture the top in two places. Due to their size, those heavy openers were known as “church keys.”

“Until the dawn of the Space Age, steel flat-tops were how Americans bought much of their beverages,” he continues. “Then came the revolution of 1959. That’s when the two-piece aluminum beverage can made its commercial debut right here at Coors Brewing Company.”

Those old cone top cans were called cone tops or crowntainers and were sealed by the same caps that were put on bottles. In fact, there were three types of conetops: high profile, low profile, and j-spout. The low profile and j-spout were the earliest. They dated back to about 1935, around the same time as the flat top cans that had to be opened with those church keys. The crowntainer was configured differently and made from drawn steel with a bottom cap. It was the favorite of some collectors. But while various breweries used crowntainers and conetops until the late 1950s, not every brewery used them all.

Krauss reminds us of the myriad benefits of aluminum. “For example, did you know that an aluminum can chills faster and stays colder than any other beverage container?” he asks. “That it’s lighter and easier to package and carry than steel? That it’s the most recycled drink container in the world? Once Coors showed America how to do it, the era of aluminum beer cans began.”

As other brewers started making their own cans, technological innovation made the cans even better. The birth of the pull-tab in the early 1960s eliminated the church-key opener. Cans welded at the seam were replaced by the seamless, extruded cans. Now aluminum cans are typically cold formed.

This process starts by punching a flat blank from a cold-rolled sheet of alloy 3104-H19 or 3004-H19, which is aluminum with about one percent manganese and one percent magnesium for strength and formability. The flat blank is then formed into a roughly three-inch diameter cup. This cup is then pushed through an ironing process that forms the can. The bottom of the can is also shaped at this time. The malleable metal deforms into the shape of an open-top can, with the side of the can significantly thinner than either the top and bottom areas, where stiffness is required.

One can-making production line can turn out up to 2400 cans per minute. Plain lids are stamped out from aluminum coil, typically alloy 5182-H49, and transferred to another press for conversion into easy-open ends. The conversion press forms an integral rivet button in the lid and scores the opening while concurrently forming the tabs in another die from a separate strip of aluminum. As an ode to Jimmy Buffet, the tab is pushed over the button, which is then flattened to form the rivet that attaches the tab to the lid. No more pop tops to cut feet on.

Finally, the top rim of the can is trimmed and pressed inward or “necked” to form a conical taper where the can will later be filled and the lid (also an aluminum alloy with magnesium) attached.

“Perhaps most significant of all, the aluminum can is the only packaging solution that is 100 percent recyclable,” adds Krauss. “More than 50 percent of all aluminum cans in the U.S. get recycled, saving energy and minimizing waste. In fact, the weight of the 1.7 million pounds of aluminum cans recycled in 2001 was equal to the weight of 14 aircraft carriers!”

Pushed by our Age of Green, recycling has increased even more. Aluminum can recycling now saves over two billion pounds of used aluminum every year from the land fill. In other words, here in the U.S. 99 percent of all our beer cans and 97 percent of all our soft drink cans are made of recycled aluminum. And we take all of this for granted.

So pause for a moment. Go over to the fridge and grab that can. That’s it, that’s the one. Now pull the tab open and join me in saluting that old reliable we love to ignore. Cheers!

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LIFE CYCLE COSTS
To help you improve your operating margins in these difficult economic conditions, this month we offer some ways to reduce your life cycle costs, those elements associated with the cost of a system or a piece of equipment over its entire lifespan.

These elements are generally categorized in terms of the original acquisition costs incurred during the purchase, various expenses generated during actual operations, costs associated with maintenance and service, and finally, those costs tied to reallocation and/or disposal of the equipment. In some circles, all of these are referred to as the total cost of ownership.

We recently polled our readers to find out how many of them factor in these cost elements when buying new equipment (see poll above) and found that not too many do. Of course, not too many are buying capital equipment right now either, but the LCC concept still applies to examining ways to reduce maintenance and service expenses and operating costs – such as those related to welding and metalworking fluids that we cover in this issue.

Perhaps by rethinking how your current expenses apply to specific equipment you already own, you may have just identified another way to possibly improve your operating margins. Just a thought.