3.1. Description of the product
An aerosol can have the objective of containing a product that is dispensed with the aid of a propellant. The product can be dispensed in the form of a mist of liquid particles or foam, depending on the propellant and on the product properties. The aerosol can produced by the company is a three-piece tin plate aerosol can, a simple product composed mainly by three major parts: the top, the bottom and the body, as shown in Fig. 1. The company manufactures both the empty and filled aerosol cans. However, the objective is to improve the final quality of an empty aerosol can, therefore study of the valve, actuator and cup, which are the additional parts in filled aerosol can, are out of scope for this research.
3.2. Description of the production process
The complete aerosol manufacturing process is fairly complex and with a high number of intricate steps, but for the current research, a comprehensive understanding of the high-level production processes is sufficient. A three-piece tin plate aerosol can passes successively by the following production areas: primary cut- ting, varnishing & lithography, secondary cutting and stamping & assembly
In the primary cutting step of the production process, the tin plate is unrolled from a large coil, straightened and cut into smaller sheets. The top and the bottom are made up from tin-plates with the same thickness whereas the body, according to specifications has always a relatively lower thickness