News You Can Bruise for 2005 December 30

Permalink [Comments] (2) Fri Dec 30 2005 21:01 Contents May Transitize In Transit:

A bunch of these secondhand boxes I got for moving are from Alcoa, and all over them is written talk about closures. "Improper handling may result in damage to closures", "Closure temperature should be no less than 65 degrees F", et cetera. I couldn't figure this out, since closures are abstract concepts which don't need to be put into boxes.

Then I noticed that the company name on the boxes was Alcoa Closure Systems, and it dawned on me that the boxes themselves were the closures. "Closure" is just a fancy word for "box". All the warnings are regarding the operational tolerances of the boxes, and the contents be damned.

Comments:

Posted by Josh Myer at Sat Dec 31 2005 01:21

I was pretty sure Alcoa doesn't make boxes. They're a (the) aluminum company, so I assumed they were tetra-pack or super-duty cans or something.

A quick google shows that they're just plastic bottle caps. I guess they saw the looming death of the aluminum can and preemptively diversified. Or something.

Posted by Leonard at Sat Dec 31 2005 01:39

I thought that too. But there's a spinoff company(?) called Alcoa Closure Systems.

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