In regards to the soup and soda cans question:
Empty, unlidded cans are shipped by the pallet load (with as many layers stacked as will fit in the trailer/shippign container).
At the filling factory they’re cleaned, sanitized and dried before being filled with product. There’s some limited metal forming machinery at the end to clamp the lids on and give soda cans that slight flare at the top, but you’ll have some lidding machinery no matter what container you use.
Owens-Illinois has a bottle plant in Benicia that I’ve driven past many times. They’re at the southwest “corner” of the 80-680 junction, just north of the high school. Looks absolutely indistinguishable from the FedEx facility next door. ie: just another long, flat commercial building.
FWIW, Saint Gobain (another bottle maker that’s part of Verallia) used to be in the FedEx building. SG moved to Fairfield a couple of years ago.
Wine isn’t shipped in kegs, it can be shipped in tankers or special tanks. But it’s easier to have a portable bottling line that travels to the various winery and is shared by them. My BIL owns a winery on Long Island and before they built their own facility with bottling line that’s what they did. The have lots of tanks at their facility that many different wineries use to make or finish their wine and then use their bottling line.
For smaller wineries a portable bottling line makes a lot of sense. It’s a big capital expense that is only used for a brief period of time. The lines are also modular so they can accept all sorts of bottle and closure styles. If someone wants to make sparkling wine they just buy the special jigs for that type of bottle and closure rather than a whole new line.
Help me get some geography clear here. The 80-680 junction is at Cordelia (near Fairfield), not Benicia, n’est-ce pas? Benicia is near the 680/780 junction, while the 80/780 junction is in Vallejo. (I know exactly where Timbuktu is, though! :D)
No, they’re cleaning the cans that were freshly made at the can-making place. The cans are stacked on a standard shipping pallet with a cardboard sheet between each layer and wrapped around the sides in plastic wrap. Nothing to keep dust and microbes from getting into the cans. Also, if you’ve never seen the inside of a shipping container, they are generally dusty nasty places.
SOrry, forgot to mention the QA machinery. I meant the only metal-forming machinery they needed was for the lids. However, much of the quality checking is done at the can-making place. All the food maker needs to verify is a proper seal, and the integrity of their product and process.
I remember hearing some years ago that a disease was threatening the cork trees in Portugal and Spain, which matters bc production is so concentrated in that one area of the world.
Help me get some geography clear here. The 80-680 junction is at Cordelia (near Fairfield), not Benicia, n’est-ce pas? Benicia is near the 680/780 junction, while the 80/780 junction is in Vallejo. (I know exactly where Timbuktu is, though! :D)