New laminated aluminium surfaces for beverage can ends

Novelis will showcase its new laminated aluminium surfaces for beverage can ends at ALUMINIUM 2022 in Düsseldorf at the end of September.

This innovative application improves beverage container appearance, increases production process efficiencies and lowers CO₂ emissions for European beverage brands and can makers.

Coloured aluminium beverage can ends, especially black, are particularly popular for new beverage products and energy drinks. However, the lacquered, black can ends also poses challenges in terms of colour stability and can makers’ production processes.

High-quality surfaces and colour stability are especially important for the premium beverage segments. Novelis’ aluminium sheet with a black laminating film is free of Bisphenol A (BPA) and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and meets all food and beverage industry requirements. At the company’s Göttingen site in Germany, which specializes in rolled aluminium surface finishing, the laminating film is applied by a combination of pressure and heat.

For beverage can makers, adoption of the laminated sheet is simple, as the production of laminated ends does not require any can line retooling. In fact, it requires less cleaning, leading to increased productivity.

This new product supports can makers and beverage brands in reaching their sustainability goals. The lamination of aluminium coils for can ends reduces CO₂ emissions by one third, says Novelis, compared to the conventional liquid coating, as the lamination process requires less heat and chemicals.

Laminated ends have no adverse impact on the recyclability of beverage cans. Similar to the conventional can coating, the laminating film is removed as an organic component in the recycling process by thermal pretreatment, and the waste heat is reused in the process.

“This innovation meets the food and packaging industry’s requirements for high-quality, lower CO₂ footprint material. Together with our customers, we are creating better, more sustainable products and efficient manufacturing processes,” said Alexander Kuzan, vice-president of the Can business for Novelis Europe. “Using high levels of recycled aluminium in our products helps reduce the consumption of natural resources, strengthen the circular economy and limit climate change.”

Novelis annually recycles around 80bn used beverage cans worldwide. In Nachterstedt, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, the company operates one of the world’s largest and technologically advanced aluminium recycling centres. At the facility, up to 400,000 t of aluminium scrap is shredded, sorted, thermally decoated, melted, cast and returned to the production cycle each year.