In 1892, William Painter changed the trajectory of the beverage industry with the invention of the bottle cap (also known as the crown cork). Throughout 2017, Crown Holdings Inc. (www.crowncork.com), the company that Painter founded, will be celebrating its 125th anniversary by highlighting its long-standing commitment to innovation, quality and sustainability.

“From the beginning, Crown has delivered technologies that enhance the experience consumers have with products through packaging,” says Timothy Donahue, president and CEO of Crown. “That pioneering mindset and spirit of curiosity still drives us today. That approach has also been instrumental in our ability to help our customers build their brands regionally and globally and to set new standards for convenience, production efficiency and sustainability.”

Since its founding as the Crown Cork & Seal Company of Baltimore Inc., Crown has built a diversified portfolio of metal packaging technologies to support the beverage, food, personal care, household and luxury markets. It currently operates 146 plants in 36 countries and employs approximately 24,000 people.

In addition to the crown cork, Crown has introduced several breakthrough technologies to the market:

• SuperEnd® beverage ends reduce metal use by 10% and make beverage cans even more environmentally friendly. To date, more than 500 billion SuperEnd® beverage ends have been produced by Crown and its licensees, saving over 130,000 metric tons of aluminum, 2,200 metric tons of coatings and 1,000,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases.
• Reveal temperature sensitive inks offer brand owners a unique opportunity to increase engagement with consumers before, during and after beverage consumption. The inks, which allow graphics to change to ‘reveal’ specific imagery and messaging as the cold product inside is consumed, are ideal for use with special promotions and contests and to create shelf differentiation.
• Designed specifically for the dry food sector, Crown’s new Peelfit™ container enhances sustainability and optimizes product protection. Peelfit™ utilizes revolutionary Direct Heat Sealing Technology (DHS) to seal an aluminum foil to a collapsed bead within the can body, eliminating the rigid steel ring typically required in double seaming applications. Removing the rigid steel ring makes the package 16% lighter than cans that use conventional foil seam closures. DHS technology also reduces energy use by 32% when compared to other existing foil seam closures. 
• To help McCall Farms bring convenience to the food service industry, Crown developed a unique variation of its 603 diameter (153mm) easy-open end, which eliminates the need for a can opener. Used with McCall Farms’ 6lb (2.72kg) cans of boiled peanuts, the ends help food service customers significantly reduce the time needed to open the large containers while also increasing hygiene and safety. Like all easy-open ends, the 603 diameter (153mm) end is removable in its entirety with a simple, fluid gesture and requires up to eight times less force than a manual commercial can opener.
• Bi-compartmented (or BICAN®) aerosol technology incorporates a plastic inner bag to keep product and propellant completely separate. This separation ensures the propellant is not emitted during dispensing and prevents the product from coming in contact with the aerosol can itself. Available to Crown’s European customers, BICAN® offers consumers excellent practicality due to its ergonomic design and 360° operation and requires little effort to use. The product is dispensed cleanly and accurately, with no shaking required and total evacuation.
• Crown's new vacuum metal closures are ideal for brands considering a switch from glass to PET containers but want to retain the benefits of metal closure technology such as superior heat transfer during the heating or cooling processes. Suitable for use on large mouth (63mm-82mm) PET containers, the new range can be fully decorated and can be applied with the same equipment currently used to apply a metal closure to a glass container.
• Finally, Crown’s seated end technology gives decorative tins a crisp, clean premium look. It is ideal for luxury packaging for whiskeys, wines, spirits, cigars, biscuits, confectionery and other limited-edition products. With a “seated,” as opposed to a “seamed” end, the decorative tin’s bottom curl is invisible when the promotional packaging is placed on a flat surface.

“We are proud to be celebrating this milestone and are excited about the growth opportunities for metal packaging,” says Donahue. “For example, some of our latest efforts are designed to help brands add value to metal packaging through digital functionality and applications. We look forward to continuing to deliver innovations that respond to the evolving needs and values of brand owners and consumers alike.”