September 2006 - A Brief History of the Beverage Easy-Open End

A Brief History of the
Beverage Easy-Open End

The invention that started the process was Ernie Fraze’s patent of the integral rivet in 1963.  Formed from the end itself, the rivet attached a pull tab to a scored opening that was removed to open the can.

The first beer can with an easy-open end (EOE) was sold by the Iron City Brewing Company in Virginia in 1963, where coincidentally, the first beer can was introduced in 1935 by the Krueger Brewing Company.  The Schlitz Brewing Company took what it called the “pop top” national, and by 1965, 75% of all beer cans had EOEs.

While consumers loved the convenience of the new ring pull ends, ring-pull ends had a major problem... the torn-off pull tabs were a safety and ecological nightmare.  Animals (and a few humans) died after ingesting the pull tabs, and they littered the landscape where people cut their feet on them (100-million a year were left on beaches alone).

The race began to develop an EOE where the tab and tear strip would stay on the end.  One of the early patents for a stay-on tab (SOT) design was issued in 1969 to Omar Brown, an associate of Ernie Fraze.  This design used a bendable tab to break and divide a scored opening area.

Every beverage can company began working on developing an SOT design, and there were a bewildering number of patents issued by the mid-1970’s for “easy open ecology ends.”  Almost all of these designs had various drawbacks that made them unpopular with consumers or uneconomical to produce.  This early Stolle SOT design tended to spray the user with beverage when the can was opened.

About 1970, an engineer at the Reynolds Metals Company by the name of Daniel Cudzik was also assigned the task of developing a practical SOT design.  After several years of false starts, Dan was struck with a burst of inspiration one evening in 1975 and conceived the basic SOT design that became the industry standard today.  The Falls City Brewing Company of Louisville, Kentucky was the first company to use the new “ecology end” in 1975.

Since building our first conversion system in 1963, Stolle Machinery has been continually improving EOE designs for both beer-beverage and full-open food cans.  We have introduced many new features in response to market demands for ends that are more popular with consumers and more cost-efficient for can makers.  Stolle will continue to lead the can industry with new technical innovations that will help keep aluminum cans at the forefront of beverage packaging.