Posted: 11/18/2005 7:05:55 PM EDT
| While I was drinking a coke I got to thinking...how the heck do they makes coke cans? Are they cast....stamped...what? And how do they seal them? |
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Theres a local guy that perfected the process for stamping the seemless aluminum can. The money is in the fact that his process can make a stronger container out of less material. His goal is to make as much of the can out of one very light and thin piece of aluminum. That's why the tops of the cans have been getting smaller and smaller. His company name is Redicon. He is a self made multi millionaire with a high school diploma. He grew up as a middle class kid and went to public school. For the right man with the right idea and the drive to see it through, the American dream is a reality. |
Sort of - technically refered to as deep drawn, since it's a multi-stamping process.
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Technically, it's a deep-draw extrusion die, a can like that would need at leasy a dozen hits from the flat to get that deep. I've also seen "one-hit-wonder" dies that smashed an aluminum pellet in a cavity to do the same job, but that's strictly lower volume as there are runablilty issues with the tools. If you ever want to ween yourself off of canned drinks, go to a stamping plant and smell the lubes that we use... Your pop cans are literally covered in that shit when being made. A lot of it is animal-fat based and gets really ripe in the summer...  Dave (tool and die maker) |
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The link from hanau is good, but what they don't tell you is that the roll of aluminum they start with is about 8' in dia and about four feet wide. There were two presses next to each other and each one stampes out eight slugs every one to two seconds. The next stamping in the same die forms them to the size of a tuna fish can. Then they form them to half the length of a soda can and the last form makes them full length. The inking process takes about one second, you can't really see it happen. If I remember right, they make over 120,000 can per shift. There was (and may still be) a place in Fairfield Ca. called ball mfg. that made soda cans. It's impressive to watch. The noise in that place is deafening. jb |
Beavercreek, right? Or near there, I went to Fairmont East, then Centerville. G |
Yep, and what's really amazing is that the lithograph is already on the sheets before they are drawn. Takes some skilled diemakers to make dies capable of drawing that deep without scratching that off at some point. |
Are you sure about that? According to the link on page one, they are made to full length, trimmed, and then printed on. |
I've seen it done. Worked in a can mfg plant many years ago. All the blanks came in with the litho already on them, ran through a slitter then into the presses. The litho was already on all the raw blanks, even the welded seam stuff that ran through a body maker. Maybe they do it another way now, who knows. |
That's pretty cool. You'd have to be pretty smart to figure out how the image would stretch and all that... Just curious, what cans were they (such as Coke, Dr. Pepper, etc.)? |
Sounds like he's talking about two different type cans. The Aluminum soda cans we're talking about aren't welded. It'd be one thing to take a flat with a label on it, bend it and weld it. It'd be different to make the seemless can discussed. |
Oh, I see, I didn't read his post very well. 
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