Tooling System Design for Forming Aluminum Beverage Can End Shells

This paper proposes a new tooling system and performs an optimum design on it to minimize the amount of thinning during a forming process of aluminum beverage can end shells. Numerical simulations of the shell forming process and structural performance of the shell under internal pressure have been performed. Influences of the upmost surface profiles and initial positions of the tool in the new tooling system on the shell forming quality have been investigated, and a structural optimization method based on the numerical simulations has been then applied to find optimum design points subject to constraints of the shell geometrical dimensions. A comparison shows that thinning of the shell formed by the proposed new tooling system can be reduced approximately 3.6% compared to a conventional tooling system. Optimization results of the new tooling system show that the amount of thinning can be reduced almost 4%. It is also confirmed that the buckle pressure resistance of the shell is improved 5.5%. The new tooling system may reduce the amount of thinning; hence, may improve the structural performance of the can and may save metal.