Automated Container Corporation

Quality Certification To Provide You The Very Best

We are all aware of our responsibility to provide perfect ends to our customers at any cost. So, we have established a new five-pronged Quality Certification program.

Quality Raw Materials - Quality begins with quality materials. All metal used in our can ends must adhere to written, rigid specifications. Before a new supplier is accepted we run his material... first 100 feet, then a coil, then an ingot and finally a truck-load. Only if his metal runs at the speeds we demand and produces quality ends is it approved. Supplier technical people work with us, in our plant, to maintain quality levels.

Superior Equipment and Tools - The next step in quality is quality manufacturing. Our new integrated production lines take aluminum coils and convert them to finished ends in one continuous operation. At every step, equipment and tools are given meticulous maintenance so that an end product with the highest level of quality results.

Careful On-Line Inspection - At the end of each operating line the press operator performs quality checks on two ends from every sleeve. The ends are first given leak tests to be sure they are tight. Then, they are opened to be sure the ends open properly.

With this system, we catch and correct problems right away. Our press operators are fussy. If an end doesn’t open up right they don’t excuse it by saying, I opened it wrong. They stop the line and look for the problem.

Stringent Quality Control Testing - When the press operator performs the on line tests, two additional ends per sleeve are set aside for Quality Control testing.

These ends are picked up and taken to the Quality Control Laboratory for physical testing. Chuck fit, curl diameter, compound weight, score residual, rivet diameter, countersink depth and rim bead diameter are all measured to be sure they are within our close tolerances. Pop tests, pull tests and leak tests are performed to be sure the ends function perfectly.

Extra Quality Step - Quality Certification - As every pallet is manufactured, it is put into a special certification hold area. On the following day shift, a special crew of quality certifiers takes 125 ends from each side of each pallet for testing.

Those 250 ends are visually inspected for individual defects, including compound placement and appearance, wrinkled curls, misformed rivets and appearance. Each end is then opened. If two ends out of 125 fail to open properly, that half of the pallet is rejected.

If the samples pass, a certification ticket is attached to each half-pallet as proof that the ends are perfect.