A screw cap or closure is a common type of closure for

bottle A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal ...

jar A jar is a rigid, cylindrical or slightly conical container, typically made of glass, ceramic, or plastic, with a wide mouth or opening that can be closed with a lid, screw cap, lug cap, cork stopper, roll-on cap, crimp-on cap, press-on ca ...

s, and

tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a Japanese rock band * Tube & Berger, the alias of dance/electronica producers Arndt Rör ...

History

Screw caps had been used in Europe since the 1500s and a British patent was filed in 1810 by Peter Durand acting on behalf of Nicolas Appert.

John Landis Mason John Landis Mason (c. 1832 in Vineland, New Jersey – February 26, 1902) was an American tinsmith and the patentee of the metal screw-on lid for antique fruit jars commonly known as Mason jars. Many such jars were printed with the line "Mason's ...

patented in 1858 a screw-on lid for a jar that became known as the

Mason jar A Mason jar, also known as a canning jar, preserves jar or fruit jar, is a glass jar used in home canning to food preservation, preserve food. It was named after American tinsmith John Landis Mason, who patented it in 1858. The jar's mouth has a ...

Usage

A screw closure is a mechanical device which is screwed on and off of a "finish" on a

container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

. Either continuous threads or lugs are used. It must be engineered to be cost-effective, to provide an effective seal (and barrier), to be compatible with the contents, to be easily opened by the consumer, often to be reclosable, and to comply with product, package, and environmental laws and regulations. Manufacturers may ensure the integrity of a screw cap using a

cap torque tester The cap torque tester is used in the packaging industry to measure the opening or closing torque of the screw cap. Proper torque is required for the cap to perform its functions of maintaining a tight seal. It is a piece of specific quality contr ...

. Some closures need to be

tamper resistant Tamperproofing is a methodology used to hinder, deter or detect unauthorised access to a device or circumvention of a security system. Since any device or system can be foiled by a person with sufficient knowledge, equipment, and time, the term " ...

and have

child-resistant packaging Child-resistant packaging or CR packaging is special packaging used to reduce the risk of children ingesting hazardous materials. This is often accomplished by the use of a special safety cap. It is required by regulation for prescription drugs ...

features. A

tamper-evident band A tamper-evident band or security ring serves as a tamper resistant or tamper evident function to a screw cap, lid, or closure. The term ''tamper-proof'' is sometimes used but is considered a misnomer given that pilfering is still technica ...

is a common tamper warning for screw caps of bottles, for example.

Wine industry

Screw caps' use as an

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...

cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

for sealing

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

bottles is gaining increasing support. A screw cap is a

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

cap that screws onto threads on the neck of a

, generally with a metal skirt down the neck to resemble the traditional

wine capsule A wine bottle is a bottle, generally a glass bottle, that is used for holding wine. Some wines are fermented in the bottle while others are bottled only after fermentation. Recently the bottle has become a standard unit of volume to describe ...

("foil"). A layer of

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

(often

PVDC Polyvinylidene chloride, or polyvinylidene dichloride (PVDC), is a homopolymer of vinylidene chloride. History Ralph Wiley accidentally discovered polyvinylidene chloride polymer in 1933. At the time he was a college student who worked part-t ...

), cork,

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Types of polyisoprene ...

, or other soft material is used as wad to make a seal with the mouth of the bottle.

Sake industry

Sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

bottles are almost universally closed with screw caps (some are packed in barrels, or novelty bottles).

Sources

* Soroka, W, "Fundamentals of Packaging Technology", IoPP, 2002, * Yam, K. L., "Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology", John Wiley & Sons, 2009, *Prlewe, J. ''Wine from Grape to Glass''. NY: Abbeville Press, 1999. * Wayne J. Mortensen and Brian K. Marks
The Failure of a Wine Closure Innovation: A Strategic Marketing Analysis
, *

ASTM ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is a standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical international standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and s ...

D3474 Standard Practice for Calibration and Use of Torque Meters Used in Packaging Applications

External links

New Zealand Screw Cap Initiative

losure and Container Manufacturers Association(CCMA), international society of beverage technologists, {{Authority control Wine packaging and storage Packaging