How aluminium slugs are made

2017-11-08 12:40:34

Aluminium slugs is a preform for production of aluminum tubes and cans. 

All the slugs of different shapes are heat-treated, soft – annealed and the surface tumbled or sand blasted. The slugs are widely used for the manufacturing of aluminum containers or Collapsible Aluminium tubes for cosmetics, pharmaceutical, beverage containers, and many other packaging solutions.

How aluminium slugs are made in details ? 

The metal, lead, tin or, more often, aluminum slug, has been around since 1841. As a testimony to its versatility and resilience, it is now packaged throughout the world with production in excess of a half billion pieces per year in the United States alone. 

The manufacture of aluminum slugs starts with what is called an aluminum tube or blank. It is fed into a set of tools in the die which then extrude it. This extrusion press then roughly forms a completed tube form. 

The next step is to trim the slug to the specified length on both the top and bottom ends. At this point, the tube is threaded which enables us to screw on the cap. During extrusion, aluminum becomes work hardened so during the next step, it is passed through a process which makes the metal malleable. This is done at about 460 degrees centigrade. 

The next step, which is used primarily in the pharmaceutical industry, is the spray application of an internal lining. This acts as barrier protection for metal sensitive products between the exposed aluminum and the pharmaceutical, or other product, to be packaged. 

aluminium slugs of different shapes:

If the aluminum slug is not internally coated, it will bypass the internal lining step and go to the next step which is the coater rolling of a base coat onto the tube. This coat prepares the tube for the application of offset printing. The base coat is then cured and brought back to a printing machine which puts on the customer's specified colors and copy. You can see all these tubes detailed for the different customers who require different types of decoration. 

The aluminium slugs are then checked, packed in boxes, inspected and loaded either into cartons or on skids for final shipment to the customer.