Once liquid products are put into their respective bottles and containers, there must be a seal on top. This helps in preserving the product and also ensuring that it does not spill while in transit. There are a myriad of container tops and it would be interesting to learn about the capping machines behind them.
Below is a look at a few of the main ones:
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Spindle caps: These are found in most packaging areas. The machines consist of discs that spin bottle caps into bottles as they pass by in conveyor belts. There is also another set of discs that go tightening the already capped bottles. The spindle capping equipment handles bottle tops such as screw type, sports caps and flat caps among several others.
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Chuck capping machines: They have many similarities as their spindle counterparts. Once a container comes beneath the capper a metal clamp applies some consistent pressure on the cap and bottle. In order to increase the speed, the machine may have several clamps capping several bottles at once. There is also a hand-held variety that caps one container at a time.
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Snap capper and lid pressing machine: This applies pressure on a bottle cap which then snaps into place. The cap is held intact by the lip of the bottle. A practical application is in the soft drink packaging. Lid pressing machines have their application in the capping of paint cans.
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ROPP capper: The initials stand for, Roll on Pilfer Proof Capper. This is the machine that inserts wine bottle corks.
The brief narration above may not sound like much. However, you only need to stand at a factory’s packaging area in order to appreciate the work done by capping machines. The entire process is automated in a way that ensures consistency. The containers keep coming as the cappers do their thing. The seals placed after completion of capping are to assist the end consumers open the containers easily. These seals assure the consumer that a product has not been tampered with. In the event of tampering, a product user can tell by looking at the broken seal.
Other equipment used in the capping process includes the following:
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Cap elevator: This is a machine used to align and deliver the caps. They go into a delivery chute that eventually takes them to the containers awaiting sealing. In case there are caps that have not been properly aligned, the machine rejects them automatically. The chute mentioned here is actually a shaft where the bottle caps are held.
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Vibratory bowl: Serves the same purpose as a cap elevator. Instead of the caps being transported through an elevator, they are put into a bowl. The unaligned caps are returned to the bowl and delivered to another container. For more information, visit the website Fillingequipment.com.
