Patent ID: 7950259

Claim:
A method of preparing a stress induced plastically deformed container for use as a liquid beverage container, comprising: automatically necking the container a first time to plastically deform the container to have a neck and a first earing about an opening in the container; automatically conveying the container having the first earing about the opening in the container to a position proximate a first trimmer head, wherein the first trimmer head includes a first pilot; at least one of (i) automatically moving the container to the first trimmer head so that the first pilot becomes located inside the opening and guides the movement of the container, and (ii) automatically moving the first trimmer head to the container, so that the first pilot becomes located inside the opening and guides the movement of the first trimmer head; and automatically trimming off the first earing from the container with the first trimmer head, automatically necking the container a second time to plastically deform the container so that a geometry of the neck is altered and a second earing is present about the opening; automatically mechanically conveying the container with the altered neck having the second earing about the opening to a position proximate a second trimmer head, wherein the second trimmer head includes a second pilot; at least one of (iii) automatically moving the container with the altered neck to the second trimmer head so that the second pilot becomes located inside the opening and guides the movement of the container, and (iv) automatically moving the second trimmer head to the container with the altered neck, so that the second pilot becomes located inside the opening and guides the movement of the second trimmer head; automatically trimming off the second earing from the container with the altered neck with the second trimmer head; wherein the first pilot has a first working diameter and the second pilot has a second working diameter that is different from the first working diameter, the working diameters correlating to respective diameters of the openings of the containers after the respective necking operations such that respective piloting may be performed effectively.