Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Getting back on the road
      How long will it take for EVs to replace internal combustion engines?
      Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
    • Kickstart: Attention, Walmart molders
      Kickstart: No one said returning to school would be easy
      Kickstart: Best foot forward
      Kickstart: Heading back to the office ... sometime
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Plaskolite wins 3M supplier award
      Green feet: Braskem partners with Dansko on bio-based clogs
      Curbell donates plastic sheet for prosthetics project in Ecuador
      Covestro volunteers build ramp for Ohio veteran
    • Climate debate in Washington increasingly includes plastic
      There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      The benefits of getting social
      Rising Stars shine bright future on industry
      Getting back on the road
    • Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
      Video: Structural foam molding
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - October 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling Systems Customized for Any Process or Budget Need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
      Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell
      Sponsored By Shell
      Food and Beverage Trends Impacting the Polymer Industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
October 06, 2020 10:56 AM

Designers close in on meeting rules for tethered caps

Catherine Kavanaugh
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Image courtesy of Husky Injection Molding

    A plastic bottle cap consists of a shell, the tamper-evident band, and the bridge that connects them. The bridge indicates if there has been any kind of product tampering by fracturing or turning white.

    A large segment of the beverage industry went to tethered caps decades ago following public outcry about shrapnel-like aluminum pull tabs from beer and soda cans posing health and ecological risks.

    All those sharp-ended metal ring pulls glimmering at beaches and parks shined a light on the growing problem.

    So did singer Jimmy Buffett, who bemoaned cutting his heel when he stepped on a pop top and blew out his flip flop in his 1977 hit song "Margaritaville."

    The beverage industry responded to the problems, according to Jay Yuan, the principal of Houston-based Stress Engineering Services Inc. He has worked in the U.S. packaging industry for 24 years.

    "The invention of stay-on tabs caught fire in the 1970s. That's the technology that eliminated one of the nation's most common pieces of litter. What is the equivalent for plastic caps?" Yuan asked.

    He posed a question that design engineers must answer relatively soon during Plastics News' Plastics Caps & Closures 2020 virtual event.

    By 2024, the European Union is requiring all single-use plastic beverage containers with volumes of 3 liters or less to have closures that remain affixed to the bottles.

    So, now it's the plastics industry's turn to do something about all its colorful caps littering beaches and swirling in ocean gyres.

    Michael White, business development manager of beverage closures at Bolton, Ontario-based Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd., said the legislation passed by the EU in 2019 is resonating in North America.

    "We believe it's basically the first domino to fall," White said. "The states of California and Maine are looking at introducing similar legislation. And Canada is looking at criteria there. The thinking is that by tethering small closures to the bottle itself, it's more likely to be recycled than simply discarded."

    Husky representatives have been active with an EU steering committee formed to help establish the standards there. White said the minimum performance guidelines call for closures to withstand a minimum of 15 openings and closings without the tether being compromised as well as a separation, or pull force, of 25 newtons in the vertical or horizontal direction.

    "This is a value that all closure developers in the industry are targeting currently," White said, adding the value could change before the law is enacted in 2024.

    The pending requirements raise a slew of design considerations as to the bottle neck type of tether to use – lanyard loop, helical tether, hinged or other – as well as branding, shelf differentiation, sustainability and the consumer experience.

    "We see this as an opportunity for brand owners and converters alike," White said. "It's a way to talk about sustainability on the shelf. You can promote the fact the closure is tethered to the bottle. The brand is making an effort to promote sustainability."

    And, any time you have an opportunity to tell a story about something new related to your product, "It's a good thing," White added.

     

    Design opportunities

    A plastic bottle cap consists of a shell, the tamper-evident band, and the bridge that connects them. The bridge indicates if there has been any kind of product tampering by fracturing or turning white.

    A tether adds another layer of complexity for designers, who need to meet legal requirements while balancing consumer expectations without sacrificing performance, particularly in terms of carbonation level depending on the beverage.

    "You want to make sure features like opening torque, bridge break torque and other design considerations are met," White said.

    For example, nobody wants to sip their water or chug a sports drink with the shell of a tethered cap flapping against their face.

    "You want to eliminate anything that could potentially detract from the current experience," White said.

    Designers also need to be wary of introducing a tethered closure design that gives them a weight penalty. White said Husky is targeting weight neutrality.

    "Some enhancements have a slight weight penalty, but it depends on how you want to position your brand," he added.

    Jason Phillips agrees. He's the group creative director of Force-4 Innovation and Collaboration Group, which is an affiliate under Stress Engineering Services based in Mason, Ohio.

    Phillips said he sees the tethered cap as a way to catalyze an overall new presentation for the brand and package.

    "Think of the tethered cap as a jewel so to speak in terms of its focal interest for the brand and an interactivity point for the consumer," he explained.

    Caps can be affixed by hinge, canteen-style lanyard loop, or a helical tether that consists of a bottom band with a retaining ring and a middle band that produces a long tether as the cap is unscrewed.

    Husky has a patent pending on a hinged design that retains the shell in position. When you open the closure, you feel and hear a click as the integrated hinge locks the shell in place.

    "It's a more premium approach that allows the true 180-degree shell locking," White said. "…You have that tactile feedback, and you know its locked into place."

    Looking ahead, Yuan expects designers to find new ways to make tethers aesthetically pleasing and fun.

    "The cap could be something of a flourish or more playful," he said, describing a spiral decoration as an example.

    Stressing sustainability

    The transition to tethered caps is part of EU-wide rules that target the 10 single-use plastics products most found at Europe's beaches as well as lost and abandoned fishing gear. The 10 items represent 86 percent of all single-use plastic items on beaches, and about half of all plastic marine litter.

    In addition to bottles and caps, those items are food containers, beverage cups, cutlery, cotton bud sticks, balloons, balloon sticks, packets and wrappers, and plastic bags.

    For businesses weighing consumer preference against economic factors, sustainability initiatives can pose complex problems, but there's no discounting it's important going forward, Phillips said.

    "We believe defining future experiences will be a combination of delivering on sustainability as well as the core experience of whatever that package or product might be," Phillips said. "In some cases, the experience of sustainability … is as important as the core feature or function of the product itself."

     

    Getting to market

    During the design process, virtual simulation technology can provide information about everything from molding process constraints to sealing performance, according to Mandar Kulkarni an associate at Stress Engineering Services, who has been in the packaging industry for six years.

    "Tethered caps pose engineering challenges for an otherwise mature closure technology industry," he said. "Virtual simulation technology can eliminate the bulk of design prototype test iterations and improve speed to the market for the new product development cycle."

    The technology provides engineering details and insights that answer a myriad of questions. Does the cap's removal torque fall within specifications that are easy for the consumer? Does the design modification of the tether affect the sealing in any way? Is the manufacturing process friendly? Does it fall within molding constraints? How can the design be more suitable for existing manufacturing technology?

    "To answer all these questions, we can use virtual simulation technology, or the digital twin of the real world, to evaluate the performance and eliminate the bulk of the design prototype test iterations," Kulkarni said.

    Husky, which is in the segment from a tooling standpoint, has patents pending on several designs. The company did capping trials in the lab and with customers on its 180-degree shell design, running 10,000 samples of the hinged tether on pilot and production lines with no issues.

    The team is on track to validate its design this month. It has a complex geometry with a molded-in bridge that requires no secondary operations and the integrated hinge for consumer ease.

    "A premium tether that you can lock in place is a great opportunity to say, 'Look at my brand; I'm making a sustainable effort,'" White said, "and it provides a seamless and intuitive and positive user experience."

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions