The past and present of aluminum tubes.
Aluminum tube is a very common packaging material. It is made of aluminum with a purity of more than 99.7%. It is widely used for filling cosmetics, toothpaste, pigments, hair dyes, condiments, and various adhesives and other paste products.
Aluminum tube is a very common packaging material. It is made of aluminum with a purity of more than 99.7%. It is widely used for filling cosmetics, toothpaste, pigments, hair dyes, condiments, and various adhesives and other paste products. The aluminum tube body will collapse after extrusion, and air cannot flow into the inside of the tube, making it difficult for the contents to oxidize or contaminate, thereby extending the shelf life of the product.
Soft aluminum tubes are also called "hoses". After softening, they are mainly used for packaging ointments, art paints, cosmetics, sealants, toothpaste, shoe polish, AB glue, hair dye, instant glue and other ointment-type products.
There are three types of hoses, namely metal hoses, plastic hoses and composite hoses. Among them, the metal hose has the longest history. At present, the most commonly used metal hose is aluminum pipe, which was created by the Swiss in 1913 and was not popularized until 1937. Since aluminum tubes have no seams, the round surface of the tube body can be perfectly printed. However, the only drawback is that the shoulders are not easy to squeeze out, and there are always residues left after use.
Metal hoses have a long history of production, application and development, and have gone through three generations.
The first generation product was lead-tin hose. Around 1841, the United States first created lead hoses. By around 1870, the United States was mass-producing lead and tin hoses for containing toothpaste, shaving cream, adhesives, etc. However, lead can cause serious harm to the human body, and tin resources are scarce, so it has long been eliminated from the market.
The second generation is aluminum hose. Due to the high toxicity of lead and tin heavy metals and the high production cost of raw materials, with the maturity of electrolytic aluminum technology and the affinity of aluminum products to the human body, aluminum pipes subsequently occupied the market. However, aluminum tubes have poor sealing properties and cannot isolate the contact between drugs and air. Moreover, the exposed aluminum material is very prone to chemical reactions with drugs, which directly affects the safety of drugs, so the usage is rapidly decreasing.
The technical level of the third generation aluminum tube is essentially different and improved compared with the second generation product. It has a thin top sealing film and a sealing coating at the end to ensure that the medicine does not come into contact with the air during the storage period, and there will be no leakage or drying out; the inner wall coating can effectively isolate the direct contact between the medicine and the metal aluminum. Provide reliable guarantee for the efficacy and safety of drugs within their validity period. Coupled with multi-color printing technology, the appearance is more beautiful. As consumer demand increases, aluminum tubes with plastic cleaning heads and sharp-mouthed eye ointment tubes with cleaning heads have also been developed in recent years. It can avoid the blackening of aluminum material due to thread friction, which effectively improves the cleanliness and safety of medicines. With the launch of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, third-generation aluminum tubes are becoming more and more popular.