Hands-On Experience Behind Automated Container Sales
Incorporated more than 20 years ago, Automated
Container was founded to serve the can making and packaging industries for
the supply and support of easy-open ends. Since that time these
components have remained our sales and technical focus.
Originally offering only aluminum, safety protected,
easy-open ends, our product line has been ever expanding in the number of
diameters offered and the styles and applications available. Currently
diameters from 201.5 (51mm) to 603 (189mm) and beyond are available off
the shelf, as well as specialized pour spout designs and partial aperture
ends in various diameters.
Meanwhile, Automated Container’s track record of
partnering with customers to develop new products was most recently
demonstrated by the development of our latest addition, the 502 diameter
DOUBLEGUARDTM end. This end was developed in conjunction with
a major producer of infant formula in the international marketplace.
Steel processable, foil peel, aluminum easy-open and even sanitary ends
are all available from our company.
Recent improvements, including automatic machine
inspection of critical characteristics, insure that our products are
manufactured to the highest quality standards.
Automated Container works with all canmakers,
manufacturers and packers, big or small to ensure their requirements are
serviced promptly and efficiently. Minimum order quantities are designed
to meet the requirements of virtually all applications.
Automated Container is not just a sales company.
Technical knowledge and hands-on experience provide the background of all
of our sales professionals. Our understanding of the processes involved
in packaging applications and end manufacture assists our customers to
receive the proper components suited to their specific applications.
Problem solving is greatly simplified. If our staff does not know the
answer, they know where to get it.
In a packaging environment with increasing demand for
convenience packaging, Automated Container is an asset. Put our
experience to work for you.
Automated Container Introduces Patented Safety End
502 DOUBLEGUARDTM End is Safest, Most Tamper
Evident Easy-Open End
In the 1990’s, Automated Container discontinued the
production of a non-safety protected 502 (127mm) flat panel aluminum
easy-open end design. This was done to allow for an engineering focus on
developmental work recognizing the need for safety protection in larger
diameter ends.
Now, Automated Container has answered that need. For
the first time ever, both canmakers and food packers alike will have the
opportunity to offer the ultimate safety end to complement their premium
packages. In 2002, we started manufacturing and selling the 502
DOUBLEGUARDTM end. This end features both rim safety and
center panel safety, a feature previously associated with our DOUBLESAFEâ
profile.
The DOUBLEGUARD end offers another unique, patented
fold feature that makes it poised to become the end industry benchmark for
companies seeking the ultimate in consumer safety. The drawing in
figure 1, shows how the safety protection is afforded by utilizing a
rivet type fold in the middle of the score line.
Our Omaha, Neb. Plant currently has the capacity for
both large and small customers alike. Sample quantities are free upon
request. We also can assist you in the production trials required to make
this a commercial success for you and your customers.
Figure 1, the new 502 DOUBLEGUARDTM end offers both rim safety
and center panel safety.
Are You Safe Enough?
It seems sometimes that the world has gone mad. The
classic case study in liability is the woman that orders hot coffee,
spills it on herself, and sues the fast food franchise that sold it to
her…because it was hot! She won.
Similarly, lawsuits have been initiated in instances
where consumers open canisters, closed with conventional or easy-open
ends, and cut themselves on the sharp edges left on the canister or
exposed in the opening process. Though common sense, and probably your
mother, dictated caution, the cultural instinct to litigation continues to
come to bear.
Businesses increasingly must be on the lookout for
ideas and products that limit their exposure to such possibilities.
Even more importantly, marketing of a successful
canned product requires appropriate safety protection. Without such
protection, canned puddings didn’t sell, canned snacks didn’t sell, and
canned peanuts didn’t sell. When the appropriate safety features were
added, sales blossomed.
Automated Container is proud to offer valuable safety
products to the canning industry. Designed specifically for application
to dry packed products, our range of “double safety protection ends” is
designed to be the premier product for cut protection for the consumer.
Some ends are designed to protect the consumer when
they are reaching into the container by positioning safety protection on
the rim of the opened can. This is a good approach to reduction of
consumer exposure and Automated Container offers a line of products for
this level of increased consumer safety.
For the best available reduction of consumer exposure
to risk, Automated Container offers our line of double safety ends. Our
DOUBLESAFEâ and
DOUBLEGUARDTM designs provide increased resistance to injury
for both the rim and the removed center panel. This level of protection
is available at little or no increased cost, versus rim-protected
easy-open ends, and provides excellent value for liability control.
While no product can guarantee itself to be foolproof
(as people continue to develop ingenious ways to injure themselves), our
double safety ends are the next best thing.
So, the question is: Are you safe enough?
Contact your representative at Automated Container to
see.
Changes in Value of Euro and Yen vs. Dollar
During the past year, the strength
of the Euro and Yen compared to the US $ has made Automated Container’s
safety ends more attractive.
Quality Improvements On Aluminum Safety Protected Ends
Throughout 2002, Crown Cork & Seal’s Winter Garden
(Fla.) Plant took further steps to ensure that several diameters of the
SAFERIMâ and
DOUBLESAFEâ ends they
manufacture are up to Crown’s “World Class Performance” standards. The
two presses that produce most of these profiles now have 100% inline
PresscoTM vision inspection systems and Softau leak detection
units. These systems join the “no tab” and “no compound” detectors that
have been in place for the last several years.
Jimmie Simmons, the Winter Garden plant’s quality
assurance manager, said, “The addition of these new inspection systems is
consistent with our desire and attitude towards continuous improvement.
“The machines, however, while helpful in nature, are
meant to be indicators of problems and not a solution to these problems.
If we encounter a situation where an end is being rejected we will go back
and fix the cause."
The Pressco systems include an upgraded InterrogatorTM
system and the state-of-the-art IntellispecTM unit. These
systems, which inspect the inside of the ends, will reject ends that
exhibit compound splashes, trash in the die, scrapes, misfolds, rivet
irregularities, and other unsightly cosmetic conditions. A second
Intellispec vision system and the third system overall is planned for
installation in 2003.
New Softau leak detection units have been installed
during the last eight months on each of the five presses in the Winter
Garden plant. These testers use an opto-electronic device to detect
cracks equivalent to a pinhole down to 10 microns in metallic ends. This
100% inspection system replaces the off-line helium leak detection system,
which had been used since 1995.
Both of these recent quality initiatives mean that
real time leak and vision testing occurs on 100% of the ends produced in
the Winter Garden facility.
In
2003, a second Intellispec vision system will be installed at Crown Cork &
Seal’s Winter Garden (Fla.) plant, which produces the SAFERIMâ
and DOUBLESAFEâ
ends.
|
