Introduction 

From the viewpoint of protecting the global environment and improving the labor environment during painting work, in recent years, the can-making industry has avoided the use of organic solvents in painting, either by converting to water soluble lacquer or adopting thermoplastic resin laminated fi lms as an substitute for paint. Against this background, cans produced from steel sheets laminated with a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fi lm have already been commercialized in the fi eld of beverage cans1). 

JFE Steel has developed and commercialized a new PET-laminated tin free steel (TFS) sheet for food cans, “UNIVERSAL BRITE®” Type F, which satisfi ed the performance requirements for food cans and is also environment-friendly. As features, “UNIVERSAL BRITE®” Type F has an excellent balance of high formability and the content release property, which is required in food canning applications. An excellent content release property was realized by adding original surface-modifying additives to the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fi lm to reduce the surface free energy of the PET fi lm. Formability is markedly improved by applying a combination of a new homopolymer PET (homo-PET) fi lm with an unique structure and an original laminating technology which inhibits PET crystallization.

As advantages of fi lmlaminated steel sheets, because the painting/baking process required with conventional painted materials can be omitted, (1) costs are reduced by eliminating this process and (2) use of organic solvents and other harmful substances can be eliminated. The PET-laminated steel sheets currently used in Japan also have various other outstanding features such as formability, corrosion resistance, and adhesion, and as a result, production has shown an increasing tendency in recent years. Based on these circumstances, JFE Steel successfully developed and commercialized a new laminated tin free steel sheet, “UNIVERSAL BRITE®” Type F, for food cans, which is environment-friendly and satisfi es the performance requirements of food canning. This paper discusses the development concept and presents an outline of the technology which was newly established based on this concept.

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