Florida-based Canovation has passed two milestones in the development of resealable can ends, introduced key improvements to the beverage can design in ease of manufacturing and sustainability, and signed prospective agreements with a large beverage canmaker, and an aluminium rolling mill.

Trade-marking its innovations, the team has created a 300-diameter CanReseal easy-open end for food cans, and a streamlined 202-diameter CanReseal Ring-End (CRE).

For beverages, the CRE configuration adds an all-metal threaded ring inside the flange, enabling an all-metal cap to be screwed into the design for air- and liquid-tight resealability.

For food, the company has maintained the easy-open function that is common in cans. “Maintaining the standard easy open end maximizes consumer familiarity while providing the many benefits afforded by resealability,” Canovation said.

In a progress update for its resealable food can, operations chief Jeff Grajewski told The Canmaker the 300-diameter full-aperture easy-open end was developed in collaboration with Stolle Machinery, US food can manufacturer Silgan Container, and petfood manufacturer Hills Science Diet under the 100+ Accelerator programme.

Following successful filling trials at Hill’s Experimental Food Lab, the cans moved to in-facility consumer research, testing preferences for recyclable steel versus reusable plastic closures. Preparations are now under way for a second filling trial at an approved food processing facility. Product-filled cans will be used for at-home consumer testing. These follow-up tests will be scheduled when the engineered closure samples are available in early 2026.

For beverages, Grajewski said of the CanReseal Ring End: “It really combines the desirable attributes of a can, a bottle, and a cup, all in one packaging solution.” The team is making further improvements to the current design, to “enhance transportation, filling, and the consumer drinking experience”.

Technology chief Daniel Zabaleta said they were able to minimise and streamline the technology. “We have made it so that we have resolved a few manufacturing challenges, mainly the repair coat. When the centre panel of our ends is punched out, we expose the metal, which means it needs to be repair coated. The new design will now employ commercially understood and available methods used for today’s beverage ends to address the exposed metal.”

Grajewski also pointed out cost savings of the CanReseal technology when compared with aluminium bottles. “CanReseal ring-ends and caps are made using the same methods that make can ends today, meaning CanReseal is essentially the cost of purchasing two can ends.”

The tooling and manufacturing is a lot simpler, Zabaleta added, and parts are able to be formed much faster. “This is getting closer and closer to the depth of your standard can end. While the new design is slightly thicker, we are transitioning over to a 3000-series body stock alloy, meaning CanReseal could be made entirely from 100% recycled aluminium. This would lead to significant CO2 emissions savings for the entire industry: Scope 1 and 2 emissions for suppliers and manufacturers, and Scope 3 for brands.”

Through its participation in the 100+ Accelerator programme, Canovation was able to conduct a pilot filling and seaming test of its CanReseal parts using the Codi Manufacturing filling equipment at Anheuser-Busch InBev’s low-volume filling facility at St Louis in Missouri.

The company successfully filled “at speed”, with “very limited” changeovers between standard ends and its CanReseal ends within 2-3 hours. Through this process, Grajewski said they collected several data points to improve the product.

Canovation’s CanReseal technology has been under development for more than a decade. Caleb Hayes of Canovation added: “The learnings are what we have applied to the new design. We’re continuing our efforts with Codi to now work on the capping side, and what’s really exciting is they are working to modify the seamer head to become a capper. Which is interesting for our technology because cappers generally run slower than seamers do. So, this is the first step towards the idea of being able to use a seamer to apply our caps directly after filling. This is a step toward CanReseal approaching the speeds of 2,000 per minute typically seen on today’s commercial filling lines.”

The company said that several of the world’s largest brewers and soft drinks companies have expressed a “strong interest” in the CanReseal technology. “Brewers are keen on the cup-like drinking experience, whereas the soft drinks and water brands are interested in offering their consumers an alternative to single-use plastic bottles,” Hayes tells The Canmaker. “CanReseal has gained interest from all over the globe, including India, Australia, South Korea, Japan, China, along with Europe, and North and South America.” 

Canovation has already partnered with recognisable canmaking industry names, such as Stolle Machinery, Sacmi Imola, and Actega. 

Supported by these development partners and beverage brands, Canovation is entering into a joint development and commercialisation agreement with one of the world’s largest beverage can manufacturers and one of the world’s largest aluminium rolling mills. A formal announcement for this engagement will be made when the commercially viable CanReseal beverage product is ready for market introduction.

Grajewski said Canovation could be in a position to have a market-ready solution for food cans by the second half of next year, with the beverage can resealable end expected to be ready 6-12 months after. The company is in the process of raising capital to invest in pilot manufacturing operations, along with its beverage and food can manufacturing partners.