Why are there 21 serrations on every beer bottle cap? It turned out to be because…

How many serrations are there on the cap of a beer bottle? This must be able to baffle many people. To tell you exactly, all the beer you see every day, whether it is a large bottle or a small bottle, has 21 serrations on the lid. Then why are there 21 serrations on the bottle cap?

It used to be 24 sawtooth

The initial number of sawtooths for beer bottle caps was not 21. There were 23 or 24 sawtooth bottle caps, and patents were applied for.

As early as the end of the 19th century, William Pate invented the 24-tooth bottle cap and applied for a patent. There is also a piece of paper inside to prevent the beverage from contacting the metal. The main reason is that Pate found that this number of teeth is the most suitable for the closure of the wine bottle. As an industry standard, 24-tooth bottle caps have been used until around the 1930s. 

With the process of industrialization, the original manual capping method has become industrial capping. The 24-tooth cap was first put on the bottle one by one with a foot press. After the automatic machine appeared, the bottle cap was installed in a hose automatically, but during use, it was found that the 24-tooth bottle cap could easily block the hose of the automatic filling machine, and it would not happen if it was changed to 23-tooth. , And finally gradually standardized to today’s 21 teeth.

Let’s take a look at the manufacturing process-

Regarding the manufacture of wine bottle caps, an Italian company ranked first in the world, and China’s Dingzhong Machinery Company ranked second. The production line can produce 300,000 beer caps per hour, and one production line only needs 4 workers to operate. 

Back to the theme, why is 21 teeth the most appropriate?

Of course, this is not to say that if you want to reduce one, you can reduce one. Determining to maintain 21 teeth is the crystallization of people’s practice and wisdom.

Beer contains a large amount of carbon dioxide. There are two basic requirements for bottle caps. One is to have a good seal, and the other is to have a certain degree of bite, that is, the usually said bottle cap must be firm. This means that the number of folds of each bottle cap should be proportional to the contact area of the bottle mouth to ensure that the contact surface area of each fold can be larger. The wave-shaped seal on the outside of the bottle cap can increase friction and facilitate convenience. Open, 21 teeth is the best choice to meet these two requirements. 

And why the number of serrations on the bottle cap is 21? Another reason is related to the screwdriver. Beer contains a lot of gas, if it is turned on improperly. It is very easy to hurt people if the air pressure inside is not uniform. After inventing a screwdriver suitable for opening bottle caps, through constant modification of the saw teeth, it is finally determined that the bottle cap has 21 teeth, which is the easiest and safest to open. Therefore, all you have seen today The beer bottle caps have 21 serrations. 

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