FEATURE
The mobile canner will pull up at the brewery with its own equipment, fi ll the
cans, then head off to the next brewery. For small breweries that can’t afford
their own canning gear, the mobile canner is practically a godsend.
Whether they have their own canning equipment or rely on mobile canners,
breweries still need to decorate the blank cans.
Opening A Can Of Worms
At present, there are three basic ways to decorate a beer can:
• Direct-to-can.
• Label.
• Shrink sleeve.
Direct-to-can printing is typically done by the can manufacturer, a company like
Ball or Rexam (last year, Ball bought Rexam). They use a lithographic process
that images directly on the aluminium. Like most analogue printing processes,
this is geared toward very long runs — think of Budweiser that ships millions
of cans. For smaller breweries, whose production is a fraction of that — 20,000
or 30,000 is typical for a craft beer run — that’s an impractical solution. Even
though the can manufacturers don’t charge extra for printing, there is still the
need to warehouse exponentially more printed cans than they’ll need.
When a brewery, or any beverage maker, needs cans, it has to buy them by
the truckload, which is about 200,000 cans. Empty, topless aluminium cans
can be easily crushed, so they can’t be sent via regular freight. They’re instead
carefully shipped in trucks to customers. So while breweries will need the blank
cans, or brites, 200,000 preprinted cans is a tall order.
'If you’re a craft brewery, you may sell 200,000 of your topline IPA in a year, but
some of the other brews may only sell 10,000 or 20,000 in a year,' said Kilgore.
'A truckload of cans is a hurdle.'
For smaller runs, there are two decorating solutions: pressure-sensitive
labels and shrink sleeves. Many companies specialise in long- and short-run
beer can label and shrink sleeve printing, using a mix of analogue and digital
technologies. However, digital direct-to-can printing is starting to emerge, and
may be ready for prime time in the very near future.
would prefer to use sleeves, the cost of the application equipment and the
sleeves leads many of them to decide to use labels.'
Short-run labels and sleeves are run digitally, and as runs get longer, a
traditional fl exographic process is the more cost-effective solution. What
exactly qualifi es as short run? Opinions vary, but generally 15,000 to 20,000
is considered 'short run' in the craft brewing world. There is some degree of
versioning, however. 'A brewer may be running 15,000 to 20,000 cans, but
they’re running four to six different styles [pale ale vs. amber ale, e.g.], and
there are copy changes within that run,' said Drumm.
Resource Label Group has developed a labelling system specifi cally for small
and craft breweries called Brew Wrap, a seamless full-can label that offers all
the benefi ts of a shrink sleeve but less expensively. Brew Wrap is applied from
a roll onto fi lled cans, not empties, and the advantage of this is they only label
what’s been fi lled. If a production run comes up short, the brewery doesn’t have
to warehouse any extraneously labelled cans.
Brew Wrap is printed by UV fl exo, HP Indigo or inkjet, with the run length
largely determining the printing technology. Other factors can include special
effects and other design elements. 'Some customers want to add some screen
printing on their labels, or a texture or a foil,' said Kilgore. 'They get creative
and decorative.'
Although having the entire can printed by the can manufacturer is prohibitive,
brewers will sometimes have just the neck of the can — the area that tapers
from the main body up to the lip, printed with something generic, like the
name and/or logo of the brewery. Then they’ll design the Brew Wrap to blend
seamlessly with the neck graphics. That way, all their cans are consistent with
general brewery branding, but individual short runs can be customised for a
particular beer.
Brew Wrap can also support very short runs. 'If someone came to us and said
they’re having a special event and wanted 100 cans with a special design, we
could do that,' said Kilgore.
Brewers use creatively designed can graphics to get the most out of a
combination of preprinted cans and labels. 'They’ll order a full truckload of a
preprinted can, their fl agship IPA, and they’ve designed the cans so they can
label over the body of the can when they’re fi lling it with a different style,' said
Drumm. 'It looks natural, and you have to look at the can closely to detect that
it’s an IPA can with an amber ale label over it. That’s a cost-effective way of
handling a short run of cans.'
Yes, We Can!
Like elsewhere in the packaging world, labels are great, but the Holy Grail for
many brand s and packagers is direct-to-print. Obviously, direct-to-can printing is
possible, but what about at the craft brewery level?
Digital direct-to-can solutions are starting to emerge. 'They exist, but they’re
expensive, and you don’t often see them in the market,' said Drumm. 'I suspect
in the next three to fi ve years that will change, but that technology is still
bleeding edge.'
Several examples of direct-to-can print.
Labelled With Love
'We’re seeing more and more interest in can sleeving and labelling,' said
Robert Drumm, President of Atlas Labels & Packaging, a Kansas City, Kansas,
distributor of labels and other packaging materials for beverage industry
segments. 'Customers look at the cost of the two applications, and while most
www.AfricaPrint.com
One company on the bleeding edge is Tonejet, based outside Cambridge,
England. Originally a manufacturer of nozzle-less print heads, the company
decided to develop its own direct-to-can printing solution. 'It’s an electrostatic
technology, and works very well with a metal substrate where you can control
the charge,' said Marvin Foreman, Sales Manager for Tonejet Limited.
The Tonejet process uses a liquid toner that consists of a charged pigment
particle suspended in a mineral oil-based vehicle. As it’s jetted onto the
metal, the fl uid vehicle evaporates very quickly, depositing the pigment on the
oppositely charged substrate. Much like an electrostatic printer needs to fi x the
toner to paper, the Tonejet process requires an overvarnish to secure the image
on the can. The Tonejet system uses a beverage industry standard overvarnish,
AFRICA PRINT JOURNAL
JANUARY 2018
PG 37