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The RingCrown (also known as RipCap, Ring-pull closure or pull off caps) is a bottle closure that can be opened without any tools. It has a ring that can be pulled in order to detach the cap from the bottle. The cap splits along scores in the cap, therefore loosens and can be removed from the bottle. Drink companies use ring pull caps to differentiate themselves from competitors.
History
ALKA, the predecessor of the modern ring-pull caps, was introduced during the 1930s. ALKA had a seal made of natural cork. It became popular in Nordic countries as an easy-to-open cap. ALKA was made of aluminum and had a tab that was pulled to remove the cap. There was no scoring on an ALKA cap. In the 1970s the MaxiCap was first produced. A MaxiCap is an aluminum closure with scoring and a tab to pull. They were easier to use than the ALKA and pre-manufactured outside of the bottling plant. This allowed for increased production speeds on the bottling line. Soon after the MaxiCap came the RingCrown closure. Invented in the early 1980s it was originally called MaxiCrown and later became known as RingCrown. The RingCrown is easier to use than its predecessors because it has an attached ring rather than a static pull off tab.