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.