Fundamentals of Modern Can Making and Materials

Development for Two-piece Can Manufacturing*

By M. SODEIK,* * K. TAFFNER* * and F. WEBER* *

Synopsis lacquered, chromium coated EGGS material. The

In Europe, two-piece cansfrom tinplate are mostlyproduced as DWI
cansfor carbonatedbeverages. Two piece DRD cans of small height are
producedfrom pre-lacqueredECCSfor food can applications.
The limitations of the deep-drawingprocess will be described. The
importanceof the limiting drawing ratio for producing the cup and the
influenceof friction and lubrication on this ratio will be discussed.
The wall-ironing process and the influencesof the material quality on
this process will be explained, together with thefinal manufacture of the
cans by neckingand flanging.
Finally, the necessityof new developments for using evenlower body wall
thicknessesand the use of higher-strengthsteel materials will be discussed.
Key words: cold rolled flat steel; tinplate; EGGS; DWI cans; DRD
cans; cupping; wall-ironing; necking; flanging; high-strength steel.
I. Introduction
In a comparative marketing survey of can man-
ufacturing in Germany and Japan, significant dif-
ferences were found between these two countries.
Details of the survey were recently published in this
journal.l~ For the major part of Europe, the Ger-
man figures can be regarded as typical.
The study has shown that, in Germany and Europe,
nearly all beverage cans are two-piece DWI cans, and
mostly, such cans are made of tinplate. However,
in Japan, there is a great number of three-piece bev-
erage cans produced from EGGS used for filling non-
carbonated beverages.
In Europe, even food cans with a height larger than
the diameter are produced from tinplate as DWI
(drawn and wall-ironed) cans.
Smaller-height food cans are very often made as
two-piece DRD (drawn and redrawn) cans.
In the following, some fundamental data on the
development of these two-piece can-making processes
and the steel materials required will be described.
lubrication conditions for cupping have to be adjusted
to these different material qualities. For economical
and process-technological reasons, it will be favoura-
ble in the DWI process to obtain a maximum forming
rate in the first cupping step, i.e., a maximum draw-
ing ratio of =Do/d. It is known that the maximum
Do/d ratio-also called limiting drawing ratio ~max
which can be reached in one drawing step, depends
on the friction and lubrication, on the ratio of punch
diameter to metal thickness d/so and also, to some ex-
tent, on the material properties.
As, in the DWI process, the final can height is
produced by the subsequent wall-ironing operation,
it is common practice to use comparatively high initial
metal thicknesses. With modern tool designs, the cup
diameter is almost equal to the diameter of the finished
can. The d/so ratio is small, and, as shown in Fig. 2,
a drawing ratio of =2.O is safely achieved, even if
low-concentration emulsions are used.
For the DRD process, definitely lower initial metal
thicknesses (such as 0.18 mm as compared to 0.30 mm
for the DWI process) are used, and the diameters of
the first drawing step are normally larger than those
of DWI cans, because there is a higher d/s ratio and,
consequently, a lower limiting drawing ratio.
In order to still obtain the necessary can heights in
few drawing steps, good lubricants must be used in the
deep-drawing steps. This is achieved by adding lu-

II. Cupping

In the DWI process as well as in the DRD process,

the first step consists of producing a cup from a metal
blank by deep-drawing, as shown in Fig, 1. Howev-
er, there is one essential difference between the DWI
and the DRD process :
Whereas, in drawing and wall-ironing, tin coated,
usually not reflown tinplate without lacquer coating
is normally used, the DRD process starts with pre- Fig. 1. Deep-drawing.

* Based on the paper presented to the Symposium on Material for Can Stock held at the 113th ISIJ Meeting , April 1987, A119, at
The University of Tokyo in Tokyo. Manuscript received on January 18, 1988; accepted in the final form on March 11, 1988.

Q 1988 ISIJ
** Research and Quality Control Department , Rasselstein AG, D-5450 Neuwied 1, F. R. Germany.

( 672 ) Research Article

 Transactions ISIJ, Vol. 28, 1988 (673)

Fig. 2. Limiting drawing ratio.

bricants to the then highly formable lacquers, which

are applied to the sheet before its fabrication, and by
the additional use of drawing lubricants with a high
lubricability, such as wax or oil, on the pre-lacquered
sheets.
The important influence of additional lubricants
for obtaining high D0/d values will also be seen from
Fig. 2.
The quality of the drawn cup and, hence, of the
finished can is, above all, determined by the criteria
Fig. 3. Thickness variation d ue to chattering.
of freedom from wrinkles and ears and of symmetry.
Wrinkles may occur in the cupping step, if the
blankholder pressure is too low. Sufficiently high
blankholder pressures and correspondingly stiff tools
should be provided.
With a decreasing thickness and an increasing ten-
sile strength, as they occur frequently in the DRD
process if double-reduced material is used, this prob-
lem is getting more critical.
Wrinkles occurring only on part of the can peri-
phery are extremely critical. This may happen due
to
-extreme feather edge,
-rolling defects resulting in short thickness variations
as a consequence of tandem mill chattering; an
example will be seen in Fig. 3, which will lead to
problems particularly with DWI cans; and Fig. 4. Earing.
-incorrectly mounted blankholder tools causing simi-
lar problems.
For minimum earing-apart from special measures smaller and smaller, the thickness deviation that can
taken during the production of the hot rolled materi- be fabricated without any problem will approach a
al-an optimum cold rolling rate of about 87 % has critically low value.
proved to be of major importance. This applies to the thickness tolerance of the rolled
This value will also pertain to double-reduced ma- strip in the longitudinal direction and, to an even
terial, if the forming rates of the first and the second wider extent, to the thickness distribution across the
reduction are added up. strip width. The feather edge, which can be in-
Figure 4 shows the curve representing this func- fluenced only by side-trimming the cold rolled strip,
tion. It will be observed that, especially with higher has proved not to be all that critical. But the amount
cold rolling rates, a heavy increase of earing will oc- of crown should be kept to a minimum.
cur. This will become a problem for materials with Figure 5 presents a normalized comparison of a
a low thickness, as they are used for DRD cans, be- cold strip profile with the relative hot strip profile. It
cause the hot rolled thickness can not be reduced to will be seen that, in cold rolling, the profile can prac-
any arbitrary value. tically not be influenced any more. Therefore, a
Particularly in the production of DWI cans, where favourable initial profile must already be adjusted on
minimum blank sizes are increasingly used and avail- the hot strip. In this regard, the new developments
able trim lengths after drawing the can are getting of " continuous variable crown " or " six-high ", as
( 674 ) Transactions ISIJ, Vol. 28, 1988

they are now being installed in modern hot rolling In Europe, and increasingly also in the United
mills, are of utmost importance. States, the drawing and wall-ironing process is now
In Fig. 6, a thickness profile across the cold strip also applied in the production of food cans. For suc-
width and the desired standard deviation of this thick- cessfully manufacturing cans from tinplate, new tech-
ness profile are shown. nologies had to be developed for the production of
tinplate materials.
The importance of maintaining a close thickness
III, Wall-ironing
tolerance has already been discussed. Furthermore,
Figure 7 represents, as an example, the tool the height tolerance around the can periphery after
arrangement for the production of drawn and wall- wall-ironing must be kept to a minimum, otherwise
ironed beverage cans. This arrangement is fre- the trim length may be too small at some part of the
quently used in Europe today. In addition to a re- periphery or-this would raise similar problems-the
drawing die, which produces only a minor reduction stripping tool will hold the can only at one point of
of the diameter without using a driven blankholder, the can periphery. The can will suffer from roll-back,
three wall-ironing dies are used. i.e., bends in the circumferential direction, again result-
ing in trimming problems.
One of the causes frequently found-provided the
tool geometry is correct-is in a non-uniform micro-
structure across the width of the cold strip. This may
be coarse grain in the strip edge area originating from
hot rolling or from problems occurred during batch-
annealing.
The defect may become dangerous, if the coarse
grain structure exists only on part of the body blank.
This will eventually lead to a soft wall on one side of
the can body causing the punch to move out of its
axis and producing can shapes, as they are shown in
Fig. 8.
Fig. 5. Hot and cold strip profiles. Examples of such critical differences in the micro-

Fig. 6.
Strip profile of DWI material.

Fig. 7. Drawing and wall-ironing.

 Transactions ISIJ, Vol. 28, 1988 (675)

Fig. 8. Different trim lengths due to uneven microstruc-

ture.

structure between the strip center and the edges are

given in Fig. 9.
Especially during recent years, initiated by the in-
creasing tin prices, numerous tests have been made to
Fig. 9. Example of uneven microstructure.
reduce the tin coating also in this area. The tin coat-
ing on the outside of the metal serves, in the first place,
as a separation and border against galling between even been subjected to severe work-hardening. For
the can body and the wall-ironing tools. Such tin drawn and wall-ironed cans, flanging is usually pre-
coating weight reductions have been accompanied by ceded by a necking operation. Figure 11 shows sev-
improvements of the lubrication technology and the eral necking and flanging systems, as they are current-
use of other border layers, such as phosphate treat- ly used in Europe. In this processing step, a rate of
ments instead of passivations. no more than 5 cracked cans per 10 000 is allowed by
In order to permit studying all of these influences, the can makers. Based on this specification, the con-
laboratory machines equipped with the necessary mea- sequence in practice is that only the systems as shown
suring systems for the forming forces are required. A in Fig. 11 with rolls can be used. The difficulties in
graph of the force measurements recorded at our lab- the flanging operation will increase with decreasing
oratory drawing and wall-ironing machine is shown wall edge thickness and can diameter. An excellent
in Fig. 10. trim quality and the absence of any damage at the
can edge caused by transport are required, and, of
Iv. Flanging, Can Stability and Latest Develop- course, the steel must have a very high internal cleanli-
ments ness. If care is taken that, in necking, defects at the
can edge, such as wrinkles etc., are avoided, the speci-
The last processing step for seamless cans is nor- fication of 5 flange cracks per 10 000 cans as stated
mally the flanging of the can. On both cans-the above can now be reliably fulfilled.
deep-drawn (DRD) and the drawn and wall-ironed The overflanging method developed by us as al-
(DWI) can-, flanging must be made on a compara- ready mentioned in a previous paperi~ can be em-
tively thin edge, which, by the preceding steps, has ployed in the further development work for compar-
(676) Transactions ISIJ, Vol. 28, 1988

Fig . 10. Forces occurring in drawing an d wall-ironing. Fig. 12. Flangeability.

Fig. 13. Can metal cost reduction for 330 ml DWI bever-
age can.

The large necking step, also called triple-necking,

will increase the danger of wrinkles occurring during
the necking operation, and the flanging operation
must be carried out on a smaller diameter which is
more critical.
From Fig. 13, the cost-reducing effect of a body wall
thickness reduction of the cans will be seen. As the
Fig. 11. Neck ing and flan grog systems.
last wall-ironing step can not go beyond a certain rate,
this will automatically result also in a thinner can edge.
ing the susceptibility of cans to flanging. In Fig. 12, In Fig. 13, the blank size for the cup was held con-
such an overflanging diagram for a poor and a satis- stant so that the same cupping tool could be used.
factory can condition is shown. As a consequence, the thickness reduction of the origi-
For periodical statistical checks of' the internal nal metal will automatically be followed by a thinner
cleanliness in our production, we are using a magnet can body wall thickness.
In discussing such thickness reductions, it should,
powder test method which has been adjusted to this
purpose. of course, be noted that the stability and the applica-
Two other improvements which are currently being bility of the can must be maintained. For the bev-
developed will potentially further increase the require- erage can in Europe, this includes a minimum buckl-
ments for the flangeability of the can. Serving to ing pressure of the can bottom of about 6 bar. In
reduce the overall can costs, they are concerned with Fig. 14, the can bottom stability has been plotted for
-necking from 66 to 56 mm diameter in order to the 330-m1 can with 66 mm diameter and a dome
reduce the costs of the can end, and depth of 10 mm as a function of the initial metal
-the reduction of the body wall thickness . thickness for various materials.
 Transactions ISIJ, Vol. 28, 1988 (677)

Fig. 14. Bottom end stability of DWI beverage can.

The diagram shows that the can bottom stability

decreases with the metal thickness. Below a certain
limit, a material of a higher hardness, such as con-
tinuously annealed Temper 61 steel, must be used.
To some extent, the absolute values depend on the can
bottom design and depth. An advantage for the sta-
bility is in the fact that continuously annealed material
from killed steel is also subject to aging resulting in
a higher strength. This aging occurs in heating the
cans for curing the lacquer. However, at the same
time, it has an unfavourable influence on the can edge
and its flangeability.
Another potential cost saving for the beverage can
is offered by converting to an easy-open steel end.
Figure 15 represents the end design which has been
chosen for Europe. Its manufacture has been suc-
cessfully demonstrated on an industrial-scale pilot
line. Consumer tests which were already made have
shown an excellent acceptance as compared to the
conventional ring-pull end. It is expected that the
obvious advantages of this new concept-consumer
acceptance, cost advantage, non-detachable design,
all-steel can with recycling feature-will lead to an
early marketing of this new steel end.
Fig . 15. Steel end for beverage cans.
two-piece can making technology in Europe were de-
scribed.
(1) Especially in the beverage can sector, the con-
version to the seamless drawn and wall-ironed can
took place. In addition to beverage cans, DWI cans
are now also produced for food can applications.
(2) Drawn and redrawn cans have been widely
accepted in Europe for food cans of special dimensions.
Several essential steps in these developments could
only be realised due to continuous improvements of
the steel packaging material, which were achieved
with regard to
i) the steel base, the internal cleanliness and the
homogeneity,
ii) the geometry and the restriction of tolerances of
the coil material, and
iii) its surface corrosion protection.

V. Conclusions
REFERENCE
Based on the market situation in Europe as com- 1) M. Sodeik, K. Taffner and F. Weber: Trans. Iron Steel

pared to that in Japan, the major developments of Inst. Jpn., 28 (1988), 663.