An Experimental Investigation of the Survivability and Friction Characteristics of Tin-Coated and Polymer-Laminated Steels

The food and beverage container industry is of immense economic importance, and being an established technology, is also fiercely competitive. In the manufacturing process for metal containers, a time consuming and therefore expensive process involves the spray of a food-contact safe polymer coating onto the can before filling. This process can be eliminated using a pre-laminated metal workpiece as long as the polymer will survive the manufacturing operations involved in can making. The most demanding operation in can making is the ironing process because of the high pressures involved as well as the necessary generation of new surface. This paper presents experimental results on the ironing of steels with tin and lacquer coatings and polyester laminate, and addresses tribological characteristics as well as survivability issues with these workpieces. The experimental apparatus used, a specially fabricated ironing simulator, allowed variation of die angles using titanium carbide tooling inserts. The polyester laminate is found to perform very well at low die angles without lubricants, suggesting that this is a viable option for can manufacture.