New Aluminumbottles.com Pages

It’s not often that we have new web pages.

So I’m happy to write this post on a whole series of new pages devoted to packing instructions for our industrial aluminum bottles.

It’s not the most exciting topic.  No luminous, glow-in-the-dark aluminum bottles.  No artsy designs using big name fashion designers.

But it’s an important topic nonetheless, especially for those of you who actually store fair quantities of essential oils, active pharmaceutical ingredients, solvents and all the other liquids and powders used for a variety of consumer products.

You want to make sure that your investment in these materials doesn’t get wasted through spillage, leakage, exposure to oxygen, etc.

So packing our aluminum bottles is critical.  The new pages go into detail on how to to cap our various aluminum bottle models.  It includes information on proper torque and recommendations for capping tools.  Thankfully, we have torquing wrenches, chucks and other tools that make the capping  job easy and precise.

Next time – we will include videos on the packing instructions 🙂

Aluminumbottles.com at the 2012 World Perfumery Congress

We’re exhibiting at the 2012 World Perfumery Congress to be held in Connecticut in June.

Aluminum bottles have long been recognized as superior packaging for preserving the volatile and expensive essences found in the most expensive perfumes.  We should know.  Our aluminum bottles are used to store those expensive essential oils used as primary ingredients by parfumeurs around the world.

With their inherent strength and ability to shield contents from light and oxidation, not to mention aluminum’s “greener” environmental profile, aluminum bottles are ideal for storing and transporting the essential oils and other precious essences that are used in some of the world’s leading perfume brands.

If you’re attending the show, visit us at Booth #331.

Aluminum Bottles vs. Steel Gallon Drums

I wanted to devote this post to our 1-gallon seamless aluminum bottle.

Industrial aluminum bottles get very little attention but they play a huge, unheralded role in the storage and transport of the materials that are at the heart of end products like perfumes, vitamins, etc.

The seamless aluminum bottle is an ideal alternative to the more widely used steel gallon drum. First of all, it is 3 times lighter than its steel counterpart so there is the immediate advantage of lower transport costs. The content weight to container weight ratios are better with aluminum bottles. It takes a lot less fuel to transport a gallon of essential oil in our seamless aluminum bottle compared to steel drums.

Handling of aluminum bottles is also easier for humans. Their lighter weight makes them easier to lift. Moreover, aluminum bottle geometries allow for much easier pouring of contents. Take a look at the flat and wide opening of the steel drum in the picture. You can empty the an aluminum bottle to the last drop more efficiently.

I’ll write a little more about the advantages of our seamless aluminum bottle in my next posts.

Anodized Aluminum Bottles

Anodized Aluminum Bottle

One of great advantages of our wide mouth aluminum bottles is the fact that they can be anodized.

Anodizing is described in anodizing.org as “an electrochemical process that converts the metal surface into a decorative, durable, corrosion-resistant, anodic oxide finish.”  You can find anodized aluminum products everywhere including in aircraft parts, architectural materials, and many consumer products such as MP3 players, flashlights, cookware, cameras, sporting goods, etc.

Some interesting facts about anodized aluminum from anodized.org:

• “Used in one of the world’s tallest buildings — the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois.
• Provides attractive, minimum-maintenance, highly durable exteriors, roofs, curtain walls, ceilings, floors, escalators, lobbies and staircases in skyscrapers and commercial buildings throughout the world.
• Revolutionized the construction of computer hardware, exhibit displays for trade shows, scientific instruments, and a constantly expanding array of home appliances, consumer products, and building materials.
• Considered environmentally safe, producing few, if any, harmful effects on land, air, or water.”

For our own industrial aluminum bottle customers, anodization makes the surface smoother and allows for  easier pouring of powders.  It also enhances resistance to certain more acidic powders which makes it ideal for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) applications. Unlike other metals that deteriorate when oxidized (think rust on iron) , aluminum experiences a  “positive oxidation” that occurs naturally. The anodization process accelerates the phenomenon resulting in a layer of aluminum oxide that is actually protective, not destructive.

That’s because anodization is achieved using simple electrolytic processes we learned in high school experiments.  The aluminum is placed in an acid electrolyte bath and an electric current is passed through the medium. Oxygen ions are released from the electrolyte and combine with the aluminum atoms.   So anodizing is basically highly controlled oxidation, without the negative effects.

Aluminum Bottles for Essential Oils

I read an interesting piece recently about the packaging of essential oils.

The author writes: “To avoid deterioration and protect the aromatic and therapeutic properties of your essential oils, store them in amber or cobalt blue bottles. Dark glass such as amber or cobalt helps to keep out deteriorating sunlight. . . . Some vendors sell oils in lined aluminum bottles. It has been said that aluminum bottles are acceptable if the interior of the bottles are lined.”

The truth is – most essential oils can be stored easily in plain aluminum; in a few cases, epoxyphenolic coatings are used to line the sides. You have to do stability testing to determine which bottle is best for your product.

Aluminum Bottle - Essential Oil Plus 32

Most essential oils producers have been packing essential oils and flavors in aluminum bottles for decades.  They’re clearly more light-proof than glass bottles and have the added advantage of being lightweight, leak-proof and tamper-proof. Even if aluminum bottles seem more expensive than glass, the cost of protecting a glass bottle, the risk of breakage as well as the added shipping cost have to be factored in when comparing.

Our aluminum bottles for essential oils can come as small as 19 ml (.6 oz.) and all the way up to 32 liters (1,082 oz.).  So we have a wide range of options for both retail and industrial packaging.

Aluminum Industrial Bottle Type 4 – For Viscous Products

Consumer aluminum bottles typically get all the attention.  So for this post, we decided to focus on one of our less publicized, but very useful products – the Type 4 industrial aluminum bottle, designed for packaging viscous products.

Here’s how my online dictionary defines viscous:

Industrial Aluminum Bottle - Type 4 Viscous

vis·cous
adj \ˈvis-kəs\

: having or characterized by viscosity <viscous lava> 

Examples of VISCOUS

1. <viscous syrup that takes forever to pour from a narrow-neck bottle>

It’s interesting how the dictionary uses very imprecise terms – “takes forever to pour from a narrow-neck bottle” – to explain the word.  But indeed it is the perfect description of the value of our Type 4 product which is a wide mouth aluminum bottle whose geometry, seamless structure and wide opening make for very easy pouring of viscous materials.  The Type 4 bottle has an inner neck of 2.67” and can take an LDPE plug or PP screw cap.  It comes in a range of sizes from 2.5L (85 oz) to 30L (1056 oz).

There are probably as many applications for the type 4 product as there are viscous products.  You can go to this page for an overview of our other aluminum bottles for viscous products.

Industrial Aluminum Bottle – Weight Advantages

Since I’m in the business, I often take for granted the advantages of using industrial aluminum bottles vs. other packaging alternatives.
One of the most basic and overlooked advantages is physical weight. I took four 1-gallon bottles and weighed them. Here are the results:

• Glass : 2.95lbs
• Tin : 0.97lbs
• Aluminum : 0.64lbs
• Plastic HDPE : 0.36lbs

The glass bottle was 4.6 times heavier while the tin can was 1.5 times heavier than the aluminum bottle. The closest competitor in terms of weight was the plastic HDPE bottle which was 56% of the aluminum bottle’s weight. However, the more limited recycleability of plastic vs. aluminum is well established, hence it certainly is less “green”.

Physical weight is one of the more basic considerations when it comes to physical distribution. There are clear economic advantages in using industrial aluminum bottles.

The weight advantage of aluminum bottles can also be seen in retail packaging. Beverages packaged in aluminum bottles are lighter and easier to carry in party and picnic situations. This in part accounts for the growing popularity of aluminum bottles in wines, beers, juices and other consumer beverages.

Aluminum Fuel Bottles

It seems there is growing interest in the use of aluminum bottles for storing gasoline, kerosene, alcohol and other fuels.

Interest is coming from backpackers, motorcyclists, campers and even some survivalists. No fancy artwork or designs needed for these bottles. Just safety, low weight, portability and durability.

So you can expect to see these aluminum bottles not just in city streets but in the wilderness, strapped to backpacks and dirt bikes and in tents.

Spotlight On Aluminum Bottles’ Plus Range

I think we don’t give enough details on some of our more popular product lines. So I thought I would spend a little time to go over the various ranges of bottles we offer at Elemental Container.

Today, we’ll go over our industrial aluminum bottle line called the Plus range. These very versatile bottles range in capacity from 50ml (1.7oz) to 32L (7 gallons).  They’re most frequently used for storing, shipping and packaging liquid or volatile products.  On our website, you will see the product names Plus 32, Plus 45 and Plus 62. 

Plain or coated, all Plus bottles are secured with a heavy-duty tamper evident cap.  They are also U.N. approved as single packaging; they can be used for the transportation of hazardous materials.

The Plus Line Of Industrial Aluminum Bottles

Our Plus line of industrial aluminum bottles is one of our most widely used products. They’re excellent for packaging various liquid products and come in a wide range of capacities, from small 1.6 oz sample bottles – to large 32 liter bottles. They’re all tamper-proof. Click here for more info on this line . . .