October 15: Japanese canmaker Toyo Seikan Kaisha showed off its environmentally-friendly beverage can plant in Bangkok, Thailand, last week, but few secrets of the technology employed were revealed.
The TULC manufacturing line, the construction of which was announced during The Canmaker Summit in Spain last year by Toyo Seikan Kaisha (TSK) chief executive Hirofumi Miki, is claimed to make large savings in energy and waste compared with conventional operations, of which there are more than 200 worldwide making 225 billion cans a year.
TULC cans made from polyester-coated canstock have been produced in Japan for more than 15 years, but the Bangkok plant, a joint venture between TSK and Bangkok Can Manufacturing, is the first to make TULC cans outside of Japan and the first to enable the line to produce either aluminium of steel cans with a ‘dry-D&I’ process, which is development of conventional two-piece canmaking practice.
