Expert on packaging, Anton Steeman, has published an interesting article in his blog Best In Packaging.

I collected a selection of developments in Aerosol Technology, introduced into the market over the last six months. Aerosol Technology is a very interesting technology with a wide and amazing range of possibilities and applications. For a long time it has been seen as a “not-moving-forward” packaging format and it even met (and sometimes still meets) strong opposition and rejection due to its history of air-pollution and negative effects on the environment. Before we go into the new developments, let’s have a look at its history, the negative aspects and the oppositional claims.

For the ones not intimate with aerosol technology a short definition:

An aerosol is a dispenser that holds a substance under pressure and that can release it as a fine spray (usually by means of a propellant gas). This is obtained with a can that contains a liquid under pressure. When the spray valve is opened, the liquid is forced out of a small hole and emerges as an aerosol or mist. As gas expands to drive out the payload, only some propellant evaporates inside the can to maintain an even pressure. Outside the can, the droplets of propellant evaporate rapidly, leaving the payload suspended as very fine particles or droplets.

Note: An atomizer or spray pump is a similar device that is pressurised by a hand-operated pump rather than by stored gas. About this system, which is the forerunner of the airless system, to be discussed later in this article.

A brief history

Although there is proof that a with gas pressurised container has been used some 400 years ago, it is generally agreed that the forerunner of the modern aerosol is the in November 1927 by Erik Rotheim in Norway patented aerosol can and valve that could hold and dispense products and propellant systems. During World War II the US government funded research into a portable way for service men to spray malaria-carrying bugs and in 1943 researchers of the Department of Agriculture developed a small aerosol can pressurised by a liquefied gas.

The first aerosol cans made of aluminium were produced in Germany in 1954. These were 2-piece cans based on a patent of Ernst Kohl. Their principle draw-back was the domed base which was still made of tinplate, and often led to leaks around the seam.

In 1955 the commercial advance of the aerosol can started with the introduction of the first hair spray in Germany. Various industrial branches discovered this packaging system since then leading to considerable growth figures for aerosol can manufacturers.

Read the whole article in the blog Best In Packaging