10 ms·
The ingenious design of the aluminum beverage can (2015) [video]
- WirelessGigabit 4y agoAnyone noticed that cans have gotten thinner in the last 10 years? Seems like they actually made the process even better. Well, for them, not for me. I've had more punctured cans in the last 2 years than in the 10 years before that.
- wink 4y agoDefinitely different per manufacturer here in Europe. Coke cans have always been thicker than Red Bull for example, like I think in general our 0.25l cans. But yeah, the 0.33l cans have become thinner over the last 20 years, but I can't say if progressively or at some point from A to B. I don't buy cans a lot, but I don't even remember if I ever had a punctured one except when maybe dropping it on concrete...
- saurik 4y agoI put one (0.33L, btw) in a bag today and it punctured. I was really surprised as I really didn't think it had been under much if any stress.
- namibj 4y agoThey are susceptible primarily to corners, and after that, to edges. The sharper, the worse. The way they are made, and the type of aluminium they are made out of, results in them failing after experiencing comparatively little strain (for being a ductile metal alloy). Because the walls are so thin, squeezing them with the grip of a hand won't cause much strain, due to the large bending radii (seen relative to the wall thickness). But if you concentrate the force around a (comparatively to your fingers) sharp corner/edge, especially if it's a corner sharp enough to hurt if you pressed on it with your hand and, say, ~5kg worth of force, you'll force it to stretch to conform to the pointy corner's shape. (Despite the factory already pushing the material close to it's limit as far as stretching-before-ripping goes. No wonder it rips, then.)
- teekert 4y agoInteresting that this is popping up. I just read about wine in cans. And when I go to a beer festival now, there are many expensive rare brews presented in cans. 3-5 years ago cans were the poor mans packaging. It's amazing how large a role marketing/blogging plays in the perception of something like packaging techniques.
- prennert 4y agoPossible that an opaque can appeals to more people than seeing the hops fluffing around the bottom of a bottle. (Although there is plenty of Weizen in bottles around where sediments are on show)
- Damogran6 4y agoCrowlers became a big deal with microbrewers, you could sample the beer at their location, and a Crowler was a lower barrier to entry then buying a glass growler, then remember to have it with you the next time.
- DavidPeiffer 4y agoI used to work for Alcoa, the main driving company behind aluminum adoption across many industries. They made the sheet metal for aluminum cans, and purchased canned water to serve to guests (rather than buying plastic bottled water). Prior to wine, about the only time you'd encounter an uncarbonated beverage in an aluminum can was if your city lost water and the beer manufacturers would send a semi worth of canned water in for emergency relief. Uncarbonated beverages don't make the same sound when opened, and there's definitely a mental hurdle I had to get past because it seemed like it should be carbonated when an aluminum can is at your lips.
- Maursault 4y ago> The dome-bottom uses less material than if the bottom were flat. How does a dome-bottom, which has considerably more surface area than a flat-bottom. result in less material used? > A typical aluminum can today contains about 70% recyclable material. Only 70%!? So out of a half trillion aluminum cans per year, effectively 150B are not recyclable. What is the non-recyclable material, and what happens to it?
- dpatterbee 4y agoA flat bottom would require a thicker layer of aluminium to provide the same structural properties.
- Maursault 4y agoOf course. Thank you.
- simondotau 4y agoCans can only be recycled if they end up in a recycling centre. Cans sent to landfill are functionally non-recyclable, at least for the foreseeable future.
- hotcoffeebear 4y agoI saw somebody dissolved a soda can in acid, it remained in a plastic bag (which is probably plastic lining inside). But %70 rate seem so low, how does glass fare?
- the_third_wave 4y agoIn the Netherlands 80% of all glass is recycled [1] (it is 100% recyclable as long as you don't care about the colour). In the UK the percentage is a bit lower, 67 % for green glass, 48 % for brown glass and 43 % for white glass [2]. [1] https://recyclingnederland.nl/soort/glasrecycling/ https://recyclingnederland.nl/soort/glasrecycling/ [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-waste-data/uk-statistics-on-waste https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-waste-data/uk-st...
- modzu 4y agommm spraypainted epoxy laquer
- Wistar 4y agoTangential: In the early 2000s, WD40 dramatically changed their can design in an effort to thwart product counterfeiters. I remember at the time reading that WD40 was the single most counterfeited product in the world. https://www.packworld.com/design/materials-containers/news/13337544/wd40-tries-can-shaping-to-foil-counterfeiters https://www.packworld.com/design/materials-containers/news/1...
- isamuel 4y agoWell, I'm thirsty.
- enyathrowaway3x 4y agoFun fact: Bill introduced me to bourbon (while our spouses attended UIUC together) and so meticulously explained what “neat” means as a drink order, that it’s my preferred drink to this day (~ a decade later).
- QuelqueChose 4y agoI'm not quite following, I don't see a video related to whiskey on the profile of the video posted to this thread?
- fknorangesite 4y agoIt's just an anecdote about the guy.
- SamBam 4y agoI think GP was referring to an IRL meeting.
- somebody78978 4y agoDoesn't "neat" just mean without ice?
- fknorangesite 4y agoYeah I'm not sure how meticulously one can possibly describe "put the bourbon in a glass."
- cynicalsecurity 4y agoIs it really wise to waste that much metal on beverage cans?
- rhinoceraptor 4y agoDeposit return systems work but it's really annoying now that I have a big recycling bin, I still have to pay 10 cents a can and then feed them into the machine one by one, the machines are always full or broken and they're usually only open until 7pm. So then I end up with hundreds of cans since I go to the store later, and they cap the amount you're allowed to return at one time.
- namibj 4y agoThe German deposit system for single-use beverage containers seems to not suffer this badly from "always full/broken, limited opening hours" machines. If the machine is full, it will usually be emptied soon, and I can't even remember if I've ever caught the only machine at a location being broken. I have vague memories of something like that, but 1) it's been about 10 years, and 2) I'm not even sure if it was broken or just whining about it's crushed-beverage-container-bin being full. According to [0], the true chains (i.e., not just franchise brands) of grocery stores, at least the nation-wide relevant/big ones, all don't have a limit on how many containers you are allowed to deposit per visit (the machine will eventually fill up and if it's the only one they have, you'll have to wait until an employee has a chance to swap the bin out). Unless they have it in a separate niche with it's own entry door separate from the rest of the store, the machines seem to be active/ready until they deactivate the motion sensors on the exterior doors, which happens around 20:55 and 21:00 around here (most of the stores nominally close at 21:00, but some few stores stay open between 1 and 3 hours longer). [0]: https://www.t-online.de/heim-garten/haushaltstipps/id_92333938/rueckgabe-limit-fuer-pfandflaschen-das-gilt-bei-aldi-lidl-rewe-und-co-wirklich.html https://www.t-online.de/heim-garten/haushaltstipps/id_923339...
- kwhitefoot 4y agoSame here in Norway. It's rare to encounter an out of order reverse vending machine and all but the very smallest supermarkets have them and most such places are open from 07:00 to 23:00. Never encountered any kind of limit on how many and now that all the cans and bottles are crushed in the machine it's quite rare for the bin to fill up too.
- litoE 4y agoI couldn't figure out from the video at what stage and how is the liquid and the carbonation placed inside. I assume it must be just before putting the lid on, but I don't see how the lid is put on if the contents are generating outward pressure.
- londons_explore 4y agoCarbonation is an odd process... You can carbonate a liquid (by bubbling CO2 through it at high pressures). That liquid, if put in a cup, will slowly lose its carbonation, over a few hours. If you put a sealed lid on the cup, the pressure will build up inside the cup as some CO2 comes out of the liquid into the top of the cup, till there is an equilibrium and no more gas comes out. Thats what the canning process relies on. So the can isn't sealed under pressure - the can is sealed at room pressure, and then within a few minutes the pressure builds up inside the can. Kinda neat!
- bena 4y agoThat makes sense as to why two liters go flat faster. The more you drink, the more space in the bottle. The more space, the more CO2 that would be allowed to escape the liquid.
- tastyfreeze 4y agoThe top sits on the rim of the can then the edge is rolled closed like a tin can. Sealing takes a fraction of a second. There isn't really time for pressure to build under the lid before it is sealed.
- feyes 4y agoThey run through a seamer right after the filler. I work in the industry. It's a neat process. The can exits the filler, a lid releases and is seamed just after.
- londons_explore 4y agoPresumably that means if the machine is stopped for a few minutes for maintenance, and then resumed, you need to watch out for a handful of cans where the pressure will have escaped.
- Quequau 4y agoI like this guy. I think the best videos he made where the ones on Faraday's Candle lectures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrHnLXMTOWM&list=PL0INsTTU1k2UCpOfRuMDR-wlvWkLan1_r https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrHnLXMTOWM&list=PL0INsTTU1k...
- mcast 4y agoIt’s a shame he doesn’t post videos anymore, his students are lucky to have him as a professor.
- vpilcx 4y agoIt's interesting this would pop up, because I was just thinking yesterday about how the holes of cans used to be a different shape. I believe it was mid to late 90's. They switched over to a larger hole. I was telling my mom and she was telling me that it didn't happen. I was hoping they were going to cover this in the video but no such luck. This did actually happen, right?
- qbasic_forever 4y agoYes it happened around the mid 90s, I remember the change. Look up vintage cans of soda on ebay and such: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=vintage+soda+aluminum+can&_trksid=p2334524.m4084.l1313&_odkw=vintage+soda https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=vintage+soda+aluminum+c...
- Graziano_M 4y agoI remember commercials about the new bigger mouth. One where someone was choking on food and the it was like, "don't you sometimes wish you had a bigger mouth?". Some quick googling found an old beer commercial [1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHXNtb27IY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHXNtb27IY8
- cycomanic 4y agoYes at least in Germany you used to open cans by a lever and pull a small opening open by ripping a piece of the lid away. That usually left quite sharp edges, which I guess is why they changed the design. You can see some of the old openings in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaH6q7cZv8Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaH6q7cZv8Y Edit correct video link