Abstract
The paper presents some aspects of introduction of the polymer coated steel into can manufacturing industry. Polymer coated steel sheet is a new a new material with very promising perspectives in packaging industry. Basic description of can manufacturing processes is given. Most important material features and requirements are identified. Mechanical properties and deformation behaviour of the steel-polymer laminate are discussed. Main interest is concentrated on mechanical properties of the PET, polymer used for coating. Basic assumptions of numerical model of the metal-polymer laminate are formulated. A constitutive model of a polymer is an important part of the laminate model. Existing constitutive models have been considered and two of them, the Arruda-Boyce and compressible Leonov model have been selected as suitable for the analysed problem. The polymer models have been implemented by the author in the finite explicit dynamic program. The models have been calibrated using available experimental results for the PET. Application of the numerical model to deep drawing of a cylindrical can from the polymer coated sheet has been presented.