Deformation and Texture Evolution of a 3004 Aluminium Alloy During Ironing

The production of drawn and ironed (D&I) beverage cans represents an important example of processoptimisation. The aluminium alloy 3004 H19 is widely used for the can body, since it has a goodcombination of formability and strength and results in very little earing after deep drawing. Thesedesirable properties are achieved by exercising careful control of the rolling schedule of the can stocksheet. During the ironing stage the wall thickness is reduced by a factor of about three, and these largestrains determine the resulting texture in the can wall. Large shear strains are also present and thesecan vary through the wall thickness. The present work deals with the deformation and texture evolutionwhen ironing strips of 3004 aluminium. The strip material was in either a cold rolled or an annealedcondition. The texture on each surface of the ironed strips, as well as at the mid-plane, was determinedexperimentally. The experimental results were then compared with the results from a computer programwhich was capable of predicting the texture evolution.