We are a leading manufacturer of rigid packaging for consumer goods products.
Our products are used for a wide variety of end markets and we operate 87 manufacturing
plants in North America, Europe, Asia and South America. Our products include:
steel and aluminum containers for human and pet food and general line products;
metal, composite and plastic closures for food and beverage products; and
custom designed plastic containers and closures for personal care, food, health
care, pharmaceutical, household and industrial chemical, pet care, agricultural,
automotive and marine chemical products.
We are a leading manufacturer of metal containers in North America and Europe,
and in North America we are the largest manufacturer of metal food containers
with a unit volume market share in the United States of approximately sixty
percent. Our leadership in these markets is driven by our high levels of quality,
service and technological support, our low cost producer position, our strong
long-term customer relationships and our proximity to customers through our
widespread geographic presence. We have 46 metal container manufacturing facilities
located in the United States, Europe and Asia, serving over 50 countries throughout
the world. Additionally, we believe that we have the most comprehensive equipment
capabilities in the industry.
We are also a leading worldwide manufacturer of metal, composite and plastic
closures for food and beverage products. Our leadership position in closures
is a result of our ability to provide customers with high levels of quality,
service and technological support. Our closures business provides customers
with an extensive variety of proprietary metal, composite and plastic closures
that ensure closure quality and safety, as well as state-of-the-art capping/sealing
equipment and detection systems to complement our closures product offering.
We have 19 closure manufacturing facilities located in North America, Europe,
Asia and South America, from which we serve over 70 countries throughout the
world. In addition, we license our technology to five other manufacturers for
various markets we do not serve directly.
METAL CONTAINER BUSINESS
The manufacturing operations of our metal container business include cutting,
coating, lithographing, fabricating, assembling and packaging finished cans.
We use three basic processes to produce cans. The traditional three-piece method
requires three pieces of flat metal to form a cylindrical body with a welded
side seam, a bottom and a top. High integrity of the side seam is assured by
the use of sophisticated electronic weld monitors and organic coatings that
are thermally cured by induction and convection processes. The other two methods
of producing cans start by forming a shallow cup that is then formed into the
desired height using either the draw and iron process or the draw and redraw
process. Using the draw and redraw process, we manufacture steel and aluminum
two-piece cans, the height of which generally does not exceed the diameter.
For cans the height of which is greater than the diameter, we manufacture steel
two-piece cans by using a drawing and ironing process. Quality and stackability
of these cans are comparable to that of the shallow two-piece cans described
above. We manufacture can bodies and ends from thin, high-strength aluminum
alloys and steels by utilizing proprietary tool and die designs and selected
can making equipment. We also manufacture our Quick Top® easy-open ends
from both steel and aluminum alloys in a sophisticated precision progressive
die process. We regularly review our Quick Top® easy-open end designs for
improvements for optimum consumer preference through consumer studies and feedback.
CLOSURES BUSINESS
The manufacturing operations for metal closures include cutting, coating, lithographing,
fabricating and lining. We manufacture twist-off, lug style and press-on, twist-off
steel closures and aluminum roll-on closures for glass, metal and plastic containers,
ranging in size from 18 to 110 millimeters in diameter. We employ state-of-the-art
multi-die presses to manufacture metal closures, offering a low-cost, high quality
means of production. We also provide customers of our closures business with
custom formulations of sealing/lining materials, designed to minimize torque
removal and enhance the openability of our closures while meeting applicable
regulatory requirements.
We utilize two basic processes to produce plastic closures. In the injection
molded process, pellets of plastic resin are heated and injected into a mold,
forming a plastic closure shell. The shell can include a molded linerless seal
or a custom formulated, compression molded sealing system. The shell can then
be slit and printed depending on its end use. In the compression molded process,
pellets of plastic resin are heated and extruded, and then compressed to form
a plastic closure shell. The shell can include a molded linerless seal or a
custom formulated, compression molded sealing system. The shell can then be
slit and printed depending on its end use. In either process, the shell can
also be lined with foil seal systems formulated for its end use.
For composite closures, a metal panel is manufactured using the same manufacturing
process for metal closures, including the use of custom formulations of sealing/lining
materials, and then it is inserted into a plastic closure shell.
PLASTIC CONTAINER BUSINESS
We utilize two basic processes to produce plastic containers. In the extrusion
blowmolding process, pellets of plastic resin are heated and extruded into a
tube of plastic. A two-piece metal mold is then closed around the plastic tube
and high pressure air is blown into it causing a bottle to form in the mold’s
shape. In the injection and injection stretch blowmolding processes, pellets
of plastic resin are heated and injected into a mold, forming a plastic preform.
The plastic preform is then blown into a bottle-shaped metal mold, creating
a plastic bottle.
We also manufacture plastic closures, caps, sifters and fitments using runnerless
injection molding technology. In this process, pellets of plastic resin are
melted and forced under pressure into a mold, where they take the mold’s
shape.
Our plastic thermoformed bowls, trays and tubs are manufactured by melting pellets
of plastic resin into an extruded plastic sheet. The plastic sheet is then formed
in a mold to make the plastic bowl, tray or tub.
We have state-of-the-art decorating equipment, including several of the largest
sophisticated decorating facilities in the United States. Our decorating methods
for plastic containers are in-mold labeling, which applies a plastic film label
to the bottle during the blowing process, and post-mold decoration. Post-mold
decoration includes:
silk screen decoration which enables the applications of images in multiple
colors to the bottle;
pressure sensitive decoration which uses a plastic film or paper label with
an adhesive;
heat transfer decoration which uses a plastic coated label applied by heat;
hot stamping decoration which transfers images from a die using metallic foils;
and
shrink sleeve labeling.
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