The greatest advantage of Composite Material is strength and stiffness combined with lightness. By choosing an appropriate combination of reinforcement and matrix material, manufacturers can produce properties that exactly fits the requirements for a particular structure for a particular purpose.
Composite Cans Components
There are four main structures in the body of a Composite Can:
- The Aluminum Inner Web
- Multipole Intermediate Webs
- Label Web
- The Membrane
The Membrane and tear off tabs are made of metals (usually aluminum). This membrane is manufactured in a blanking and deep drawing device. This same device cuts circular slits to make the tear off membrane. Another machine then manufacturers and seals the tear off membranes. The membrane band is taken from the material reel, blanked, deep drawn and formed.
Closures for Composite Cans comes in different forms including aluminum-membrane with tear tabs, paper membrane with or without aluminum coating, paper board ends and paper board shakers among others. These closures can be made from aluminum foil, paper foil with or without coating. Other closures options are available depending on the company and request of the customer.
There are two main types of Composite Cans:
Spiral Wound Cans & Linear Draw Cans
Spiral Wound Cans are made by diagonally winding and gluing four layers of material together. The bottom layer is usually Tin or Foil, the two middle layers are usually paper board, and they serve to give the Can its structure. The outermost layer is sometimes optional depending on if the customer will like a label added to the can itself. This typically increases the cost of production.
Linear Draw Cans are made by drawing the materials through the gluing process and then through the tooling process. After the tube is made, it is then cut into separate cans. These kinds of Cans are made in one single process.
Composite Cans can be used mainly for packaging everyday items like Coffee, Bread Crumbs, Hot Chocolate Mixes, Nuts, Cakes, Spices, Tea and many more. Composite Cans offer several advantages such as cost-effectiveness, environmental safety (Composite Cans are mostly made of recycled products), durability, versatility and user friendliness in general.