states of completion. Furthermore, the machine had a relatively low metal realization since the design requires material to carry the ends through the press. The resulting down-time to change the position of the dies, slow speed of operation, poor quality of ends due to the misalignment, and overall maintenance and metal utilization problems experienced by machines made in accordance with the ""422 Buhrke patent eventually resulted in the abandonment and eventual replacement of such machines. The company is no longer in the business of making shell forming presses.
The Herrmann ""199 patent also describes an end manufacturing process performed on a sheet of end material. In particular, a sheet of material is fed into the press, and initial forming operations and lancing of a press tab opening feature aredistribution machine. It is needed because the curlers 16 are supplying shells along six sets of track work 20, whereas in the downstream direction there are only four sets of track work leading to four liner machines 24. The balancer 22 is used to collect the ends and appropriately distribute them to track work leading to the lining machines 24. The lining machines 24 add a compound liner to the shells. The lining machines supply the shells to a drying machine 26 (if a water-based compound is used), which dries the compound liner with forced air. The drying machine 26 is not needed if a solvent-based compound is used.
The drying machines 26 supply the shells along another set of track work 30 to a second balancer 32. The