The Self-Burping Caulking Tube saves Downtime and Lost Production for Caulking Manufacturers

A new innovation in caulking tubes creates enormous savings for both manufacturers and their customers

• Self-burping tube will run better on most filling line equipment
• Self-burping feature allows trapped air to escape when the plunger is inserted during filling
• Self-burping feature prevents pops or skips caused by trapped air when gunning caulk
• No messy cleanup from plungers backing out of the tube
• Self-burping tube allows for small bead size
• Plunger and tube have tapered lead to self-align with each other. Result - easier startup and smooth running on the filling line

Rescue Has Arrived

There are several regular—and costly, and troublesome—problems that are daily taken for granted at many caulking manufacturing plants. These range from tubes not quite fitting the line correctly causing periodic downtime, to extra measures taken to prevent air from being packed with the product causing extra manufacturing time and effort, to product shipping with air in the tubes despite the efforts to keep it out causing customer complaints. Fortunately, rescue has arrived in the form of a new type of caulking tube which does not allow air to be packed with product.

Such problems were a way of life for Flame Tech, Incorporated, a manufacturer of fire-retardant caulking products in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "The regular tubes caused a lot of problems," says Flame Tech president Jason Lynch. "We had to use a bleed wire with every tube, which made the machines not run as consistently. The machine part which pushes the plunger into the tube has to fit precisely. If you have a bleed wire on there, when the plunger inserter drops down and goes up against that wire and it doesn’t fit precisely, it puts it off track. It can jam up the machine, and you have downtime."

The tubes not quite fitting the machinery correctly was also a major problem. "The old tubes were more rigid, and it made it more difficult for them to fit the machinery," adds Lynch.

The problems didn’t stop once the tubes left the factory floor. "After the tubes were filled, we’d hear this ‘pop, pop, pop, pop’ coming from them. Even though the tubes were shippable, there was air escaping from them." And once the tubes shipped, there were the customer complaints. "We got complaints from customers about how the caulk escaped from the old tubes when they opened them, and how it would continue to expel after they let their finger off the trigger."

Unique Invention

For Flame Tech and many others, the solution arrived in the form of a unique invention called the self-burping tube, invented and marketed by a Canadian company called Research Plastic.

The majority of the problems encountered by Flame Tech and other caulking manufacturers trace back to trying to eliminate air from the tubes during manufacturing, or dealing with customer complaints about air in the tubes afterward. It is this exact problem that the self-burping tube solves. The tube’s key innovation is a ribbing system on the inside of the bottom end of the tube which allows air to escape when the plunger is inserted during the caulking manufacturing process. Four vertical ribs, equally spaced and approximately 1.25 inches long protrude outward approximately ten thousands-of-an-inch, creating just enough of a gap between the side wall of the tube and the plunger to allow any trapped air to escape. Once the plunger has been inserted and the air has escaped, a tight seal is created.

The tube has solved Flame Tech’s previous problems. "We don’t have to use the bleed wires any more, it’s a lot smoother. There’s way less downtime," says Lynch. "The tubes also fit our machinery much better."

Customers Love Them

The customer complaints have stopped as well, and in fact the company is now getting compliments where there used to be complaints. "Customers really love them. When they let off the trigger, the caulk stops. And there’s no more problem with caulk shooting out when they open the tube."

Permachink, a manufacturer of exterior and interior caulk and seal for the international log home industry, was also swamped with customer complaints while they were packaging their products in traditional caulking tubes. "We were getting complaints from everywhere," says company buyer Steve Gazikas. "We had very disgruntled customers who would let off the trigger the product would continue to come out of the tube. There was an entering of air into the product—the implementation of the plunger into the cartridge naturally locked a pocket in there. Therefore when the customer cut the tip and went to use the product that he was applying, the air pocket would continuously press product out even when he lets go of the trigger."

This presented a real problem to Permachink’s particular type of customer. "When you’re working on a log cabin, you’re on a ladder and you have a log wall underneath you, the last thing you want is an extra inch of sealant dripping out of the tube and down the wall," Gazikas said.

Needless to say, the complaints have vanished with introduction of the self-burping tube. "The distributors, the contractors and even the homeowners are very happy," says Gazikas. "Ours is not an inexpensive product, and when you pay premium dollar for it, you don’t want to waste it."

Additional Features

Additional features of the tube include a lead-in angle at the bottom of the tube that automatically lines up the plunger to fall easily into the tube, preventing the plunger from tilting as it inserted and allowing it to sit correctly before it is pushed into the bottom of the tube. The plunger itself is also an improvement over older tubes—a larger plunger creates a better friction fit scraping the inside wall of the tube and ensuring that all caulking material is actually expelled.

Research Plastics had been manufacturing regular plastic caulking tubes for some years when, in the 1990s, several caulking manufacturers starting coming to them with the problems they were having. "We had a number of our customers come to us and start talking about their problems with trying to keep air out of the tubes, and we decided to address the problem with research," says sales manager Wayne Pullman. "We developed the self-burping tube, and it has been a great solution for them."