Milacron Holdings Corp. (NYSE: MCRN), a leading industrial technology company serving the plastics processing industry announced its Klear Can technology has undergone and passed an important food safety test and is undergoing additional testing with a number of select prospects.
The Milacron Klear Can is an ideal alternative to metal cans for fruits, vegetables, soups, meats, and other products. The Klear Can uses the same filling, seaming and retorting machinery as metal cans so minimal downstream investment is required. The Klear Can enables manufacturers to produce/mold cans at the filling site (through the wall operations), be cost competitive to the metal can, and allow brand owners to demonstrate quality of the product to consumers.
Before a new food or beverage container can be used commercially, the container has to pass a universally accepted series of testing for potential leakage of the double seam or the container structure. The normal test is a Biotest, which is a comparative method of examining leakage rates of a container or its seals.
Double seaming is a metal forming process, which utilizes a seaming chuck, which fits the end being sealed onto the container. There are two steps to this process:
- A first operation seaming roll, which rolls the end curl material which is lined with a flexible compound onto the flange material of the container and
- A second operation roll that irons out the resultant double seam formed between the end material and compound and the body material producing a hermetically sound seal.
Although the double seaming principle appears simple, it encompasses a wide range of parameters, which can influence the double seam performance and integrity. The double seam is the most complex and critical factor in ensuring that the seal between the can end, the can end compound and the body material will withstand processing temperatures up to 121 degrees centigrade. The seal must also withstand external factors related to the retorting process and handling without allowing a leakage path to form which could allow micro-organisms to enter or in the case of a beverage container, internal pressures to vent.
After conducting rigorous Biotests on the functionality of the Klear Can’s easy open double seamed lid process, it has been concluded this revolutionary container is suitably and safely sealed. This truly speaks volumes to the Klear Can’s innovativeness as this process is conducted on a standard metal can seaming line with the only change being rollers on a standard seaming chuck. Klear Can field testing continues in Belgium where they have been filled with vegetables in an isolated environment and are ready for market trials. Consumer sampling tests have also been conducted with Klear Cans being filled with fruit and were presented within market surveys and to focus groups. To date consumers are giving the “thumbs-up” to Klear Can’s appeal and attractiveness.
Milacron Vice President and General Manager Co-injection Systems, Steve Morris stated, “We are extremely pleased with the progress of our Klear Can product. It continues to make impressive strides towards market readiness with major end users now getting involved in marketing tests. We feel this product and our equipment is another example of powerful, reliable solutions that meet unique customer needs.”
Milacron is the world’s largest supplier of turnkey co-injection systems to the plastics and packaging industries. Our multi-layer packaging technology is designed to meet the plastics industry’s need for a successful high barrier technology in a robust multi-layer plastic preform or closure, delivered with the same high-volume production efficiencies and cycle times as monolayer plastic preforms or containers without barriers.
Milacron Co-injection technology can be applied to production of PET blow molded containers, PP blow molded containers, thin wall containers, closures and medical parts.
Photo: Milacron
