Behind Coors’ color-changing beer cans
As an undergraduate at Cornell University, Lyle Small annoyed his housemates by spending days on end painting their Ping-Pong table in rainbow shades of ink. He brewed chemicals to create inks that changed hue when exposed to light and heat.
"I got obsessed," says Small, now 41. "I thought all printing inks should change color."
Two decades later his passion is paying dividends. Small’s Colorado Springs company, Chromatic Technologies Inc. (CTI), is booming while rivals in the ink industry are cutting back. Music distributors, foodmakers and the beer giant MillerCoors are using Small’s color-changing ink to make their packaging stand out. CTI landed 120 new customers in 2008. Small expects sales to double this year, to $10 million.
Thanks to CTI’s ink, the mountains on Coors Light cans turn blue when the beer reaches optimal drinking temperature (roughly 43
Filed under: economics by Forest