Capping head mimics human hand

A capping head that mimics the flexibility of the human hand so that it can carefully handle various cap shapes in bottling, filling and packaging industries has been developed by British company Cap Coder.

The design of the Tri-Torque capping head is based on the idea that if a cap can be screwed on to a bottle by hand, then it can be done more efficiently by a mechanism with hand-like attributes that does not get tired. The head has three rubber-lined gripping fingers capable of reaching over a variety of cap shapes before latching on to it.

Shapes that can be gripped without damage include oval perfume-bottle-type caps, tamper-proof caps, flip-tops and spray nozzles.

Martin Savage, head of production for DDD, a UK manufacturer of major pharmaceutical brands says there are key advantages to the Tri-Torque.

'The all-round equilibrium grip minimizes cap distortion, while the rubber linings on the fingers eliminate damage,' he said.