Metal (Tinplate and Aluminium) is one of the most versatile of all packaging media, offering outstanding formability and decorative potential, total recycleability and strong consumer acceptance. The qualities and characteristics of the two materials offer a clear, but complimentary, choice to the designer.

Tinplate

Tinplate (steel coated with a thin layer of tin) is used widely for the manufacture of drinks cans, processed food cans, and aerosols, and for the packaging of powdered foods, flour and sugar based confectionery, paints and chemicals, giftware, many industrial products, and the production of closures. It is a strong material with good protective properties. It has good ductility and formability from which many different shapes can be produced, and it can be embossed/debossed with interesting effect. It is an excellent substrate for modern metal coating and lithoprinting technology, which offers the potential for outstanding graphical decoration. Tinplate is a material well known and accepted by the consumer. Kilo for Kilo, tinplate is significantly lower cost than aluminium. Applications that could involve humidity or condensation should ideally be avoided to remove the risk of 'rusting'.

Aluminium

If Tinplate is male, physically strong and resilient, Aluminium is female. It is a lighter material, with inherently lower tear strength and surface resilience, although certain alloys, material tempers (hardness), together with the effects of working the material during the manufacturing process and surface finishing, can greatly increase rigidity and resilience of the finished item. In any event, it is warmer-to-the-touch than tinplate, with excellent malleability and formability, and outstanding embossing potential. Aluminium is highly resistant to most forms of corrosion; its natural coating of aluminium oxide provides an highly effective barrier to the effects of air, temperature, moisture and chemical attack. Aluminium has a modern, quality image amongst consumers. Its decorative potential is even greater than that of tinplate, when anodising and laser etching are added to clear and colour coating, colour printing, pad printing, labelling, and embossing. It is used extensively for drinks cans, health and beauty and luxury product packaging, roll-on pilfer-proof and pre-threaded closures.