Abstract: A can fabricated from sheet material or stock of small thickness contains a can body comprising closely adjacently situated circumferential beads of high precision and mutual parallelism which impart high strength to the can body in both axial direction and radial direction.An apparatus for forming precision beads on cans formed of sheet material or stock comprises two cylinders rolling-off upon one another and provided with ribs. The cylinder, forming the inner tool, is provided with recesses or gaps in the ribs which are positioned vertically above one another to form axially parallel beads.