What is tinplate?
Tinplate is a tin-plated iron surface that is resistant to rusting and is also known as tin-plated iron. Tin mainly acts as a protection against corrosion and rusting. It combines the strength and formability of steel with the corrosion resistance, solderability and aesthetic appearance of tin in a material that is corrosion resistant, non-toxic, strong and ductile. This plated steel plate was known as “tinplate” for a long time in China, and some believe that because the tin-plated plate used in the manufacture of cans was imported from Macau, Guangdong Province (the English name Macao can be pronounced as Ma Kou), it was called “tinplate”. There are also other theories, such as that China used to use this tin-plated sheet to make the heads of paraffin lamps, which were shaped like a horse’s mouth, hence the name “Ma Kou Tie”. The name “tinplate” is inaccurate, therefore, in 1973, when the Chinese tin-plated sheet meeting has been named tin-plated sheet, the official document no longer use the name “tinplate”.
Tinplate characteristics and advantages
Tinplate is a metal container packaging material with many advantages such as high strength, good formability and compatibility with products, which has established a good “reputation” in the international market. In addition to these, they also have good sealing, storage, light protection and robustness. In addition to the deterioration of foodstuffs, light can also cause changes in proteins and amino acids. Vitamin C is more likely to be exposed to light and to interact with other food ingredients, resulting in significant loss. According to research, the loss of vitamin C is 14 times higher in milk in transparent glass bottles than in dark bottles. Light can also cause oxidation and odour in milk, as well as the loss of nutritional value through the cleavage of nuclides and methionine. Tinplate cans are used in a wide range of applications, from food and beverage packaging to fats and oils, chemicals and other miscellaneous cans, the advantages and characteristics of tinplate provide excellent physical and chemical protection for the contents.
Tinplate applications
Tinplate packaging containers are popular with customers and are widely used in food packaging, pharmaceutical packaging, daily necessities packaging, instrumentation packaging, industrial packaging, agricultural and pharmaceutical packaging and other areas. These include: food cans, beverage cans, chemical cans, spray cans, dry miscellaneous cans, grease cans, etc. Tinplate printing is also the use of water, ink repulsive physical properties, with the help of printing pressure, by the blanket to transfer the printing plate graphics to the tinplate, belonging to the principle of lithographic offset printing. Due to the special physical and chemical properties of tinplate D and the reprocessing properties of the printed material, the printing process is quite different from ordinary offset printing.
Advantages of tinplate applications for tin can containers
Advantages of tinplate applications for tin can containersTinplate cans meet the environmental requirements of packaging materials, existing containers include tin cans, aluminium cans, paper and plastic containers, the recycling characteristics of these containers vary, but tin cans are better than other packaging materials in the recycling process. Based on international environmental management standards ISO-14000 implementation is imminent, with low pollution, recyclable, resource-saving characteristics of tin cans, in the future packaging applications, there will be a broader development space: 1, low pollution: tin can containers, paper and plastic containers.
1, low pollution: tin can containers in the main raw material tin, in fact, is environmentally sound, can be naturally decomposed, because when tin cans exist in the environment, can naturally oxidation and return to the original state of iron oxide, back to nature, so the pile of waste tin cans can be decomposed by time, and will not be left to cause environmental pollution. At the same time, the manufacture of tin cans does not need to cut down trees, which will not damage the ecological balance.
2, recyclable: cans themselves have a characteristic that other packaging materials do not have – can be magnetized, so you can use the magnetic separator to separate the cans from the waste by magnetic force, using this characteristic can easily achieve the effect of recycling 80% of the waste cans. The invention of the environmentally friendly lid not only makes the use of tin cans safer and more hygienic, but also effectively reduces the amount of waste, which has a direct and obvious benefit to the recycling operation.
3, save resources: in the removal of other contaminated residues on the tin cans, has developed a shredder equipment, can effectively remove more than 98% of the pollutants, to provide good quality scrap iron. In addition, the US also points out that the presence of aluminium easy-open lids is beneficial to the recycling of scrap iron, as it reduces the amount of Hot Metal used in steelmaking and reduces the overall cost of steel manufacturing. In terms of energy savings, the report states that the use of tin scrap for steel production can save approximately 230m3 of natural gas per tonne of scrap compared to iron ore production, so the recycling process of tin cans can reduce the global environmental and energy impact and is in line with future product trends.