In known bodymakers for the production of thin-walled metal cans by the so-called “drawing and wall-ironing” (DWI) process, cups are fed to the bodymaker and carried by a punch on the end of the ram, through a series of ironing dies to obtain the desired size and thickness of the can. Ultimately, the can body carried on the punch may contact a bottom forming tool so as to form a shape such as a dome on the base of the can.
The cup is mounted on the free end of a punch which extends from a reciprocating ram, and the cup wall is then “ironed” by passing through one or more ironing dies to lengthen the side wall of the cup and form a can.
In existing apparatus for the formation of a “two piece” container (i.e. one piece can body with side wall and base, and separate end component), a cupping press is first fed with a coil of metal, and then punches out discs and makes them into cups. The flat circular blanks or discs of metal are drawn through one or more drawing dies in the cupping press to form the shallow cups. The cups are then transferred to a bodymaker for conversion into the finished can body.
The cupping press is an enormous, and extremely expensive, machine. It is therefore an aim of this invention to provide alternative equipment and methods, which could replace or reduce the footprint (floor space) required by the conventional cupping press. By reducing or avoiding the need for the significant capital expenditure of the cupping press, it would become possible to eliminate the need to stock large coils, and all the scrap (the ‘web’) created by the cupper, which would normally have to be shipped back to the supplier to get the scrap value back, is avoided.