Pull Tab Cans in China?

Factual Questions
1

I’m visiting Shanghai on business this week and I asked if they had something cold that I could drink. The person I’m working with went back to a refrigerator and brought me a can of Coca Cola. I went to open the can and had a flashback to the '60s when all soda and beer cans had pull tabs. I pulled off the tab and looked at it as if it was something from another planet.

Any ideas why China would use these archaic pull tabs in this day and age? I can’t believe it’s that much cheaper than using a “modern” style of aluminum can…

2

cost. it is cheaper. Chinese consumers, especially in the countryside, are extremely price sensitive.

BTW, the coke in China is still make with cane sugar (the old coke) and not corn sugar.

3

Wow! A local guy with a local answer. Thanks China Guy!

4

Dammit. I was going to come in and suggest that dolphinboy should have checked the date on that can. Then I would have been popalar because i’m funny.

Timing. It’s all about timing…sigh

5

What does a pull tab look like? Is it like the tabs they use on Bundaber Ginger Beer bottles, where you have to pull the ring out a bit, then up, taking the entire cap off in the process?

6

I presume the OP is talking about ‘ring pulls’. You lift the ring and then pull towards you and the ring with connected tab come off the can completely, leaving a teardrop shaped hole in the top of the can.

Like this. I’ve not seen a can in the UK with that type of opening for a good 10 years.

7

Thanks for that!

Can’t imagine how it would be any cheaper to make than a conventional tab, as found on most soft drink and beer cans, though… :confused:

8

I thought Coke most places outside America is made with cane sugar.

Pull tabs are probably cheaper because you just have to stamp a hole in the top instead of making that fiddly fulcrum thing. Fiddly bits = higher cost.

9

Not sure about that but Coke China is my customer and I specifically asked this question about 2 months ago so I could state it authoritatively on the Dope :cool:

10

I’d be willing to bet that the machinery making the cans was originally used in the US. When the company went to the newer design they probably sold the machinery to a Chinese company that continues to use it.

11

I’m willing to bet the pull-tab is slightly cheaper to make due to the lack of fiddly bits and a little less metal. I would guestimate it may cost the bottler .01 cent per can less. Of course, when you’re making several millions of cans each year, then you’re getting to talk about real money.

12

Blew out my flip flop
Stepped on a pop-top
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home…

13

Strewth! Blimey!

I live in Rutland and we still have ring pull cans… :eek:

14

I’ve discussed this with the Chinese.

It seems dirty to them to push the top of the can into the drink. Think about it. They like pulling the tab off instead of pushing it in.

15

I think it’s less related to the cost of the “extra” metal as such and more to the more complex (and expensive) manufacturing machinery necessary for the “push in” style cans. The push in style can is actually fairly demanding to manufacture, and it takes extremely tight metal engineering tolerances and very stable quality metal to make it reliable. I imagine the pull tab style can use older stamping machinery and possibly the metal quality tolerances are less demanding.

16

From wiki

Metal quality & tolerances