Alcoa 1997 Annual Report Download - page 12

NEWS97
10
Lids, Cans and Closures
Fresh Ideas in Packaging
Based on new Alcoa technologies,
beverage marketers can attract
consumers with embossed textures
and high-fidelity photographs on
their aluminum cans.
Embossed Cans Debut. Anheuser-
Busch’s Budweiser
beer in an embossed
can is now on sale
in Japan, and its
Michelob brand is in
four test markets in
the U.S. The Sprite
soda embossed can
— the first can with
texture as well as
color and graphics —
is being introduced in the Pacific
Northwest. Alcoa Packaging Equipment
developed the new technology and
machinery for these cans, which not
only look different but also feel
different from any previous package.
Registered embossing enhances graphics
by raising images from the side of the can.
The marketing potential of this new tech-
nology has stirred intense interest on the
part of beverage customers worldwide.
New Product for Lids. Alcoa’s new
lidding film laminate, AL1000™,
has passed lidding trials at a
number of yogurt makers.
Preliminary evaluations indi-
cate the product has the
potential to reduce leakage to
one-tenth the rate of lid stock
in use up to now. The new lids
are also more consumer-
friendly because they don’t
tear like conventional prod-
ucts when being
removed. AL1000 is
the latest addition to
Alcoa’s family of
patented, cohesively
peeling lidding
materials, chosen by
major food produc-
ers including
Cadbury/Mott for
their single serve
applesauce.
Advances in
Packaging
Equipment. Stolle
Machinery in Sidney,
Ohio, part of
Alcoa Packaging
Equipment, has
extended its product
line with two new systems
for making can ends. For beer and bever-
age cans, the new Tetrad™ conversion
system raises production rates by more
than 40%, to 2,800 ends per minute. For
food cans, the first QuickEx™ end conver-
sion press, developed by Stolle, was
ordered recently by Phoenix Packaging.
This system can produce either steel or
aluminum can ends for food packagers.
A Word to the Consumer. Four new
television commercials have taken to the
air for 1997 and 1998 to promote alu-
minum beverage cans to U.S. consumers.
Commercials carry humorous reminders
of the aluminum can’s convenience,
freshness, and unique value in recycling.
The campaign runs in selected markets,
sponsored by Alcoa Rigid Packaging and
other can sheet producers and canmakers
through the Aluminum Association.
A First in Aluminum Cans. Orange
Groove is not your usual soft drink brand.
It’s an experimental label owned by Alcoa
Packaging Machinery and used to demon-
strate new possibilities in two-piece cans.
The latest Orange Groove package design
— a can printed in high definition by
waterless lithography — just won an
international packaging award from the
National Metal Decorators Association in
the U.S. Alcoa worked with Presstek, Inc.
to develop the new process. When used
on the advanced Alcoa metal decorating
press, Presstek’s digitally imaged plates
make it possible to print magazine-quality
photographs directly onto aluminum
beverage cans with no significant increase
in costs.