Inventors:
Dean Lee Johnson - Littleton CO
Terre Reingardt - Broomfield CO
Assignee:
Ball Corporation - Broomfield CO
International Classification:
B21D 4104
Abstract:
The trimmed edge of a drawn and ironed aluminum alloy container body is heated to provide a substantially circumferentially uniform profile in the region adjacent an open end, prior to necking of such region. The temperature profile is sufficient to provide the region to be necked with an annealing temperature, preferably involving a temperature, at the trimmed edge, up to about 550 F. or more, before partial cooling. Annealing in this fashion is believed to improve formability in such a fashion that tensile and yield strength progressively increasing during the necking operations.