What’s a plastic cap for?

       Or services provided by caps

Efficient, convenient, robust, safe plastic caps protect the product and make its consumption easier. This key packaging component is also a technological jewel.

 

Product kept intact

Plastic caps keep the packed product and its properties intact (1) to provide the consumer with all its qualities (freshness, taste, flavours, etc.). Throughout the supply chain, however the product is stored, transported, kept and handled, the cap protects it from liquids, oxidation, contamination (from bacteria, mould and yeast) and bad smells in most cases (depending on bottle and closure type).

 

Product and consumer safety guaranteed

Manufactured in strict compliance with hygiene and health rules and regulations (2), the cap is a completely safe product. Its tamper-evident system (3) is an essential advantage in food, but also many other sectors. Child safety is generally factored into cap design to ensure that cap components are not dangerous if swallowed or inhaled by children. Child resistant closures (4) are specially designed to prevent access to products that pose a health risk.

 

Real service provided: convenience, fit with lifestyles, etc.

Easy to open and/or close depending on product, user age, place of consumption and lifestyle (domestic or out-of-home consumption), there are solutions for every scenario. The cap helps consumers use the right amount(5) by controlling flows (service caps, sports caps). Ease of handling (6), another important aspect, influences design(7) and is increasingly sophisticated with ergonomically shaped service caps.
Pouring(8) is made easier with systems that suit the product and its use, in the right quantities.
Cap design(7) evolves with the products it protects, making product use and recognition easier through specific shapes and colours. It is also a marketing vehicle, as the cap is can be printed and decorated by laser to support promotion, competitions, etc.

 

A 100% sustainable packaging component: eco-designed, recyclable, recycled and anti-waste

The plastic cap is the fruit of real eco-design work on 2 essential  aspects: weight reduction and recyclability optimised to the maximum. At every stage in its lifecycle (manufacture, filling, end of life), the cap’s environmental impact is kept to a minimum. Cap recycling has been a reality for many years. Collected and sorted caps form first-rate raw material for recycling that is suitable for technically advanced parts (automotive, construction, leisure goods, etc.).
The cap helps to prevent waste by keeping the product intact and portioning consumption.

Dispensing systems

such as pumps, valves and pistols give consumers the same guarantees of safety, features and environment-friendliness, with the specificity of accurate or even extremely precise dosage, particularly in the health and beauty sectors.

 

Important points

Plastic caps must meet stringent, coherent and legitimate demands:

• Upstream, the filler* of the packed product imposes safety, efficiency, easy operation, marketing benefits, competitiveness, etc.
  * The filler is the company that packs the product, which it also makes in most cases.

• Downstream, the consumer demands, safety, ease of use and keeping, etc.

The cap’s functions on the industrial side:

• Adapting to filling lines or other packaging processes to guarantee ease of dispensing, fitting and screwing.
  

• Adapting to the filler’s storage, packing and shipping conditions.

• Adapting to the traceability and information systems set up by the filler to track products, materials and labelling.
  

Closure manufacturer members of ELIPSO: APTAR  BERICAP  BOUCHAGES DELAGE  GLOBAL CLOSURE SYSTEMS  NMBP  NOVEMBAL  SOLOCAP
Any questions: infos@elipso.org

LINKS

 

• The packed product and its properties are kept intact by the cap to ensure the consumer enjoys freshness, olfactory qualities and all required properties.
  NB: more than 50% loss of quality can be due to a defective cap.
  

• Compliance with current regulations on raw materials, additives and colourings suited for food use, hygiene and migration.

• Tamper-evident systems let the consumer check that the cap was not already opened, usually through a frangible strip at the base of the cap that irreversibly breaks off or deforms on first opening.  

• Child Resistant Closures (CRC) block access to hazardous products through opening methods that are too complex for children. 

• Help with consuming the right amount through service caps that dispense precise amounts or valves that regulate or cut off flow.
  

• Ease of grip is a demand that impacts closure design (height, number of striations, etc.) and is becoming more sophisticated with ergonomically shaped service caps that improve handling. Some can be opened with one finger; others have a ring for carrying the bottle, etc.

• Cap design makes packaging use and recognition easier through shapes and colours that match the product, for example by differentiating a milk bottle from a detergent bottle.
  

• Easy pouring in optimal hygiene conditions is provided by systems that are suited to the product and its use, the right quantities, via anti-drop, anti-gurgle and anti-splash systems.