No significant reduction in the high cost of shaped cans for beverages and food is likely in the near future, canmakers warn. But for some at least, the option of the bespoke 'bottle can' is far more appealing.
Rexam Beverage Can marketing director for Europe and Asia John Revess is less than enthusiastic about the Carlsberg shaped can, first produced by Rexam for Euro 2004. "It's an ongoing product, but there are certainly issues about quantities and costs," he says.
Revess explains: "The more you shape the metal, the less vertical strength there is in the can wall, so you have to upweight, and incur more costs." More ductile, specialist grades of steel or aluminium also tend to be required.
Instead, Revess is championing the bottle can, which can be produced using drawn wall-ironed (DWI) technology on a traditional canmaking line. This type of design maintains a good strength-to-weight ratio, while also allowing distinctive shaping.
According to Rexam, its own bottle can is still a "few years" away. But rival Ball Packaging is soon to start production in the US, where it has licensed technology from the Universal Can Company in Japan. Ball says it has no current plans for Europe, and will wait to see how the new format fares in the US.
In food, projects such as Crown's 'hourglass' can for Premier Food's Waistline range of products showed that filling and processing speeds could be maintained with certain can shapes.
But as with beverage, there are few low-cost shaping options when it comes to the amount of alloy used. Crown Food says that shaping, such as the square-profile steel can tried out some three years ago by Sainsbury, adds over 50% to the cost of a pack.
In both food and beverage, the weight requirements of shaping run counter to the downgauging trends dictated by cost and environmental concerns. For Rexam, for instance, this has meant a 30% reduction in the weight of a 33cl beverage can over 20 years.