The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can

engineerguy
17 HN recommenders · recommended in 17 months, 2015–2026
YouTube
19.5M views · 11 years ago · explainer · evergreen

Bill Hammack, the Engineer Guy, explains how the aluminum beverage can is designed and manufactured. He walks through the forming process, the necked-in top, and the pull tab that opens a pressurized can.

HN loves it as a clear example of how a mundane object hides clever, elegant solutions, with the pull tab as the favorite detail.

“Very clever and elegant solution to the problem of opening a can under pressure.”
Industrial designDesign of everyday things
#productdesign#manufacturing#everydayobjects#engineering#pulltab

24 comments from Hacker News

l
@loganmarchione2024 · in “The Engineering of Duct Tape [video]”
Love his content! This is my favorite video of his! ▶ this video
Strongly recommendsView on HN
J
@Judgmentality2018 · in “Plastic Injection Molding (2015) [video]”
This is by far my favorite video of his: ▶ this video
Strongly recommendsView on HN
l
@larusso2025 · in “What are these bumps on the top of a pull-tab can?”
Whenever it’s about cans I can only recommend this video from the engineer guy [1]. He makes no videos anymore sadly. ▶ this video
RecommendsView on HN
G
@Gunax2024 · in “Ask HN: What's your favorite YouTube video, ever?”
Design of the aluminum beverage can ▶ this video For everyone else, thanks for sharing! Normally i think sharing videos is bad mojo--the Internet is so personalized that favorites are difficult to share. But I really enjoyed most of what has been shared so far!
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j
@jihadjihad2021 · in “Why soda bottles have gaps in their threads (2000)”
In a similar vein, I found this explanation [0] of how and why a soda can's tab functions the way it does to be fascinating. Very clever and elegant solution to the problem of opening a can under pressure. 0: ▶ this video
RecommendsView on HN
v
@vanderZwan2021 · in “I told a cat food company how much they’d save by using taller cans (2020)”
Highly recommended related YT video: The Engineering Guy: The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can ▶ this video
RecommendsView on HN
a
@amaajemyfren2020 · in “The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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l
@leobakerhytch2019 · in “Boeing 777X’s fuselage split dramatically during September stress test”
Nice video on the design and manufacturing of aluminum drinks cans here: ▶ this video The whole thing is pretty ingenious, but the way the internal pressure helps vent the can while the tab is acting as a second class lever, then as soon as it’s vented becomes a first class lever to push the scored section of the top into the can — that’s great engineering.
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l
@logn2019 · in “Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters”
This is a tangent but I liked this video on beverage cans, ▶ this video
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_
@_Microft2019 · in “The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can (2015)”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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d
@dragontamer2019 · in “The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Can (YouTube, 2015)”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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m
@misterbwong2017 · in “The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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