The history of competition between aluminum cans and iron cans

Metal cans have a history of more than 70 years.

Beer cans have been produced in the United States since the early 1930s. These three-piece cans are made of tinplate leather with a conical shape on the top and a coronal lid on the top.

Its general shape and glass bottles are not too different, so the original glass bottle filling line filling, until the 1950s did not have a special filling line.

The lid evolved into a flat shape in the mid-1950s and was modified in the 1960s with an aluminium ring.

Aluminum beverage cans first appeared in the late 1950s, and two DWI cans were officially introduced in the early 1960s.

Aluminium cans are developing rapidly, with annual consumption of more than 180 billion by the end of the century, making it the largest category of cans in the world (about 400 billion).

The consumption of aluminium used to make aluminium cans has also grown rapidly, from near zero in 1963 to 3.6 million tonnes in 1997, equivalent to 15 per cent of the world's total use of all aluminium materials.

The United States is the world's largest producer and consumer of aluminum beverage cans.

The number of aluminum cans in use in the United States exceeded 62 billion in 1984, 70 billion in 1987, 80 billion in 1988, 90 billion in 1990, and 100 billion in 1994.

Aluminum cans in the United States are mainly used for packaging drinks. For example, in 1992, the number of aluminum cans for drinks was 92.8 billion, accounting for 97% of the total 95.7 billion, while the iron cans were only 2.9 billion, accounting for 3%.

Nearly 100 billion aluminum cans of beer and soft drinks were consumed in the United States in 2001, with 64 billion soft drinks cans and 33 billion beer cans.

Japanese production of aluminum cans consecutive years of growth, increased from 1985 in 3 billion, respectively, to 1987, 5.5 billion, 1989, 8.1 billion, 1991, 10.2 billion, 1993, 11.8 billion, 1995 in 15.9 billion and 1997 in 16.6 billion, most of aluminum cans is a beer can, such as 1997 in 9.5 billion, only 57%, carbonated drinks cans has 3.5 billion, accounts for 21%, other 3 billion cans, accounting for 18%.

The European can market has been growing steadily since the mid-1980s.

Consumption of soft drink cans in Europe exceeded 20 billion for the first time in 1990, 25 billion in 1993 and 30 billion in 1995.

In 1996, it dropped by 2 percent, from 32.2 billion in the previous year to 31.6 billion.

In 1997, the European can market resumed steady growth, growing at an annual rate of 5%, and total consumption rose to an all-time high of 33.5 billion.

Of these, 18.5 billion were cool soft drinks cans, up 5.1% from the previous year, and 15 billion were beer cans, up 7% from the previous year.

In Europe, tin cans and aluminum cans account for about half.

Central and South America are also big consumers, with nearly 20 billion cans a year.

Asia excluding Japan consumes more than 20 billion cans a year.

China now consumes more than 8 billion aluminum cans a year.

Over the decades, the technology for making aluminum cans has improved.

Aluminum cans weight has been reduced, the early 1960 s, each one thousand aluminum cans (including body and lid) weight 55 pounds (about 25 kg), in the mid - 1970 - s to 44.8 pounds (25 kg), in the late 1990 s and decreased to 33 pounds (15 kg), has been reduced to below 30 pounds, more than 40 years ago fell by nearly half.

In the 20 years from 1975 to 1995, the number of 12-ounce cans made of 1-pound aluminum increased by 35%.

According to ALCOA, the amount of aluminum needed per thousand cans dropped from 25.8 pounds in 1988 to 22.5 pounds in 1998 and 22.3 pounds in 2000.

The thickness of aluminum cans in the United States has decreased significantly, from 0.343 mm in 1984 to 0.285 mm in 1992 and 0.259 mm in 1998.

The lightweight progress of aluminum can caps is also evident.

The thickness of aluminium on cans dropped from 0.39mm in the early 1960s to 0.36mm in the 1970s and to 0 in 1980.

From 28 mm to 0.30 mm, it dropped to 0.24 mm in the mid-1980s.

The lid diameter has also been reduced.

The weight of the lid has been continuously reduced, from 13 pounds in 1974, 12 pounds in 1980, 11 pounds in 1984, 10 pounds in 1986, 9 pounds in 1990 and 8 pounds in 1992, and 6.6 pounds in 2002.

The canning speed has been greatly improved, from 650 ~ 1000 CPM (only/min) in the 1970s to 1000 ~ 1750cpm in the 1980s and over 2000cpm now.

Many countries, especially developed countries, attach great importance to the recycling and utilization of used metal cans, and the recycling and reuse rate of metal cans is also increasing.

For example, as early as in the 1980s, the recycling rate of aluminum cans in the United States had exceeded 50%. It was 63.6% in 1990, 65.4% in 1994, 66.5% in 1997, 62.5% in 1999 and 62.1% in 2000.

The recycling rate of Japanese aluminum cans increased from 43% in 1990 to 58% in 1993, 70% in 1996, 79% in 1999 and 83% in 2001.