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Tops move up/off - heat shrink capsules?


Big_Sur

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We've got a Nordic style bottle for vodka with synthetic cork bar top. The tops fit perfectly, snuggly, but seem to creep up on some bottles over time. We're going to use a paper strip over the top for the breakable seal (awaiting labels to be delivered any day), but I'm worried that won't prevent the top creep.

Do heat shrinks over the top of the paper & top prevent the top from creeping up over time?

Also, I think its partially due to temperature changes between bottling & store.

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We use two different bottle styles with label strips over the top. In our bottles with the shorter neck, a raise in temp will push the bartops out and pop the tamper tape off. We took to using clear heat shrink sleeves to both hold the tamper tape against the bottle. It's a pain in the ass, but problem solved.

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We had the same issue but worse - once opened they wouldn't go down all the way. We use the Anchor Hocking Stockholm Bottle. After someone's suggestion on here, we swapped tops and haven't had the issue. We still use a synthetic top, just a different provider. No issues that we are aware of. FWIW, we liked our first provider and still use them for another one of our bottles. It was just not a good fit for our primary bottle.

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How long does this typically take to happen? We've been on the shelves for 3 months and havent seen the problem (yet).

Using Priamal glass (each bottle manufacturer, internal neck shape, and glass mold is different) and synthetic corks from Paulson Supply and we couldn't be happier with the stoppers and quality of service from Pauslon. We hand cork and also want to make sure that the cork is easy for customers to remove. The fit seems perfect and we have yet to run into any issues.

I'd hate to be a cork manufacturer as there's so many variances in bottle design and production. If a cork doesn't work well it may be the bottle's fault, yet the cork guy gets all the blame.

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Definitely some bottle/top combos with a batch of a few thousand of each don't match up just as perfectly as the majority.

Seems like some of them slide up about 24 hrs after bottling. Thanks for the feedback folks, I think putting the shrink wrap over will solve the problem completely.

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Ours was not a time issue per se. Essentially, once the initial seal was broken (opened for the first time after corking) the top would not go all the way back down but would creep up after pushed down. The initial seal was actually really tight - it was tough to get the cork in and VERY tough to get it removed. Once it was out though, we had the creeping issue. We found out in our first few weeks of sales. Had one or two people mention it so I called around friends who had purchased and checked. It was common enough that we ran a test. I uncorked several cases of bottles and found the issue was with about 50% of the corks/bottle combos. We immediatley ordered some new samples, found one that worked well and recorked everything. A pain but I'm glad we caught it early.

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To me it sounds like you have two issues that are contributing to your problem. First is the liquid temperature at bottling. Second (I'm guessing) is that you are not pulling vacuum when bottling. Both of which are combining to give positive pressure in the head space resulting in the corks pushing out.

The below CQC link is for recommendations for wine bottling but the principles still apply.

http://www.corkqc.com/qcguidelines/qc.htm

"If the winery bottles at legal fill heights and with adequate vacuum to assure that there will be no more than 2 pounds relative pressure in the bottle at 68°F, it is very unlikely that the customer will ever complain about leaking corks. "

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  • 6 months later...

We produce a range of corking machines that are fully adjustable to work with most t-corks, we haven't found a manufacturer that we haven't been able to work with. It provides a more solid insertion than the by hand method and more importantly saves the blisters on the hands. All this means that you have more options in terms of cork sizes and types so helps with many different corking issues. We will be at the ADI San Diego conference next week and are always contactable by phone or email.

CCR Engineering
www.Designccr.com
519 Main rd.
Johns Island, SC 29455
843-559-9533

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  • 4 weeks later...

How long does this typically take to happen? We've been on the shelves for 3 months and havent seen the problem (yet).

Using Priamal glass (each bottle manufacturer, internal neck shape, and glass mold is different) and synthetic corks from Paulson Supply and we couldn't be happier with the stoppers and quality of service from Pauslon. We hand cork and also want to make sure that the cork is easy for customers to remove. The fit seems perfect and we have yet to run into any issues.

I'd hate to be a cork manufacturer as there's so many variances in bottle design and production. If a cork doesn't work well it may be the bottle's fault, yet the cork guy gets all the blame.

Temperature of liquid at bottling, amount of head space variance, improper initial fit, improper storage, ............there are many things that could go wrong.

I was happy to see the remark above about the bottle variances. My company has sold corks, bartops, or capsules for twelve years now. And truly about 90% of our closure or capsule related problems come from glass inconsistency. The rest are random and sometimes a rare bottling error.

We offer the service of taking a look at your new favorite bottle to see what works. The only thing I can say is don't push the range for fit on anything. Stay in the middle. Bottles can stray from the drawing more readily than a cork, bartop or capsule/ sleeve can. A pair of digital calipers can be very useful.

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