Definition
Crimping is the step that locks a spray pump onto a bottle. The pump sits in a metal collar, and a crimp machine, or crimper, presses that collar tight under the lip of the glass neck so that it follows its shape. Once crimped, the bottle is sealed and the pump cannot be removed without damage.
Bottles built for it have a crimp neck, also called a crimped finish. The common reference is the FEA 15 neck, named for the FEA (European Aerosol Federation), which accounts for about two thirds of crimp finishes, and pump makers also list FEA 13, 17, 18 and 20. Screw necks follow other standards, such as 18/400.
Detail and Context of Use
On a small bottling run, crimping follows pouring almost at once. Each bottle receives its pump, the collar is crimped, and the overcap goes on. Setting the crimper takes care: too much force cracks the glass, too little leaves a seal that leaks.
A crimped bottle cannot easily be refilled at home. Screw-neck finishes, standardized in a new generation in 2021 by a working group of glassmakers, pump makers and brands, let a pump be removed so the bottle can be refilled or recycled. Some markets, Saudi Arabia among them, require non-removable pumps instead.
For collectors, an uneven or scratched collar on a bottle sold as new is worth a closer look.
Around the Pump
The parts and steps that crimping connects.
Sources
- Baptiste Le Guay and Vincent Gallon, on a new generation of screw finishes for perfume bottles, Premium Beauty News, May 24, 2021
- Aptar, VP4 pump product page
- Emballage Digest, on perfume pump crimping, June 30, 2020
- Linda Pilkington, founder of Ormonde Jayne, interview with Osmetheca, September 1, 2026