DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART Beverage cans have been widely used in various forms not only for their portability and solidity, but also for the benefits such as easy transportation and storage. Cans also provide economical benefit because used cans can be recollected and recycled. As shown in FIG. 1, there are provided usually a bottom 11, a cylindrical wall body 12 and a top 13, to form a beverage can that holds drink therein.

A user opens an opener 14 at the top 13 of the beverage can 10 and drinks the beverage contained therein. After use, the beverage can 10 is disposed, and, because the cylindrical wall body 12 being substantially planar in an extended state, the beverage can 10 is compressed in a vertical direction by an external force of separate equipment. Then the beverage can 10 goes through the recycling process.

Conventionally, since compressing the beverage cans was not easy, empty cans were usually recollected in original form, thus taking a considerable space during transportation.

Accordingly, it deteriorates the efficiency of transportation, and also deteriorates efficiency of recycling because the cans in original form would usually take more storage space before the compression. Furthermore, requirement for separate compressing equipment and subsequent increase of recycling process also deteriorate economic benefits of recycling.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to improve the problems of the conventional beverage cans as described above, and accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a beverage can that is easily compressed and disposed after use, and a method for fabricating the same.

In order to achieve the above object, in a beverage can having a bottom, a cylindrical wall body and a top defining a vessel that holds a beverage therein, the beverage can according to the present invention being shaped such that it includes a plurality of oblique projections arranged on the cylindrical wall body at uniform intervals, and linear grooves formed between the oblique projections, connecting upper and lower ends of the respective oblique projections, wherein, by the torsion force exerted to the bottom and the top in opposite directions, the cylindrical wall body is twisted and compressed along the oblique projections and the linear grooves.

Also, in order to accomplish the above object, in a fabricating method of a beverage can comprising the cupping step and re-drawing step of press finishing a metal plate into a vessel shape, the fabricating method includes the step of pressing a first roller and a second roller along the inner and outer circumferences of the cylindrical wall body and subsequently

forming oblique projections and linear grooves connecting upper and lower ends of adjacent oblique projections on the cylindrical wall body, the first roller having oblique projections formed on the outer circumference at uniform intervals and linear grooves formed on the outer circumference at uniform intervals connecting the upper and lower ends of the respective oblique projections, the second roller having oblique grooves formed on the outer circumference at uniform intervals to complementarily fit with the plural oblique projections of the first roller, and linear projections also formed on the outer circumference at uniform intervals to complementarily fit with the linear grooves of the first roller.

According to the present invention, the length of the oblique projections is equal to, or smaller than the radius of the cylindrical wall body. Further, the cylindrical wall body is formed substantially in the shape of polyhedron with the plurality of oblique projections and the linear grooves formed thereon.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the angle of inclination of the oblique projections with respect to the bottom is expressed by, 0=cos0'' () N where,'N'is the number of oblique projections.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above objects and other features of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional beverage can; FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a beverage can according to the present invention; FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the beverage can being twist-compressed according to the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view taken on vertical line along the cylindrical wall body of the beverage can according to the present invention; FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing the cylindrical body in extended state according to the present invention; FIG. 6 is a schematic view illustrating a method for fabricating the beverage can according to the present invention; FIGS. 7a and 7b are schematic views showing first and second rollers of FIG. 6, respectively; and FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view showing the main feature of the present invention to explain the fabricating method of the beverage can according to the present invention.

BEST MODE OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, a beverage can and a fabricating method thereof according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring first to FIGS. 2 and 3, a beverage can 100 according to the present invention includes a bottom 110, a cylindrical wall body 120 and a top 130 for constituting a body that holds drink therein, and is further provided with a plurality of oblique projections 121 formed on the cylindrical wall body 120 at predetermined intervals, and a plurality of linear grooves connecting upper and lower ends of the oblique projections 121 adjacent to each other, the oblique projections 121 and the linear grooves functioning to guide the beverage can 100 to be twisted and compressed easily when the beverage can 100 is pressed on the bottom 110 and the top 130. The reference numeral 131 denotes an opener.

Meanwhile, FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the cylindrical wall body 120, showing 6 oblique projections 121 being formed at predetermined intervals by way of an example. Referring to FIG. 4, preferably but not limitedly, the oblique projections 121 are projected as inner circumference of the cylindrical wall body 120 is dented inwards. It is also preferable that the cylindrical wall body 120 is formed substantially in polyhedron shape with the oblique projections 121 and the linear grooves 123 formed thereon.

FIG. 5 is a view showing the beverage can 100 of FIG. 4 having 6 oblique projections 121 being extended. The reference character'X'denotes the length of the oblique projections 121,'a'the interval between the oblique projections 121, and'b'the circumference of the cylindrical body wall 120.'O'denotes an angle between the oblique projections 121 and the bottom 110, i. e. , the lower base of the cylindrical wall body 120, and'L'the height of the oblique projections 121. The relation between'X','a','b'and'0'and'L'can be expressed as follows.

In order for the beverage can 100 according to the present invention to be twisted and compressed easily, the length'X'of the oblique projections 121 is set to equal to, or smaller than the radius'R'of the cylindrical wall body 120, i. e. , X ! R.

In the case that the length of the oblique projections 121 is equal to the radius'R'of the cylindrical wall body 120, the distance'a'between the oblique projections 121 and the angle'O'of the oblique projections 121 can be expressed by equations 1 and 2.

[Equation 1] R a = N [Equation 2] # = cos#-1 (#/N) where, 'N' denotes the number of oblique projections.

The equation 1 is derived with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 as follows. That is, because b = 2#r, and R = 2r, 'b' is arrangecd as b = #R. Because b = Na = #R, a = #R/N is derived.

The equation 2 is derived as follows.

Because cos# = a/@, # = cos-1 a/@, and by a = #R/@@, # = cos#-1(#/@) is derived.

R R N N The height'L'of the oblique projections 121 is set to satisfy the equations 3 and 4.

[Equation 3]

L = a tan 0 = a tan [cos-1 N [Equation 4] L = R sin 0 = R sin [cos-' ()] N With the beverage can constructed as above according to the present invention, as the user or the recycler twists and compresses the can, the oblique projections 121 and the linear grooves 123 formed between the oblique projections 121 under the torsion are twisted gradually, so that the cylindrical wall body 121 is twist-compressed completely, as shown in FIG. 3.

FIGS. 6 to 8 are views for illustrating a fabricating method of the beverage can according to the present invention, and referring to FIGS. 6 to 8, the beverage can fabricating method according to the present invention includes the cupping step and re-drawing step of press finishing a metal plate into a vessel shape, and, prior to the step of forming the top 130, the step as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7A of pressing a first roller 210 and a second roller 220 along the inner and outer circumferences of the cylindrical wall body 120, the first roller 210 having plural oblique projections 211 formed on the outer circumference at uniform intervals and linear grooves 213 also formed on the outer circumference at uniform intervals connecting the upper and lower ends of the respective oblique projections 211, and the second roller 220 having oblique grooves 221 formed on the outer circumference at uniform intervals to complementarily fit with the plural oblique projections 211, and linear projections

223 also formed on the outer circumference at uniform intervals to complementarily fit with the linear grooves 213.

The oblique projections 121 and the linear grooves 123 are formed on the cylindrical wall body 120 as the rollers 210,220, which face each other in tight contact with the cylindrical wall body 120 positioned therebetween, are rotated along the inner and outer circumferences of the cylindrical wall body 120 in the same direction as shown in FIG. 8.

Meanwhile, as shown in the accompanying drawings, the oblique projections 121 are preferably formed outward by denting the inner circumference of the cylindrical wall body 120, while the linear grooves are curved in the inner circumference as the outer circumference of the cylindrical wall body is dented. To meet the above conditions, the first roller 210 is contacted tightly to the outer circumference of the cylindrical wall body 120, while the second roller 220 is contacted tightly to the inner circumference of the cylindrical wall body 120.

As described above, with the beverage can according the present invention, the user can easily twist and compress the can after use. As a result, the cans take less space during transportation, enhancing efficiency of transportation, and also require less storage space thus enhancing space utilization. Furthermore, since there is no need to employ separate compressing equipment, recycling process is shortened, and economic benefit by the recycling is increased.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention should not be limited to the described preferred embodiments, but various changes and modifications can be made within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.