No cap without Dino-Lite

You may not be aware of it, but behind each cap you turn lies a hidden piece of science. Caps should not only seal perfectly, they must also be easily machined and each consumer should be able to open them without problems. The Swiss Corvaglia Group knows all about these issues.

The Corvaglia group based in Eschlikon in Switzerland consists of Corvaglia Mould AG and Corvaglia Closures AG. Corvaglia Mould AG develops, designs and tests the injection molds that Corvaglia Closures AG, amongst others, uses to produce closures for all kinds of beverages in so-called PET bottles. Carsten Peil is Head of Research Engineering at Corvaglia Mould AG: "Approximately 20 percent of all PET bottle caps in the world are made with injection molds made by us. Corvaglia Closures AG supplies fasteners to all major brands for a wide range of products, from soft drinks with and without carbonic to juices. Fruit juices are often bottled aseptically which means that our caps must also be aseptic. That poses demands on the design of the caps that must be easy to remove despite the seal. As you can see, the design, the making of the injection molds and manufacturing the caps forms a true science. The making of the molds is one of the areas where we use the Dino-Lite USB microscopes."

The weight of 0.05 grams

Making the injection molds is a labor intensive process which operates with an accuracy of many decimal places. Many molds are made in low-wage countries, but Corvaglia Mould AG makes everything in-house. Peil: "We have the experience that nobody else has, and only we have the machinery and professionals in house to achieve a perfect finished product. We know exactly how high-density polyethylene and polypropylene behave, the two substances that the closures are made off. "Even for Corvaglia Mould AG it is a challenge every time to create a closure that meets all customer requirements. "You always try to make the lightest possible closure to reduce costs. Annually approximately 400 billion beverage closures are used worldwide. Working with such numbers, achieving a slight reduction of 0,05 grams has a huge economic and ecological impact."

Integration

Both in making and assessing the injection molds and the first audit of the products from the molds, Dino-Lite microscopes are used by Corvaglia Mould AG. Peil: "Since many of our people should have access to a good microscope, we have chosen to work with a number of Dino-Lites because they are versatile and flexible, the quality of the pictures is good just like the degree of magnification and the built-in LED lighting. Of course you can choose to buy one expensive high-end machine, but with using several Dino-Lites we avoid a lot of walking back-and-forth and waiting time. Now anyone can use a Dino-Lite with their own PC. They are fully integrated into our work process, to our complete satisfaction."