Method and apparatus for forming reforming and curling shells in a single press

摘要

A method of forming container end panels from a sheet of material includes inserting the material into a press at a first level, blanking the material at that level, passing the material through a die and preliminarily forming it in a continuous stroke but at a second level and transferring it laterally at the second level for reforming and curling. The apparatus includes blanking and forming tooling at a first station and reforming and curling tooling at second and third stations. The reforming and curling tooling is disposed at the second level and the first, second and third stations are interconnected by an endless, apertured belt also disposed at the second level. An alternative embodiment involves disposing the first station tooling at an angle with respect to the press centerline, feeding the material into the press in a first direction and moving the preliminarily formed ends in opposite directions normal to the feed direction to second and third stations disposed on opposite ends of the press.