As Disney’s “Toy Story 3” movie portrays, children’s interests in toys change as they grow up. Similarly, as the beverage can industry matures, its interest in packaging sizes changes. These changes have a domino effect on the equipment that fills and seams these cans.
“In the old days, there was primarily one beverage can — a 12-ounce can,” says Bob Pease, director of wet-end group products for KHS USA Inc., Waukesha, Wis. “Billions of the cans were the same size [in terms of] diameter, height, end size, etc., so the machines physically did not [need] changeover.” However, more than 50 years after the launch of beverages in cans, the market is flooded with varying can sizes, changing the can’s dimensions by height, diameter and even material thickness.