Vial Crimping Archives - Laboratory Precision Limited

Posted on July 24, 2014September 8, 2022 by laboratory

Applications for Crimp-On Atomiser Spray Pumps

Applications for crimp on atomiser spray pumps

Crimp on spray pumps are the preferred method for intranasal medication as well as perfumes because they are much less likely to leak when fitted properly and are tamper proof. Regular sizes of spray pumps are usually 13mm, 15mm, 17mm, 18mm and 20mm. They can also be found in other varying diameters, dosage amounts, length of skirt and general shape.

Fitting the pump

A multi-fingered collet type of crimper may be the best option for fitting the atomiser. This is because if the cap has a long skirt, it can be laid against the neck of the bottle with this tool. We advise all our customers on the correct tool to suit their selected component assembly.

Overview

A correctly adjusted tool and suitably compatible components are the key to a secure seal and there is no substitute for a quality crimper. At LPL we stock regular size spray pump crimpers and supply spray pumps and bottles.

Ken Marshall
Director of Engineering
Email; ken@lab-uk.com
Labortory Precision Ltd. ©

Posted on July 4, 2014September 8, 2022 by laboratory

Removing crimped on caps from vials and bottles (de-capping de-crimping vials)

There are many stories of injuries caused by attempting to remove crimp caps from vials with knives, scissors, nail files and screwdrivers etc. This can result in personal injury as well as a broken or chipped vial resulting in a contaminated product.

Obviously this is not the way to do it safely or satisfactorily. There are tools available for this task, some better than others. In my opinion the four jawed de-capper is the cleanest and safest way to remove a crimped on cap from a vial or bottle. If the cap can be removed cleanly without damaging the vial then this has got to be the best result.

At Laboratory Precision Limited we have been manufacturing a number of sizes of de-cappers with four jaws for many years as we believe this is the best way to remove crimped on caps. With a four jawed de-capper equal pressure is applied to all sides of the vial cap simultaneously, thereby balancing the pressure, reducing the likelihood of breaking or chipping the top of the vial.

Four jaw de-cappers when manufactured precisely for a given vial assembly will remove the cap safely and easily time after time. The de-capper can be manual or pneumatic and a selection along with video’s can be viewed by clicking this link;

http://lab-uk.com/apcp2000-air-powered-vial-crimper-decapper-tool-p

Ken Marshall – Director of Engineering

Posted on February 19, 2014September 8, 2022 by laboratory

When Should you Replace your Vial Crimpers and Decappers?

Spot the Signs of Wear on your Equipment

If you’re in the business of regularly capping or decapping a variety of aluminium caps on crimp top vials and glass bottles, it is important to ensure you have the correct equipment to perform the job. In addition, identifying when your tools need replacing is key. Constant crimping and decapping of thousands of vials can be a labour of love at the best of times, therefore finding an effective solution for ease of execution becomes simple if you know where to look for quality tools.

In some cases, you may have outgrown the equipment you’re using and should consider an upgrade to Bench Mounted Cappers & Decappers or even pneumatic or air-powered equipment for very high volumes

Five Signs that Your Crimpers & De-Cappers are Worn:

Vial Decappers and Crimpers need to be of a high standard to ensure speed of execution. If you’re experiencing any of the following it means your equipment needs renewing to maintain the speed and precision you need:-

1) A loose crimped seal.
2) An untidy crimped cap.
) Your current tool sticking on the cap.
4) An effort increase to decap or crimp.
5) Your current equipment is showing wear.

Crimpers & Decapper Wear and Tear Signs

The above may seem like a no-brainer but as a lab worker, we are sometimes consumed in the day to day grind without realising that taking a moment to assess our performance and equipment could cut our work time down considerably. The sooner a solution is found to compromised work performance, the better.

Buy Lab Equipment that’s Built to Last:

Laboratory Precision Ltd should be your first port of call. They are a renowned and leading manufacturer of vial crimping and decapping equipment. They’ve been in the business for over 25 years which provides peace of mind that their tools are top notch. Laboratory Precision Ltd manufacture all types of equipment for your needs. These include handheld, bench-mounted and not forgetting pneumatic vial Decappers and Crimpers to get through those larger volumes. On their website, they also offer an extensive and extremely useful buyers guide.

Check out our range of Crimping and De-Crimping Equipment for replacements or upgrades.

Posted on December 19, 2013September 8, 2022 by laboratory

Choosing the Vial Crimper or Decapper that’s Best for You

The crimping and decapping (or decrimping) of aluminium seals on and off glass bottles and vials is a vital process within any hospital, laboratory or pharmaceutical environment. However, choosing the best tools for the job can be a bit of a minefield and with different manufacturers offering varying degrees of quality you should look to purchase Crimpers and Decappers built to last.

If you’re looking for efficient, hard-wearing crimpers and decappers, then our range is best as superior build quality leads to a more dependable performance. But how do you choose the vial crimper or decapper that best-suits the type of project you’re working on?

How Many Units Are you Working With?

The most important thing to consider is numbers – how many glass bottles or vials will you be crimping or decapping? For low volumes of glass vials (Under 100 per day), hand crimpers and decappers are ideal. For mid-range volumes (100 – 500 per day), a bench-mounted vial crimper is more effective and for much larger volumes ( 500+) of vials a pneumatic crimper and decapper is usually required (to prevent arm-ache!).

Another consideration may be portability. Hand cappers and decappers are ideal when you’re working in the field. Their added mobility allows you to transport them along with your kit. Something that you’ll find more difficult with the larger bench mounted or pneumatic version.
Here is a quick overview of the different types of crimpers and decappers that are currently on the market and what they’re normally used for.

Hand Vial Crimpers:

Used for low numbers of vials, hand crimpers suit vial sizes of 8, 11, 13, 18, 20, 28, 30 and 32mm. They are designed to crimp different styles of cap, ranging from standard to recessed, flip top, flip cap and flip tear long reach.

Hand Vial Decappers:

Again, used for low volumes, hand vial decappers enable caps to be easily removed without damaging their associated glassware and are best suited to vials of 8, 11, 13, 18, 20, 28, 30 and 32 mm in size.

Bench-Mounted Crimpers

Ideal for mid-range volumes, bench-mounted crimpers offer a more efficient alternative to crimping by hand. Fully portable, their lever mechanisms generate maximum downwards force with the minimum of effort. Smaller models come with interchangeable heads that fit 20-30mm seals and the larger models are used to crimp 32mm caps using a two lever design – one lever to compress the stopper and the other to crimp the cap.

Pneumatic Crimpers and Decappers:

Air-powered crimping and decapping tools come with standard heads and are popular worldwide due to them being fast, efficient and lightweight. These products are used to crimp and decap large volumes of glass vials and bottles and are generally found in large laboratory and pharmaceutical environments.

Posted on December 17, 2013September 8, 2022 by laboratory

Experience Drives Our Engineering: Hand Vial Crimpers with Comfort

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Having been an apprentice Tinsmith (Sheet metal worker) in the early 1960s, I’ve had many years experience using all manner of hand tools. When used over extended periods of time and repeating the same manual motions they can become uncomfortable for the user. I learnt this lesson the hard way!

Laboratory Precision Hand Vial Crimper

I found the range of grips to vary greatly in practical terms and often this practicality came at an uncomfortable price. Some featured finger indents, some had forward stops (to keep your hands from sliding along) and some had wide handles: supposedly more comfort.

This experience was the key to the design of our hand crimpers and de-cappers: I wanted a tool that would be as comfortable as possible with no projections that would potentially result in blisters. From my own experience, tools with front profiles designed to stop your hand sliding forward always gave me blisters between my first finger and thumb. Handles with sharp bent corners also gave me blisters and were uncomfortable whilst tool grips with finger profiles never worked for me either.

I found the tools I was using lacked the “one size fits all scenario” – never truly fitting the palm of anyone properly. 90 degree U bent handles scratched the side of my hands which can also cause blisters, and rough textured surfaces make your hands sore.

Ergonomically designed tools with comfort in mind.

I designed our manual hand tools with rounded ‘U section’ handles and a cross
section profile that leans inwards, thus alleviating the problem of scratching and pinching whilst still giving a stable grip.

Laboratory Hand Vial Decapper

Width was considered and compromised on, allowing for the range of hand sizes that would be using the tools. The grips are of a straight and smooth finish as this was always the best shape and texture of handle from my own experience; cutting miles of sheet metal with tin snips.

As a tinsmith, I’d polished the handles of my snips and also made some myself as I could see that the practical need for improvement. There are mechanical constraints but the handle travel needed to be sensible and not too far apart at the outset of the levers. A feature that I’ve incorporated into our tools.

I’ve designed our crimpers to be as light weight as possible without compromising on strength and durability. If you’re doing the same action for any length of time then handle comfort is not the only consideration but weight too must be ideal: The tools are well balanced: light but sturdy and solid.

Experience Leads to a Better Product.

These are some of the design considerations that were taken into account when designing our manual hand crimpers and de-cappers. Years of experience went into the development of our products meaning that when it comes to practical application you’ll have the most comfortable experience possible.

Any tool should not only be designed with a job in mind but also the comfort of the person doing that job. At Laboratory Precision we understand this and it makes our tools some of the most effective on the market today.

Posted on December 17, 2013September 8, 2022 by laboratory

Crimpers & Tools Designed from Experience

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Having been an apprentice Tinsmith (Sheet metal worker) in the early 1960s, I’ve had many years experience using all manner of hand tools. When used over extended periods of time and doing the same motions they can become uncomfortable for the userSome with finger indents and some with forward stops (to keep your hands from sliding forward) and some with wide handles for supposedly more comfort.

This experience was the key to the design of our hand crimpers and
de-cappers: I wanted a tool that would be as comfortable as possible with
no projections that would result in blisters. Tools with front profiles designed to stop your hand sliding forward always gave me blisters between my first finger and thumb. Handles with sharp bent corners also gave me blisters and were uncomfortable whilst tool grips with finger profiles never worked for me either.

I designed our manual hand tools with rounded ‘U section’ handles and a cross
section profile that leans inwards, thus alleviating the problem with scratching and pinching whilst still giving a stable grip on the tool.

I polished the handles of my snips and also made some myself as I could see that the practical need for improvement. There are mechanical constraints but the handle travel needed to be sensible and not to far apart at the outset of the levers.

I’ve designed our crimpers to be as light weight as possible with compromising on strength and durability. If you’re doing the same action for any length of time then handle comfort is not the only consideration but weight too must be ideal: The tools are well balanced and light but sturdy and solid.

These are some of the design considerations that were taken into account when designing our manual hand crimpers and de-cappers. years of experience went into the development of our products meaning that when it comes to practical application you’ll have the most comfortable experience possible.

Posted on May 22, 2013September 8, 2022 by laboratory

Which Vial Crimper Do I Need?

A question we hear many times a day but the answer is not necessarily a simple one. We will usually answer this with some questions about your assembly.

What type of cap are you using?

There are many types and sizes of crimp on caps available and it would be easy to assume that one size fits all or, near enough is good enough. This, however, is not the case. Pharmaceutical sizes are generally termed as 11mm, 13mm, 20mm, 28mm and 32mm with some variations in between. Some caps are of varying diameter and skirt length and some have plastic tops. These differences have to be catered for in the manufacturing of the crimping tool so a drawing or samples of the customer’s caps are important to ensure that we supply a compatible crimping tool.

If you are using spray pump caps for nasal medications or cosmetics, a multi-fingered split-collet type of crimper may be required, especially when the cap skirt is long and is therefore required to be laid against the neck of the bottle.

How well does the cap, stopper and vial fit together?

Some manufacturers supply caps which are smaller in diameter than US and European standard sizes. They can also be short in skirt length so care should be taken before trying to mix and match as the vials and stoppers may not be a suitable fit for the assembly. If the cap is not long enough, it won’t fit! If the diameter is wrong, it will look untidy or even jam the tool. Sorry about that but you get my point. The best fitting tool along with quality compatible components is the key to a secure seal and there is no substitute for a quality crimper.

We at LPL stock regular size crimpers and de-cappers along with compatible vials caps and stoppers. We also manufacture many special crimpers and de-cappers so please contact us for details.

Posted on April 22, 2013September 8, 2022 by laboratory

Crimp Sealing Metal Caps on Vials and Containers

Security
Sealing aluminium caps over a rubberised stopper or septa has been and still is the preferred way to seal a vial. I have tested crimp seals to a pressure of well over 15 bar without leakage in a test rig, you would be surprised how big a bubble you can create from the seal bulging through the centre hole in the cap. “Don’t try this as it was done in controlled conditions”. When fitted properly once a crimp seal is on, that is where it stays and it doesn’t have to be crushed tight to make a good seal. Many people over-crimp a cap which puts unnecessary pressure on the tooling and can distort the seal.

Crimp cap materials
Historically over-seals (caps) have been made from aluminium because it is light, easy to cut and easy to form, plus when the correct grade of material is used there is less spring back than with steel. Spring back is and has always been a problem in metal forming. You need to break down the structure somewhat to make it stay where you put it and where possible you can over bend it to make it stay where you want it to, however when you push against a solid object this is not possible. That is why a rubberised stopper or septa of a reasonable thickness is so important, the seal must be able to cope with the spring back of the aluminium when formed under the head of the container and still maintain a tight seal between the septa/stopper and the container.

Preperation and inspection of parts to be used
The viability of a good seal is also determined by the surface the seal sits on. There must not be any irregularities such as mould joints or marks that lead across the joint where leakage could flow. This is often found on plastic bottles when the top has not been properly finished and in some cases there is misalignment between the two halves of the bottle where the mould has been misaligned.

Crimp cap sealing methods
There are a number of ways to form an aluminium cap under the head of the vial or container. The word “crimp” is perhaps what most people will know as what the hairdresser will do to your hair. However, this relates to the corrugated effect used by metalworkers to reduce available metal. You can only push so much metal into itself before it gets very hard and thick; so the crimp affect is another way to reduce the amount of available metal especially with steel caps such as beer bottle tops. The serrations are also found on spray cosmetics pump caps where the metal is pushed inwards where it either has to be pressed into itself or corrugated.

Terminology
This term crimp or crimping although not entirely accurate has passed over to sealing by the hand tool method where the finished crimp is smooth and not corrugated i.e. shrinking the metal by pushing it into itself. Using aluminium makes it easier to do this and the finished product looks cleaner and is smoother.

The above is based on my 50 years experience of metal manipulation of which 25 years has involved the manufacture of crimping tools. Please contact us for advice on which of our vial crimping tools is most suitable for your application.