Canning Quality Assurance - Pressure Testing

Dear Members,

I am working in QA for  canned milk products company. Products are sterilized. 

Cans are metal cans coated with food grade laquor .

Seaming is an important step in our process. It considered as CCP. 

I need some information about pressure test for the integrity of the can. WE are doing tear down analysis here. But I need the information about pressure test only. If some body have any picture of the instrument please reply me.

Your valuable support will be appreciable  

Thanks 

Deepa 

Hi Deepa

I used to work in the can industry, and we used to pressure test cans to busting, but I can't remember the limits. It is a dangerous exercise and needs proper equipment to do the test. It's best to ask your can supplier to verify the strength of the can. I don't think that it was a test that our customers ever performed.

In theory as long as the seam overlap is in the required amount and the seam dimensions are within tolerance the cans should be ok.

You may be able to do low pressure testing on empty cans to verify the seam integrities.