You probably don’t give much thought to the aluminium can holding your sweet, sweet caffeine hit at lunch. But engineerguy Bill Hammack explains why the simple cylindrical can holding your Diet Coke is actually brilliantly designed and engineered for being both easy and cheap to produce, but also strong and durable for shipping.
Over the years, the design of the aluminium can has been refined again and again, both to improve its durability and minimise the amount of material needed. For instance, did you know that an aluminium can’s lid has shrunk about 6mm in diameter over the years? And when you consider that over 100 billion cans are produced annually, that size reduction results in a savings of almost 90 million kilograms of aluminium. Amazing.