Thesaurus to the world of aluminium tubes

B
Body – The body of the tube can be produced in a cylindrical or conical way.

C
Caps - The variety of caps is nearly unlimited. In most cases they are made of plastic (PE or PP). The variety ranges from standard cylindrical or conical shapes to flip top or slip-on caps and child resistant or tamper evident closures.
Crimp - After the filling process the open tube end is closed with a crimp. It can be folded in a double, triple, triple inverted and saddle-back way.

D
Diameter - Following the customers’ needs the diameter of the aluminium tube differentiates from very small tubes for pharmaceutical usage (e.g. 11 mm) up to bigger tubes for food (e.g. 50 mm).

N
Nozzles - There are tube nozzles with or without thread, cylindrically or conically (cannula) shaped and consisting of aluminium, plastic or a combination of both.

O
Orifice - The orifice is one of the tube’s most variable parts. It can be round, with or without a slit, or star-shaped and with a piercable or peelable membrane.

P
Protective varnish - To protect the packaging material from its sometimes aggressive content, an internal protection varnish can be applied.
Printing - The body of the tube can be printed in the ‘wet-in-wet’ printing process (offset printing). Depending on the tube producers’ printing machines the number of possible colours may vary.

S
Sealant - At the tube’s end in most cases a sealant is applied to further improve the tightness of the tube after the crimping process. The sealant can be made of latex or a heat seal lacquer.
Shoulder - The tube’s shoulder can be shaped in various ways. The forms range from smooth, chased, polished and brushed to twisted, lacquered and stamped. It is also possible to emboss tactile warnings of danger and other symbols or letters.
Slug - The basic material for the production of an aluminium tube is the slug, a piece of aluminium with the shape of a coin. As a rule the purity of the slug is 99.7 % aluminium. It can be produced in different sizes – according to the diameter of the tube – and with or without a hole in the middle. The slug with a hole is used in the production of a tube without a piercable membrane.

T
Thread - The thread is needed to fix different caps. It is possible to cut threads in the metric or other standards.

W
Wall thickness – The wall thickness of the tube body differs with the diameter of the tube. It ranges from about 80 to 130 µm.