The development of camping gas cartridges by a European Customer
Customer Background
| Customer Type | Brand Manufacturer / Filling Manufacturer |
| Market | UK, European market |
| Customer Size | Top 10 in the camping industry in Europe |
| Customer industry | Camping, Welding, Outdoor |
The difficulties and demands of the customers
| The price of aluminum cans is too high. | Previously, the customer ordered aluminum cans in Italy. Their production speed was low and the delivery time was slow, and the main problem was that the price of the aluminum cans was too high – approximately 2 – 3 times that of our tinplate camping gas cartridges. Then the customer’s camping gas cartridges are not completely competitive in the market. |
| Unique shape/dimensions | The normal camping gas cartridges currently available on the market are 230 grams (Φ106*85mm) and 450 grams (Φ106*145mm). The customer is looking for a camping gas cartridge of a unique specification in order to achieve recognition and differentiation. |
| Improve printing quality | The normal camping gas cartridges on the market are usually printed on a flat sheet first, and then make the cartridges. In this case, the printed artworks may get distorted. And after stretching, the surface of the cartridges will lose its luster, resulting in an unattractive appearance of the cartridges. |
Our Solution
This customer began to contact us in 2012. After deeply understanding the customer’s requirements, we proposed several solutions: using tinplate cans, developing new dimensions of camping gas cartridges, and stopping the use of pre-printed flat sheets, but use the heat shrink sleeves.
- New shape/dimensions
Based on the suggestions and preferences of the customers, we have adopted the following two new sizes.
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| Dimensions | Φ 100 * H 90 mm | Dimensions | Φ 100 * H160 mm | ||
| Material | body | 0.32 mm tinplate | Material | body | 0.38 mm tinplate |
| bottom | 0.60 mm tinplate | bottom | 0.60 mm tinplate | ||
| Burst pressure | 18 – 22 bar | Burst pressure | 18 – 22 bar | ||
During the R&D of new cartridges, what technical support and suggestion did we offer?
*** Based on the customer’s requirements, product drawings were designed for the customer’s confirmation, and a complete set of mold drawings was drawn by us.
*** The technical parameters were confirmed. According to the customer’s requirement of 18 – 22 bar for the burst pressure, we selected the appropriate thickness of raw materials and calculated the best curvature of the bottom cover.
*** According to the EN417 standard (4.2.5 The concave form of the base of gas cartridges with an outside diameter greater than or equal to 40 mm shall reverse its form before any leakage or rupture occurs.), the bottom covers of these two new camping gas cartridges must deform before the cartridge leaks. Therefore, we set a circular platform(1 cm diameter) in the center of the bottom cover (replacing the curvature), so as to form a weak point on the curved bottom cover. When the pressure inside the cartridge is too high, the center of the bottom cover will first bulge outward, thus perfectly meeting the requirements of EN417 standard.
*** Bluefire has a complete set of mold processing equipment, such as lathes and drilling machines, and independently processed the manufacturing molds for the entire set of new camping gas cartridges.
*** Bluefire used new materials and new molds to produce samples, handled various strict tests, and provided them to the customer for the final test, preparing for the following mass production.
- New Printing – heat shrink sleeve
The flat printing on the material before stretching will cause the artwork to deform, as shown as below:
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Now we use the new printing method:
— Print the artwork on the PET film.
— Cut and roll the printed PET film together and stick it by heat welding to form a sleeve.
— Put the sleeve on the cartridge and place it in the oven for heating, to obtain the perfect finished product.
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For the new printing, we have carried out the following tasks:
— Adjust the flat artwork to fit the size of the cartridges.
— Select the thickness of the PET film as 0.05mm, research and set the oven heating temperature at 100 degrees for 1 minute.
— The cartridges after heating are extremely hot. They need to be cooled under the fan before being placed in the carton boxes for storage.
- R&D completed
The entire development cycle, from the initial communication to mass production, lasted approximately six months.
After the delivery of the finished products, we provide the following technical documents for each batch of goods:
Quality Certificate for Raw Materials / Certificate of Conformance / Quality Inspection Report
The status and Future
Since 2012, we have maintained a good cooperation relationship for 15 years. In the meanwhile, about 3 million cartridges have been supplied to this customer, and not a single batch has had quality issues. As a good supplier and partner to the customer, Bluefire has been providing high-quality products and excellent services.
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