company news about The Ultimate Guide to Capping Machines: What You Need to Know in 2025

Capping Machine is an automated device used to seal bottle caps and bottle mouths, and is widely used in food and beverage, pharmaceutical, chemical and other industries. Its core function is to ensure that the bottle cap fits tightly with the bottle mouth through mechanical pressure or tightening to achieve the purpose of leak prevention, pollution prevention and extended shelf life.

How Does a Capping Machine Work?

Step-by-Step Working Process of a Capping Machine:

Bottle Feeding and Positioning

Bottles are transported via a conveyor into the capping station. Here, they are accurately positioned using guide rails or clamps to ensure stability during the capping process.

Cap Feeding and Orientation

Caps are fed into the machine from a cap feeder or orientor system. This system automatically sorts and aligns the caps in the correct orientation, ready to be placed onto bottles.

Cap Placement on Bottle

The machine places each cap precisely onto the bottle mouth. This can be done through gravity (caps drop into place) or mechanical arms that place caps on the bottles.

Capping Action (Screwing or Pressing)

Depending on the cap type:

• Screw capping machines rotate the cap to screw it tightly onto the bottle’s threaded neck using a controlled torque.
• Press capping machines press the cap onto the bottle (for snap-on or press-on caps) using a controlled pressure.
• Other specialized capping methods include crimping or vacuum capping.

Torque Control and Quality Check

The machine monitors torque or pressure to ensure each cap is applied with consistent force, preventing under-tightening (loose caps) or over-tightening (damaging bottles or caps). Some machines have sensors to detect missing caps or incorrectly sealed bottles.

Bottle Discharge

After capping, bottles are released onto the next stage of the production line (labeling, packing, or inspection).

Classification of Capping Machines

Applications of Capping Machines

Food and beverage industry:

• Crown cap sealing for beer and carbonated beverages
• Screw cap tightening for mineral water and juice

Pharmaceutical industry:

• Aluminum cap sealing for vials and oral liquid bottles
• Rubber plug pressing for vaccine bottles

Daily chemical industry:

• Pump head pressing for cosmetic bottles
• Spray cap sealing for perfume bottles

Common Faults and Troubleshooting Guide

The cap is not Tight Or Too Loose

Common reasons for this include improper torque setting, slippage or wear of the capping head, and inconsistent cap quality. To solve this problem, the torque setting should be calibrated first to ensure that the setting is reasonable and stable; secondly, check whether the capping head rubber sleeve is slipping or worn, and replace it if necessary; finally, if the cap batch quality is inconsistent, the cap should be replaced or the incoming quality inspection process should be strengthened.

Bottle Cracks Or Deformations

Bottles may be cracked or deformed because the capping pressure or torque is too large, the bottle positioning device does not match the bottle shape, or the bottle material is soft. Solutions include lowering the capping pressure to avoid excessive stress on the bottle body; checking and replacing or adjusting the bottle positioning fixture to match the correct bottle shape; in addition, consider using thick-walled bottles or higher-strength plastic materials to enhance pressure resistance.

Capping Failure Or Capping Failure

If the capping fails or capping fails, the possible reasons are that the capping device is offset, the capping channel is blocked, or the bottle mouth size does not match the cap. At this time, the angle between the cap sorter and the cap drop track should be adjusted to ensure smooth cap feeding; at the same time, the cap feeding channel should be cleaned to eliminate blockages such as cap jams; if necessary, recheck the size standards of the bottle mouth and the bottle cap to avoid mismatches.

Unstable Capping Speed

The speed is unstable during the capping process, which may be related to the unstable operation of the conveyor line, abnormal motor drive control system, or delayed lifting of the capping head. It is recommended to check the chain and guide rails of the conveying system to eliminate looseness or jamming; check whether the settings of the frequency converter and PLC control program are accurate; in addition, the cylinder parts of the capping head should be lubricated or replaced regularly to ensure smooth and timely operation.

Selection Suggestions

Choosing a suitable capping machine not only helps to improve production efficiency, but also effectively reduces operating costs. The following aspects should be considered when selecting:

First, evaluate the type of equipment according to production needs. Based on the expected production capacity (bottles/minute), select a semi-automatic or fully automatic model; among them, fully automatic equipment is more suitable for large-scale, high-frequency continuous production scenarios.

Second, pay attention to bottle type compatibility. For special-shaped bottles or bottles of special specifications, special fixtures should be customized to ensure that the capping process is stable and reliable; for small-diameter bottles, special attention should be paid to positioning accuracy to avoid misalignment or capping problems.

Third, comprehensively consider the degree of automation. If the budget is sufficient, it is recommended to use intelligent equipment equipped with a visual recognition and detection system, which can realize automatic recognition of bottle caps, detection of defects and other functions to improve the level of quality control.

Finally, attention should be paid to maintenance costs. It is recommended to give priority to equipment models with strong versatility and convenient procurement of vulnerable parts such as gland heads and springs, which will help reduce later maintenance costs and increase the equipment life cycle.

Cap Pressing Machine Maintenance and Care Guide

Conclusion

For modern pharmaceutical, nutritional or daily chemical companies, the capping machine is not only a part of the packaging process, but also the "last checkpoint" to ensure product quality. Choosing an efficient, stable and scalable capping solution will bring significant efficiency improvement and cost savings to your production line.

If you are interested in SED Pharma capping equipment, please contact our expert team for detailed information and quotation.