Abstract
The friction of can body stock, alloy AA3104, with various surface topographies and lubricant coating weights was studied by means of a capstan test, which goes some way towards simulating the drawing process. The coefficient of friction varies significantly as a function of lubricant load. The friction decrease with increasing lubricant weight and then plateaus, remaining constant independent of further lubricant weight increases. A significant difference in coefficient of friction for samples tested while oriented along the rolling direction vs. oriented in the transverse direction has been interpreted in terms of a picture of severe asperity deformation at low lubricant loads and was related to the surface topography of the sheet. A simple model of mixed lubrication provides a reasonable correlation between the real area of metal/tool contact obtained from the capstan test measurements and the contact area derived independently from sheet topography.