Clip closure

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Clip closure
Opening a swing top beer bottle
Use of a beer hanger

The clip closure is a pin that closes tightly with a wire spring and the toggle lever principle and is usually made of porcelain with a rubber sealing ring , mainly for closing beverage bottles that are under pressure due to their carbonic acid content . Opening and closing can be done by hand as often as desired and does not require any tools such as a bottle opener .

In order to ensure that the clip lock can be exchanged, the shape and the most important dimensions of the clip lock are specified in the DIN 5097 standard.

development

Swing-top bottle 0.33 and an old green glass swing-top bottle with one liter content

Before the invention of the flip-top bottle, there were glass bottles in addition to bottles made of clay since 1780 , these were mostly green, from around 1800 also brown, hand-blown and until then mostly closed with cork stoppers, which were difficult to open.

The first wire brackets were attached to the neck of the bottle with a cuff . From 1885, two opposite recesses were made in the bottle glass, in which the bracket could be securely anchored. The swing top was invented in 1875. However, there are different opinions about the actual inventor. In the United States, Charles de Quillfeldt received a patent on January 5, 1875 for the clip fastener with patent number 158406.

In Germany, the invention of Carl Dietrich from Berlin was further developed in 1877 by Nicolai Fritzner from Berlin, who founded a factory for clip fasteners.

This ended the hitherto unsuccessful attempts to seal clay and glass bottles with the foaming beer safely for transport; neither corks nor rubber stoppers could withstand the internal pressure of the carbon dioxide in the beer without additional securing with cord or wire .

Snap closure

Old mineral water bottles from the German well with a snap closure according to Otto Kirchhof (above: view of the front and back; below: side view of the closing process, right without rubber seal)
Box full of clip locks

In 1877 , Hermann Grauel , who came from Magdeburg , patented the hinged lid lock. Under the name seltzer lock , it remained the predominant lock for mineral water until 1969 . Nineteen years later, another similar invention followed.

The Saxon Otto Kirchhof from Burgstädt improved the swing top , which sits in the middle of the bottle head, by placing it on the neck of the bottle, attaching a hinge on the opposite side and changing the previously usual round shape of the closure to an elongated head with a "nose". In 1896 he had this closure, which is still used today for canned food and preserving jars , registered as a utility model .

"Utility model registration: Classe 64.61442 Bottle closure made of wire with a clip on the neck of the bottle that pulls down a nose of the stopper by means of a lever and a hinge-like loop that connects the stopper with the latter."

- Announcement in the “Burgstädter Anzeiger” and “Tageblatt” of August 27, 1896

Clip clip fastener

In order to close opened wine or vinegar bottles with a clip-on, among other things, the clip-on clip-on clip was developed.

disadvantage

The "traditional" swing top has some disadvantages compared to screw top or crown cork . The rubber seals are washed with the reusable bottle sitting on the porcelain head. Dirt between the seal and the porcelain head can only be removed insufficiently. If there are foreign substances in the bottle, the aroma can transfer to the rubber and survive cleaning there. When washing, the closure can sit in front of the bottle mouth, so that the bottle is not cleaned properly. The tightness is significantly worse than with other closures. The closers are complex machines and the bottles are fed to them on open conveyor belts.

In the meantime, old weaknesses in clip fasteners have been remedied through further technical development. Among other things, the odor in the bottle is automatically analyzed and suspicious bottles are sorted out. Furthermore, plastic instead of porcelain heads are increasingly being used, with which the sealing rings are firmly connected by welding . The result is a reduction in production costs, easier cleaning and improved tightness.

Return of the swing top

With these technological changes, the swing top bottle has been making its return since the 1980s. Not least because of the Werner comic , the “pop sound” when opening the “Bölkstoff” (beer) achieved cult status . However, beer bottles with swing top are not only enjoying increasing popularity for reasons of nostalgia and because of the characteristic sound they make when opening. The possibility of closing the bottle again and thereby keeping the beer fresh, unlike with a crown cap, was rediscovered as an advantage. Even PET bottles and aluminum bottles with swing top are available in stores.

Smaller breweries in particular target beer lovers and collectors by bottling special beers, such as bock beer or porter , in often unusual swing top bottles, so that in Germany at least the number of beers with swing top has increased in recent years.

With a market share of 16.7% in Germany, the Flensburg brewery is particularly well represented in swing top bottles. It received public funding from the state of Schleswig-Holstein for the innovation of the clip lock , whereby the opening sound of the “pop” was used to promote sales. For a long time it was the only major supplier of this type of closure; in recent years other brands have gained market share. The Flensburg brewery licensed the closure as well as the Karl Hintz brewery , their Schleswig-Holstein competitor from Dithmarschen . The special importance of the handle in marketing is reflected both in the emphasis on the typical plop in the marketing of the Flensburg brewery and in the fact that the Dithmarscher from the Karl Hintz brewery is mainly advertised as Beugelbuddelbeer ( flip-top bottle beer ).

Other uses

Swing closures are not only used on beer bottles. When filling mineral water, soda and other beverages or foods, such as honey or preserves , swing top closures are also used. In modified, possibly more stable execution, they serve u. a. the sealing of petrol cans and line connections for liquids or gases.

Web links

Commons : Swing top  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: clip lock  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. German Institute for Standardization eV (Ed.): DIN 5097: Swing-cap for bottles . May 1999.
  2. Putnam and another v. von Hofe (court record) . February 10, 1881 in: Federal Reporter, No. 6, pp. 897-902.
  3. a b Dr. Bauer-Secundus GmbH: History of mechanical bottle closures . On: dr-bauer-secundus.de.
  4. a b Jörg Niendorf: The ideal pop . On January 25, 2008 at: berlinonline.de
  5. The cap on the beer bottle, by the Berlin inventor Carl Dietrich ( memento from December 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) and Carl Dietrich in the Braulexikon .
  6. Parade - pictures of the great historical parade: derived from the historical background of the development of our city ( memento of December 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (here: keyword “Otto Kirchhof”). From: heimatfest-burgstaedt.de, accessed: April 9, 2011.
  7. The Innovative Plop - Funding for the Flensburg Brewery (PDF; 48 kB) . Small question and answer in the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament of October 26, 2007, printed matter 16-1657.