Dots on Soda Cans

At Perdido, Kelly pointed out that there are colored dots on the bottom of soda cans. Different cans have different colors. I checked all the cans and they all had a dot of some color on the bottom. Even cans from the same 12-pack will have different colors. I thought there had to be a reason, but didn’t know what it might be. I did a search on Google and had the answer in minutes:

http://www.nordson.com/Businesses/Container/Products/containerinkdot.htm

In a factory there might be several machines printing the cans and each machine prints a different color dot on the bottom of the can. This way, if there is a problem they will know which machine to shut down while the other machines continue working.

6 thoughts on “Dots on Soda Cans”

  1. They should print numbers or something on those dots. Kids could then compete to get numbers in a row or the most with a certain number. Adults could bet on who had the highest or lowest number.

    1. I’m of the same mind . They have yellow , pink , blue and some have two dots not just one . I’m not believing the color spatter or the heat sensors.

  2. the cans are round to reduce the surface area to volume ratio. If they were square it would require more metal for an equal volume, which would be a waste. A spherical container would further improve the SA:V ratio but the cost would be prohibitive (not to mention impractical).

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