A plan to offer drinks brand owners environmentally-sound canmaking systems in their filling plants, much in the same way as plastics bottles or cartons are produced, has been revealed to The Canmaker by Toyo Seikan Group, Japan's leading packaging manufacturer. The system is based on a simplified version of the process used for making aTULC, the aluminium Toyo ULtimate Can, which the Tokyo-based canmaker has been manufacturing at its domestic plants for almost 20 years. The polyester-laminated two-piece cans are produced on lines that don't require the washing and thermal curing systems of conventional D&I lines, so there is less impact on the surroundings and, says Toyo Seikan, lower capital investment. Since the first steel versions of TULC were produced in 1991, canmakers and brand owners around the world have mostly resisted the argument for producing them because they are regarded as being too costly. And although aTULC canmaking plants have been set up outside of Japan with Toyo Seikan's financial input, notably in Iran, Taiwan and Thailand, these are exceptions rather than the rule.
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