KeyKeg

The disposable beer keg

The customer’s requirement

The KeyKeg consists of a cylinder with a bag for the beer and space for compressed air. This is surrounded by a cask with a top and bottom. It is the beer seal, dust seal, beer valve, retaining ring and handle all in one. Currently we produce the neck seal and the parts in the beer valve for the customer. This production requires more 2K injection molding than normal injection molding projects.

Our challenge

Functionality
Weight saving
Sustainability
Fast delivery times

KeyKeg

Our solution

We took on increasingly more of the product development and thought constructively together with the client about the functionality and efficiency of their product. The secret of our concept lies in the beer valve; we reduced the original 14 parts down to only 4. All the parts are made to enable easy separation. New KeyKegs are already being made from recycled KeyKegs.

The KeyKeg requires a unique tap head which provides the supply of compressed air and discharge of the bag’s contents. We have already developed and produced a new beer keg for a different tap head. Currently we are working on a third cask for another widely used tap head.

Alligator Plastics shows that there is space in the Netherlands for professional manufacturing companies with high added value. I can count on the swift development of new and existing products with high added value, without the need to invest a great deal in labor myself.

Bert Hanssen - Technical Director

Advantages for the customer

Beer does not spoil within a week
Carbon dioxide gas cylinders no longer necessary
Easy-fitting seal that does not fall apart
Short delivery times through our stock management
No assembly worries
Creative engineers who think with the product
Lighter product and thus cheaper transport

4

plastic parts instead of 14

100%

recyclable product

Not just 1 week

but even longer to keep than

in the old casks

Our cooperation

In cooperation with our client, we developed the combined beer/air valve and the structural parts on the bottom and top of the keg. Optimum cooperation has resulted in a combination of functionality, weight saving and sustainability.

‘Alligator Plastics was initially a great producer, especially of the concept I had developed myself,’ tells Bert Hanssen. At the time we were one of the few plastic injection molding companies that offered the 2K injection molding technique. ‘They quickly became more of an engineering firm and I could leave large parts of the development of the injection molding work to them. They know the product pretty much as well as I do, and they have a high level of engineering. For product improvements and new product developments I only need to put a few key words down on paper. The engineers then take it over from me, quickly and efficiently, and come up with smart and innovative translations of my ideas. They regularly also come with good and innovative ideas themselves. That saves me engineering costs in my own company.’ The result of this cooperation is a complete family of KeyKeg products with high added value.

About Lightweight Containers

Lightweight Containers is a young company with a highly innovative product: the KeyKeg. Bert Hanssen, technical director at Lightweight Containers, is the inventor of this unique and widely acclaimed concept.

The KeyKeg is a family of one-way kegs for beer, wine and soft drinks. Thanks to the high-tech design and light weight, the KeyKeg offers significant advantages to the gastronomical sector. The product enjoyed a successful market introduction which has resulted in strong growth figures every year.

See other cases in the Food sector