Novel closures for bottles comprising a bottle closure having a socket shaped and sized to receive the drive head of a convention winch handle and a closure means for securing the closure to the neck of the bottle to seal the bottle. Two such closures are described, one of for use with beer style bottle and another for rum or whiskey style bottles. The closures are particularly useful for bottled beverages brought aboard sailboats that use manual winches. The closures can be removed from the bottles using winch handles that are already aboard the sailboat, allowing the beverages to be consumed.

A system of measuring a top surface of a closure to determine if the closure is properly affixed to a container. Multiple paths of measurements may be collected and analyzed. In various analysis paradigms, measurements on a given path are separated into different sets, such as a leading set that generally includes the first third of measurements, a trailing set that includes the trailing set of measurements, and a middle set that includes the middle third of measurements. Several methods of analysis may be based on a presumption that a properly affixed closure is symmetrical or near symmetrical.

There is described a sterilization apparatus for sterilizing receptacle closures, the apparatus including a conveying device for the receptacle closures along an advancement path comprising a guide track defining and/or delimiting the advancement path and an advancement unit adapted to advance the receptacle closures along the advancement path. The advancement unit comprises an endless track, a plurality of cart assemblies moveably coupled to the endless track and configured to interact with one or more receptacle closures coupled to the guide track, an actuation assembly configured to control advancement of the cart assemblies along the endless track. Each cart assembly comprises a cart moveably coupled to the endless track and at least an engagement element coupled to the respective cart and configured to engage with one or more receptacle closures for advancing the one or more receptacle closures along the advancement path.

A cap sterilizer (50) includes an infeed chamber (52), a sterilant atomizing chamber (53), and an air rinse chamber (54). At least the infeed chamber (52) and the air rinse chamber (54) are exhausted. Both an exhaust pressure (E2) in the infeed chamber (52) and an exhaust pressure (E4) in the air rinse chamber are higher than an exhaust pressure (E3) in the sterilant atomizing chamber (53), or the sterilant atomizing chamber (53) is not exhausted.

A container-treatment machine comprises first and second motors, a bearing device, a ring gear, and a gyroscope that rotates about a rotation axis and receives containers. The motors are arranged in corresponding first and second columns and couple to corresponding first and second pinions. They are fixed relative to the bearing device. The ring gear is mounted on the bearing device and includes a circular tooth arrangement that meshes with the pinions. The pinions are arranged at a distance from one another along a circumferential direction of the tooth arrangement.

A cap sterilizer (50) includes an infeed chamber (52), a sterilant atomizing chamber (53), and an air rinse chamber (54). At least the infeed chamber (52) and the air rinse chamber (54) are exhausted. Both an exhaust pressure (E2) in the infeed chamber (52) and an exhaust pressure (E4) in the air rinse chamber are higher than an exhaust pressure (E3) in the sterilant atomizing chamber (53), or the sterilant atomizing chamber (53) is not exhausted.

The invention refers to a plant for treating receptacles adapted to contain a pourable product comprising: at least a treatment unit apt to carry out a treatment process on the receptacles; an isolation chamber housing the treatment unit and containing, in use, a controlled atmosphere controlled in sterile and/or aseptic conditions; and a filtering unit configured to filter a gas to be introduced in the isolation chamber for constituting the controlled atmosphere; wherein the treatment plant further comprises a test device housed inside the isolation chamber, immersed, in use, in the controlled atmosphere and configured to perform one or more test operations on the filtering unit.

The invention refers to a plant for treating receptacles adapted to contain a pourable product comprising: at least a treatment unit apt to carry out a treatment process on the receptacles; an isolation chamber housing the treatment unit and containing, in use, a controlled atmosphere controlled in sterile and/or aseptic conditions; and a filtering unit configured to filter a gas to be introduced in the isolation chamber for constituting the controlled atmosphere; wherein the treatment plant further comprises a test device housed inside the isolation chamber, immersed, in use, in the controlled atmosphere and configured to perform one or more test operations on the filtering unit.

In a manufacturing method of a liquid containing container, a capper has a container holding portion configured to be displaced at a constant first velocity in the circumferential direction of a first central axis, the method including: a liquid blow molding step of molding a preform disposed in a cavity of a mold into a container body having a barrel containing a liquid; an intermediate conveying step of, after the mold is opened, gradually accelerating the container body to a third velocity and delivering the container body to a carrier of a rotary conveying machine by an intermediate conveying device; a rotary conveying step of conveying the container body and delivering the container body to the container holding portion by the carrier of the rotary conveying machine; and a capping step of attaching a cap while the container body is conveyed by the container holding portion.

A dispensing machine has a housing with an interior having a plurality of components. Among others, those components may include a return port accessible from the exterior of the housing and configured to receive containers, a cleaner configured to clean containers received from the return port, and a filler configured to add fluid (e.g., a liquid, such as a beverage) to one or more (clean) containers. In addition, the components also may include a capper configured to cap at least one container, and a dispenser configured to receive at least one capped container filled with fluid. The dispenser is configured to be accessible from the exterior of the housing.