Patent ID: 7024912

Claim:
Apparatus for use in deforming a predetermined wall zone of a thin wall of a container, the apparatus comprising: i) a tooling arrangement comprising internal tooling to be positioned in an interior space defined by the container and external tooling to be positioned in an exterior space defined by the container, the internal tooling being moveable relative to the wall of the container; a first tooling configuration in which the internal tooling can be inserted into or retracted from the interior space defined by the container; and a second wall engaging configuration for effecting deforming of the predetermined wall zone; and ii) a reorientation arrangement to rotationally co-align the container with respect to the internal and external tooling for deformation of the predetermined wall zone; wherein the reorientation arrangement is first operable to rotationally co-align the container with respect to the internal and external tooling, and, with the internal and external tooling and container in a fixed rotational orientation, the predetermined wall zone of the container is deformed between the internal and external tooling, the internal and external tooling moving translationally only without rotation from the first configuration to the second wall engaging configuration to thereby effect deformation at the predetermined wall zone.