Not all aluminum tubes have a cylindrical shape. Not all aluminum tubes have a hard surface. Aluminum has been used in tubes that can hold pharmaceutical products, household products or industrial products.

Pharmaceutical products, household products and industrial products often contain strong chemicals. Such chemicals would probably eat away at most packaging materials. Such chemicals add to the challenge of enclosing a powerful cream, gel, ointment, sealant or lubricant in a leak-proof container.

The makers of pharmaceutical products rely on aluminum tubes to maintain the sterility of packaged creams, gels, ointments and personal lubricants. The makers of pharmaceutical products must keep their production facilities in compliance with strict regulations. The aluminum tubes guarantee proper delivery of the correctly manufactured product.

Prescription medicines for skin disorders normally come in aluminum tubes. Certain feminine products, lubricants and creams, come in aluminum tubes. Dental care rests on the dependability of a product that comes in an aluminum tube.

Today, aluminum tubes can be designed to help consumers squeeze as much as possible from any tube. Today aluminum tubes can be given a fancy cap, one that hides a sharp tip. The sharp tip can be used to punch a hole in the thin aluminum seal that has been used to cover the opening to the tube.

Vivid print can stand out boldly on an aluminum tube. The paint colors do not fade over time on an aluminum tube. For that reason, an aluminum tube provides makers of certain health care products with a powerful marketing tool. In 2004 the Motebello Company was recognized for creation of the “Tube of the Year.”

Why did the Tube Council give that company such an award? Motebello had designed an eye-catching aluminum tube. They had put a label with four colors on a white enamel background. The enamel surface covered an aluminum tube, and it drew the attention of shoppers, those who walked by a shelf on which tubes of Polysporin had been placed.

A tube made from aluminum can be painted with oil-based paint. The chemicals in an oil-based paint have the ability to cross-link with one another. Once such cross-linking has taken place, the colors in the paint remain unaffected by the various tube-manufacturing techniques. Such techniques can ensure creation of a shiny and bold aluminum tube.

More than pharmaceutical products, cosmetics and health care products can be found in aluminum tubes. Such tubes can serve as secure containers for industrial products as well.

Adhesives, sealants, caulks, paints and silicones all retain their important chemical properties, when stored in an aluminum tube.

Artists too are familiar with the squeezable nature of an aluminum tube. Artists who work with oils get the colors on their pallet from oil-based paints. Those paints are stored in aluminum tubes. Because an enamel surface can go onto each of those aluminum tubes, a colorful label can be put onto each tube. Thanks to such labels, the artists who use them can tell without reading the label what color should come out of any one paint tube.