How to extend the life of your liners

The goal when purchasing a new capper is to find a capper that will tighten caps perfectly and blend seamlessly into your production environment. To achieve this, start by taking a close look at your caps, bottles, and the work area where the capper will be used.

How the liner is worn out

Cap gripper inserts (also known as gaskets) are hard-wearing items that need to be replaced regularly. You can extend the life of your liner by ensuring that the torque output of your capping machine is set correctly. In almost all cases, excessive wear on the chuck insert occurs when the capper applies too much torque to the cap.

We have all experienced tightening caps by hand. When tightening a cap by hand, we can tighten it to a certain point until it can't be tightened any further. Basically, the cap can only accept a certain amount of torque.

The same principle happens when using a cap machine to tighten a cap. The cap can only accept a certain amount of torque. If the capper is set to provide more torque than the cap can accept, the cap will stop spinning before the capper stops trying to tighten it. Since the cap stops first, the capper is spinning the liner on the cap that is no longer spinning. This will wear out the liner very quickly.

To eliminate excessive liner wear

To eliminate this problem, you need to reduce the torque output of the capper. Ideally, you want to calibrate the capper to apply only the amount of torque that the cap will accept, and no more. You want the capper to stop applying torque while the cap is fully tightened. When the collet insert and the cap stop at the same time, bushing wear is eliminated.

If you are considering purchasing a capping machine, it is important to make sure that the output torque range of the capping machine you purchase matches the torque requirements of the caps very closely. Make sure you don't buy a capping machine with an output torque range that is too high for your caps, as the liners will always wear out.

When using a capping machine, it is easy to tell when too much torque is being applied to the cap and when it is not. The clutch in our capper is designed to automatically shut off the capper when a selected amount of torque is applied to the cap. If the torque output is set to a level acceptable to the cap, the capper will automatically shut off the moment the cap is tightened without causing liner wear. On the other hand, if the torque output is set higher than what is acceptable for the cap, the capper will not shut off and the capper will rotate the liner on the cap without rotating it again, resulting in excessive liner wear.

So, in conclusion, when tightening caps, make sure that you do not apply more torque to the cap than it can accept. Reduce the torque output of the capping machine. If you find that the torque output of the capper has decreased too much and the cap is not as tight as you would like it to be, increase the torque output, but by a small amount. Increase the torque output slightly until you find the desired tightness.