Industry/University Cooperative Projects Center
| Agilent | COBE Cardiovascular | Ford Motor Company | Lockheed-Martin |
| Ball Aerospace | Coors | IBM | Micro Motion |
| Ball Packaging | CTD | ICAST | Nastic Actuator Development |
| Boeing | CONMED | Intel | Sikorsky |
Ball Packaging
Overview
Ball Corporation now has its corporate headquarters in Boulder County. Their business is broken into two main areas, aerospace and container. Both of these business areas have significant sites in the Boulder area. The container division is primarily involved with the manufacture of cans for beverages and other food products. Today, Ball manufactures 38 billion aluminum cans/year, using more aluminum than the entire aircraft industry. A key challenge is to produce reliable cans at very low cost. The aerospace division has made significant national achievements in space such as the Hubble telescope, various optical and high frequency devices, etc. The aerospace division is looking to expand by applying technology that it has developed for space applications to produce consumer or domestic products.
Project One
Ball Research & Development department does not currently have a way to form "flanges" on cans in our lab that accurately controls the "speed and feed" of the tools. The flange is that portion of a can body to which the lid is affixed. In a commercial can production line, a flanging machine flares a portion of the open end(s) of a metal can body by forcing a (usually) rotating tool into the open end(s) of the can body. The rates at which the tools rotate and translate into the can body have an effect on the finished form and quality of the flange.
Ball R&D would like a bench-top sized can-flanging machine for our laboratory. This project will require machine design and motion-control work. The motion of the tooling (rotational velocity and single-axis translation) must be programmable by the operator. The machine must be able to accommodate a wide range of can sizes, varying from 2 to 6 inches in diameter and 2 to 10 inches in height (roughly). The metal forming tools already exist. We need a machine for our lab to which we can attach them.
The tools move along he direction of the can axis. The tools themselves do not expand. In rough terms, think of a cone (i.e. the tool) being forced partially into a pipe (i.e. the can) of smaller diameter. IN the case of non-rotating tools, this is exactly the case. Rotating tools are a slightly more complex in design, but they are of a shape that synthesizes this conical shape when rotating. The machine will need to be able to translate the tools along the direction of the can axis only and rotate tools about this dame axis. Ball has tooling assemblies that will be used. Students need to build a machine with mounting points for these tools that rotate and translate about/along the can axis in a prescribed manner and with sufficient speed and force.
Project 2B: Die Necking Bench Rig
A hydraulic system is currently used to create a flange neck. WaveTek motion generators have become obsolete therefore Ball has to replace them. The hydraulics needs to be replaced with stepper motors.
Currently we have a single motion but we desire to end up with two actuations. One action will move the knock out and the second action will move the can.
Project Three
Carbonated beverages are being stored in containers made from PET. The bottles have a barrier to hold the carbonation in the bottle. Over time, these bottles will allow the carbonation to translate through its walls. It is desired to develop a semi-automated shelf life testing apparatus to determine the pressure in the PET container as a function of time and agitation.
The shelf life testing apparatus is a system where carbonated bottles are agitated at selected time intervals to achieve pressure equilibrium between the headspace and liquid volumes. Typically 5 to 6 containers will be mounted on a platform at 70F at one time. Pressure is measured in the container via a septum. The resultant equilibrium pressure and temperature data will be automatically acquired via a PC. The platform can be vibrated vertically at a desired frequency and amplitude.
Desired outputs include CO2 and pressure of each container versus time. Demonstrated accuracy of +- 0.04 volumes CO2 and a 25% reduction in lost samples over the duration of testing versus the current manual testing method. Final deliverables include finished working product, material and component specifications, drawings, bill of materials, and cost.
System must be consistent with procedures set forth in PCNA Carbonation Retention Test Method TM2-3. Must be able to accommodate bottles with 28mm and 38 mm finishes in various shapes and sizes ranging from 10 oz. to 3 liter. System must be easy to use, reliable, have a long life and require little maintenance.