Making a Three-Piece Can

Making A Three-Piece Can:	Shearing The large coil of metal is cut into sheets at the rate of 160 sheets per minute on the shear press	Shearing The large coil of metal is cut into pre-scolled sheets at the rate of 150 sheets per minute. The irregular ends of the sheets are designed for the maximum number of ends per sheet.

	Coating An inside protective coating is placed on the sheets and cured.	Coating An inside protective coating is placed on the pre-scroll sheet and cured.

	Printing The sheets are decorated with whatever printing the customer desires and then an over coat of varnish is placed on the decorated sheet and cured. The body sheets are now stacked on pallets for shipment to a fabricating plant.	Printing The sheets are decorated with whatever printing the customer desires and then an over coat of varnish is placed on the decorated sheet. Coating A second inside protective coating is placed on the sheets and cured.

	Slitting Body sheets containing up to 35 body blanks per sheet are slit into individual body blanks which will be formed into cans.	Scroll Shearing The pre-scrolled sheets are now cut into small scroll sheets which will be fed into the end making press. End Forming Ends are stamped out of the scroll sheets at the rate of 650 ends per minute. Finished ends are packed into tubes for delivery to fabricating plants and customers. Body Forming Body blanks are fed into a bodymaker where they are formed into cylinders and joined at their side seams by solder, cement or weld.

	Flanging The formed cylinder comes from the bodymaker to the flanger. Here the metal on both ends is rolled to form a flange on each end of the can. This flange will at a later time accept double seaming.	Double Seaming One end, top or bottom, depending on customer specifications, is double seamed on the can.

	Spray Coating A final coating is placed on the interior surface of the can. This is a specially compounded protective coating. Baking here the final interior coating is baked and cured through a funnel type oven where the time-temperature cycle must be controlled carefully.	Testing A 100 per cent quality control inspection for any micro leak is given to every can. Packing Cans are packed into cartons or placed on pallets for delivery to customers.

Courtesy of: Can Manufacturing Institue http://www.cancentral.com