Cleaning and surface conditioning of formed metal surfaces

A process comprising steps of:

• (I) cleaning an aluminum can with an aqueous acidic cleaning solution comprising a surfactant component and
• (II) contacting the aluminum can after step (i) with an aqueous lubricant and surface conditioner forming composition, distinct from said aqueous acidic cleaning solution, said aqueous lubricant and surface conditioner comprising as dissolved, dispersed, or both dissolved and dispersed components therein (i) water-soluble organic material selected from phosphate esters, alcohols, fatty acids including mono-, di-, tri-, and poly-acids;
• fatty acid derivatives including salts, hydroxy acids, amides, esters, ethers, and derivatives thereof, and mixtures thereof, and (ii) at least one of the elements selected from zirconium, titanium, cerium, aluminum, iron, tin, vanadium, tantalum, niobium, molybdenum, tungsten, and hafnium in metallic or ionic form.
• wherein the improvement comprises utilizing an aqueous acid cleaning solution that contains not more than about 0.1% of carbon atoms that are part of phenanthrene rings and an aqueous lubricant and surface conditioner forming composition that contains not more than about 0.01% of carbon atoms that are pad of phenanthrene rings and wherein the surfactant component of the aqueous acid cleaning solution consists essentially of:
• (A) a component of nonionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of surfactants corresponding to general chemical formula (I):
• ##STR2## where a is 0 or 1;
• R represents an alkyl moiety that may be branched or unbranched and saturated or unsaturated but does not include any aryl group and the sum of a plus the number of carbon atoms in R is from 10-22;
• n is an integer from 2 to 4 that may be different from one C.sub.n H.sub.2n O group to another in the same molecule;
• and b is an integer, the value or values of b being selected so that the hydrophile-lipophile balance ("HLB") of the total component is from about 8 to about 20;
• and
• (B) a component of nonionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of surfactants corresponding to the chemical formula R'-.phi.-(C.sub.n H.sub.2n O).sub.c H, where R' represents an alkyl moiety that may be branched or unbranched and saturated or unsaturated but does not include any aryl group and that has from about 4 to about 16 carbon atoms;
• .phi. represents a phenylene group;
• n has the same meaning as for formula (I) above;
• and c is an integer, the value or values of c being selected so that the HLB of the total component is from about 9 to about 21.