eli5: Why are soup/food cans so much more robust than beverage cans, even though both cans are made to withstand the pressure of being stacked vertically for shipping and storage?

Question

Crushing a soda can is easy, crushing a soup can is way harder. The soup cans are also often corrugated. What explains the difference?

In: 3794

Answer 1

Soda cans are pressurized, and a lot of their strength comes from that fact. Much like an inflated balloon can hold its shape, and a deflated one can’t. If one takes an intact can, a person can readily stand on it without issue. Open the can and release the pressure, and the can will crumple under the same weight.

Soup cans usually have foods where pressurizing doesn’t make sense, either because the can needs a wide opening or because the food shouldn’t be fizzy. So therefore the can itself needs to take the weight without depending on internal pressure to keep it rigid.