Jeepers, Creepers, we got Weepers! So Now What?

Abstract: Weepers are defined as small leak sites in a double seam that typically do not result with a significant loss of CO2 but eventually small beads of product can be found under the double seam.  These usually take days to become noticeable and evaluation of cover hook wrinkles may not be sufficient to determine if a double seam will weep using standard tightness evaluations.  With secondary packaging configurations designed to have cans lay on their side in consumers refrigerators, this defect can become problematic.  This presentation will cover a novel test method to evaluate if you are susceptible to weepers and also failure modes associated with weep sites.  Some of these include separator knife nick marks causing pleats, drooping seams, chuck dimples causing small voids in the double seam, and certain double seam parameters such as seam thickness, body hook, and overlap dimensions that must be tightly controlled to prevent these from occurring.  In addition, factors related to seamer set up will be covered as well since we have found several parameters that are critical to prevent this irritating defect.