Drink cans
are made of aluminum. About 180,000,000 aluminum cans per year are produced worldwide or about 15,000 per second, according to Bill Hammack, who made the video below. They are made from about 70% recycled material. Can are the most recycled beverage container, but only 69% worldwide. Nowadays it
is so common that we don't even think about it, but it hasn't always existed and it's form has not always been as
we see it today.
 |
| Aluminum pull-tab |
In 1959,
the recyclable aluminum can was introduced by the Adolph Coors Company. Also in 1959, Ermal Fraze devised a can-opening method that would come to
dominate the canned drink market. His invention was the "pull-tab".
This eliminated the need for a separate opener tool by attaching an aluminum
pull-ring lever.
In the
video below, an engineer details the engineering choices behind the design of a
beverage can. He explains why it is cylindrical, explains the manufacturing
steps needed to created the can, notes why the can narrows near it lid, shows
close ups of the double-seam that hold the lid on, and details the complex
operation of the tab that opens the can.
Rexam, a manufacturer of aluminum cans produced the following video that shows the process with animations from the beginning as mined Bauxite, to the final can and even how it is recycled.
No comments:
Post a Comment