On Sat, 24 May 2008 20:17:01 +0800, Stealth Pilot
wrote:

On Fri, 23 May 2008 20:50:46 -0700 (PDT), Bob AZ
wrote:

I have been wondering for a long time. Where and how are the cans made
for canned food? It would be costly to ship them empty from another
location so I imagine the cans are made at the food processing/
packaging plant but this is only a guess.

So anybody know anything more?

Thanks
Bob AZ

years and years ago (late 1960's) the jones brothers cannery in
griffith australia had the machinery to make cans in a continuous
process from stamped flat sheet. wasnt a very big system. they
basically made the cans, filled them with peaches and pears and sealed
them up, then stuck the labels on. all done in house.

They CAN make the cans in-house, but most of the time they are made
at a dedicated container factory and shipped in by the pallet, layered
with cardboard and plastic over-wrap.

The company in Australia probably made their own cans because there
were no container manufacturers in easy trucking distance - fuel and
shipping costs are larger than the cost of buying manning and
maintaining the can manufacturing gear. Then it makes sense to make
them on site.

Unless they want to be vertical manufacturers, and can do enough
volume to make it work - Huish Chemicals is a big detergent and
cleaning products manufacturer that bought their own injection
molding, die-cutting and printing gear, and they set up an in-house
division to make their own color printed plastic pails and cardboard
boxes. Straight from the container shop to the packaging line.

Food containers have the added wrinkle that they have to be cleaned
before filling. If they are made in-house and kept clean it's a lot
simpler, when they've been shipped you never know what they were
exposed to while on the road.

-- Bruce --