Tinplate packaging is still in great demand, despite the growing popularity of other materials (mainly aluminum and its alloys and steel sheet with coatings). Tin has several indisputable advantages: corrosion resistance, weldability, elasticity and strength.
A few years ago, Russian manufacturers began to produce decorative gift tin packaging. On tin material, you can perform offset multicolor lithography, which allows you to transfer almost all color shades. Depending on the requirements of the customer, such a package can be equipped with additional accessories (polymer handles, locks, metal hinges) or decorated with relief images.
One of the largest Russian manufacturers of tin packaging is considered the Voronezh packaging company. A certain part of its products is made to order and imported into the USA, Canada and European countries. It is a highly specialized manufacturer that produces only tin containers.
In addition to such enterprises, there are companies on the domestic market that produce canned goods and packaging for them (East-West Invest, Gavan). These enterprises also produce tin containers (about 100 million cans per year before the crisis) and produce tin cutting and varnishing. In 2008-2009, the times for tinned food can manufacturers were tough.
The decline in the canning industry also affected packaging production. However, now experts note a gradual recovery of the market. In 2012, the production of tin cans for canned food increased, as predicted, by 6% (last year the growth was only 4%).
In our country, tinplate is produced only at one enterprise - Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Competition in this segment of packaging production is relatively high. Experts advise new companies to strive to occupy a narrower niche in the market - by region or by type of product (for example, only souvenir gift wrap). Only a few companies work in this segment, although the demand for beautiful and practical containers for gift tea, coffee, sweets, etc. is only increasing every year.
To organize your own production of tin products, you will need premises for workshops, as well as a production line for the production of this type of packaging. Machines for the production of such products belong to the class of technological equipment, so large areas are needed for their installation.
Ordinary tin containers, which have a small number of shapes and sizes (cans, simple containers for tea and coffee, lids, barrels, etc.), are made on automatic lines. Souvenir cans are issued on semi-automatic lines. This is due to special form requirements. Such packaging can be of completely different types and sizes, the equipment must be quickly reconfigured, so a large amount of work in production is carried out manually. For the preparation of raw materials and printing on finished packaging, experts recommend using the English Grabtree equipment. For the manufacture of the cans themselves, the German Krupp or Karges-Hammer lines are suitable.
For the production of packaging products from tin, you will need: a roller welding machine, an eccentric press, a spot welding machine, guillotine and disc scissors, a hemming machine, a sealing machine, a forming machine, a conical machine to give a cylindrical workpiece other than a round shape, leveling and bending machines.
As a rule, cans are welded using copper wire. This is considered the most modern and environmentally friendly method of welding. The thickness of the sheet can be from 0.15 to 0.4 mm. The following maximum deviations of the net mass are allowed for certain types of packaging: 3% in one direction or another for containers with a net mass of up to 1 kg, 2% for containers with a net mass of more than 1 kg and 1% for transport containers. The quality of the tin itself from which the products are made is relatively small.
Good equipment can work with almost any raw material. You can purchase both the entire production line, and individual machines. High-performance equipment is considered to produce up to 400 cans per minute. The productivity of the semi-automatic line is much lower - about 10 units per minute.
You will also need a tin printing machine or flexographic label printing equipment. In addition, large plants use dosing and packaging equipment for bulk and liquid products. The minimum cost of equipment is about three million rubles (a semi-automatic line and a machine for printing on tin).
Good equipment is only one of the conditions for the high quality of products manufactured on it. But it will not work without the help and control of the process line adjusters. In our country there is a shortage of such specialists.
The demand for qualified personnel has arisen relatively recently, and it takes a lot of time to prepare them: after training, a graduate must undergo four-year practice under the guidance of an experienced adjuster. Insufficient qualifications and errors in the work of such a specialist (and, consequently, downtime in the line) are too expensive. Technological equipment often fails, and only a professional can identify and fix the problem as soon as possible.
In factories, women workers are usually employed. The term for a new employee is up to three months. The production process consists of several stages (up to ten), which are carried out by conveyor type. In Chinese factories, in contrast, the production process consists of several dozen operations. On the one hand, this significantly increases the production time, and on the other hand, it allows the manufacture of products of the most complex forms.
Due to high transportation costs, Chinese tin products in the low and middle price segment cannot compete with the Russian packaging. However, if we are talking about a complex order, then here domestic manufacturers are inferior to Chinese. Strict quality control is another condition for the success of a new enterprise. Cans with holes, cracks, black spots, with violations of the integrity of the seams, having sharp bends of tin, bruised folds, rust on the outer surface, with an improperly formed sealing seam are considered defective and are not allowed for sale.
Factors such as high demand for products and the narrow market for tin packaging allow manufacturers to do without regular advertising in publications. Nevertheless, companies actively participate in industry exhibitions, where they find new customers and partners.
The wholesale price of one can is about 50-60 rubles per unit (depending on the volume, shape, availability of additional accessories, etc.). The average production volume is about 600-700 thousand cans per year. The estimated payback period for a project of this magnitude is two years.
Sysoeva Lilia
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