Speciality Packaging

4 Key Elements to Optimize Metal Packaging for Industrial Products

Packaging is an essential element in the success of industrial products, such as paints, coatings, varnishes, lacquers, inks and adhesives. Not only must it be durable enough to withstand aggressive chemical formulations and protect products from outside influences, but industry changes increasingly require packaging to serve as a marketing vehicle for building brand recognition and loyalty.

Metal packaging has always been a popular choice for industrial products brands due to its durability and versatility. Thanks to new technology advancements, metal packaging can maintain these core benefits while also incorporating value-added features that enhance consumer convenience and boost visual appeal. These technologies are vital for industrial products to utilize packaging as a brand-building tool capable of delivering a decisive competitive edge.

To help brand owners fully optimize and leverage the power of metal packaging, four key elements should be considered:

Strength and reliability are necessary attributes for packaging paints, coatings and other chemically complex industrial products that are often stored in less-than-ideal conditions, such as warehouses and household basements where drastic humidity and temperature fluctuations are common. Metal packaging provides a number of features that are essential to protecting these delicate, and potentially hazardous, products from the harsh conditions encountered during product lifecycles.

Metal is inherently robust, offering a superior oxygen barrier compared to other packaging alternatives. Combined with advanced seaming technologies, this property allows metal containers to provide a tighter seal that protects packaged contents more effectively from exposure to light, air and humidity.

The composition of metal is also highly stable and provides maximum resistance to temperature changes. As a result, sensitive chemical products like paints and coatings that are packaged in metal often exhibit considerably longer shelf lives than products packaged with alternative materials. This is a key advantage for industrial products, which are often stored for extensive periods of time before they are used.

Newly standardized internal coatings have also enhanced metal packaging’s resistance to corrosion and oxidation. These coatings make metal highly compatible with both water-borne and solvent-borne products, allowing a wide variety of formulations to be packaged in metal without risks of product contamination. This property is especially important for industrial brands in Europe and North America that have diversified their product range to comply with new regulations that aim to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOC’s).

Metal packaging for industrial products, particularly in the paint and coatings market, must be designed to ensure an airtight seal that prevents accidental spilling during transport, distribution and storage. In order to maintain this level of integrity, industrial product packaging has usually required more effort to open, resulting in the use of extra tooling, such as screwdrivers and knives, to remove package lids and dispense product. As consumers demand more convenience attributes, brand marketers are striving to adopt technologies that can provide more user-friendly features without compromising package integrity.

To respond to this industry need, Crown recently launched an innovative metal packaging solution for the industrial market that eliminates the requirement for extra tooling during opening and re-use. Known as the Clipper Can™ System, this new package features a plastisol-lined metal lid with unique easy-grip tabs for safe opening by hand. In addition to easy-open convenience, the Clipper Can™ System provides functional tamper indication and closes more securely than traditional packaging methods. The package’s hermetic seal also reduces the threat of leakage during distribution and transport and when stored on retail shelves and in consumer homes.

Tikkurila recently launched the first commercial application of the Clipper Can™ System for its Joker brand line of decorative indoor paints. The new package is now available in paint, home improvement and hardware stores throughout Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary, Russia and the Ukraine.

The outward appearance of a package takes on special importance for paints, coatings and other industrial products brands in the DIY and decorative markets, where consumers directly associate shelf appearance with product quality.

Metal conveys a prestigious brand image to consumers, and recent developments in decorating technology further enhance this impression. Brand owners can now incorporate a wide range of creative decorative finishes - such as embossing, crackle, mirror, color-change, matte, sparkling, soft-touch, lenticular and holographic effects - that enable metal packaging to take on the precise look or feel a brand is trying to capture. These novelty finishes serve to create motion, differentiation and shelf appeal in retail outlets and consumer homes without impeding the core structural benefits that metal packaging offers.

New developments in shaping also serve as tools for industrial product companies eager to engage consumers and gain a competitive edge at point-of-sale with premium metal packaging. Advanced techniques in blowforming present marketers with a wide scope of possibilities when developing desired shapes. Depending on specific marketing goals, final packages can feature soft, subtle shaping or highly innovative and striking asymmetrical designs. Shaping can also enhance package ergonomics, as containers can be contoured in comfortable, easy-to-grip shapes, which can further improve consumer convenience for industrial chemical products.

Reliable packaging is essential for industrial products companies seeking to maximize production efficiencies and contribute to bottom-line gains. Metal packaging offers a number of benefits, such as impact-resistance, stackability and machinery compatibility, which contribute to supply-chain efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Metal’s durability and strength are two well-known advantages for supply chain optimization. With its robust seaming strength, metal guarantees that packaged paint and coating products are protected throughout all steps of the supply chain, without risk of accidental leakage or spilling. In addition, metal containers are highly stackable, which facilitates warehouse storage and point-of-sale display.

Metal packaging also offers a number of advantages for production efficiency. Since metal has traditionally been the dominant packaging material for many industrial products, it is more likely to be compatible with existing machinery that has become standard for the industry. Recent technologies that enhance the convenience and visual appeal of metal packages are tailored to work with current equipment. These benefits eliminate the need for industrial products brands to invest in new equipment when adopting novel packaging concepts.

Metal packaging has been well-established within the industrial products industry for a number of decades, offering such core benefits as durability and environmental resistance. The appeal of metal packaging is being further enhanced through new technologies like shaping and decorative finishes, which offer fresh new looks for maximized shelf impact, and improvements in functionality, which enhance consumer convenience and build brand loyalty. These technologies ensure that industrial product companies will continue to have innovative ways to build brand strength and contribute to bottom-line gains with metal packaging throughout the many decades to come.

Crown Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is a leading supplier of packaging products to consumer marketing companies around the world. World headquarters are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In Europe: Martin Stenson, Marketing & Development Manager, CROWN Speciality Packaging; Tel: +44 1623 676 242; Email: martin.stenson@eur.crowncork.com

For editorial inquiries: Michael F. Dunleavy, Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Public Relations; Tel: (215) 698-5051; Email: mdunleavy@crowncork.com.    

For investors: Timothy J. Donahue, Senior Vice President – Finance; Tel: (215) 698-5088.