Method and apparatus for trimming cylindrical articles

Abstract

Method and apparatus for trimming cylindrical articles, particularly can bodies, to a predetermined longitudinal length by sequentially feeding such cylindrical articles into carriage pockets rotating around a main shaft synchronously with an axially aligned plunger at one end of each carriage pocket and a similarily aligned mandrel at the other end of the carriage pocket. At predetermined positions, the plunger moves into the aligned carriage pocket and pushes a cylindrical article therein onto an aligned mandrel which is rotated around its own axis as well as around the main shaft. As the mandrel rotates, a fixed arcuate blade which cooperates with a cutting edge defined in the mandrel is engaged to shear an annulus portion from the end of the cylindrical article thereby trimming the cylindrical article to a predetermined and repeatable length. Upon severing of the annulus, a fixed cutter blade engages the annulus to transversely cut the annulus into an open ring. Thereafter, the open ring is rolled, straightened and deposited as a strip in a chamber defined adjacent each mandrel with the severed strip being carried to a waste disposal position as the mandrel rotates around the main shaft. The trimmed cylindrical body is removed from the mandrel for further processing and the plunger retracted from the carriage to permit insertion of yet another untrimmed cylindrical article into the carriage device.