History and Archives

Bob Sheldon, Main Ring, issued another appeal last week for more used soft drink and beer cans for construction of NAL's proposed Bubble Chamber dome. "To date, we have only approximately three-fourths of our total requirement," he said. He urged NAL employees and local organizations, schools, etc., to continue their efforts to provide NAL with the needed cans. "I think that it is in the interest of the Laboratory and our area in general that we should continue to procure the rest of the requirement by collecting used cans rather than by having them donated in large quantities by can manufacturers," said Sheldon.

Thousands of empty soft drink cans have been delivered to NAL for use in development of the Bubble Chamber's proposed geodesic dome. One problem: the cans have tops and bottoms that must be removed before they can be used; sometimes the tops have ragged edge punctures.

Hank Hinterberger, Technical Services, several weeks ago asked Bill Jones, NAL Central Machine Shop foreman, if his staff could develop a simple "pop can opener" to remove tops and bottoms simultaneously. Jones' colleagues went to work on the problem and solved it quickly.

They have developed an "opener," now being used at NAL's West Chicago annex. The "opener" can strip tops and bottoms of more than 1,000 cans an hour. The cans are hand-loaded into a hopper, a wheel is turned, and a valve is tripped. Then, both ends of the can are removed at the same time. The can is blown from the machine, minus its top and bottom. It all happens in about three or four seconds. Congratulations to our machinists!