Sunday, September 3, 2023

Rebel Canners Visits Superb Industries

 We don't often get to see presses working in manufacturing. Canning lids are an essential item that we use, and we have been using Superb lids this year. It's not high speed, so you can actually figure out what is going on. 

John in Philly did some experimentation that will help all of you home canners out there. "A few moments after posting my comment to your blog, the part of my brain that just sits there and idly thinks about stuff nudged the other part of my brain and said, "I don't think it would be that hard to make a jar lid torque measuring device, and I have a plan."

About 20 minutes later I had assembled this. 


Ignore the reading because I did not push the zero calibration button yet. 
I used an electronic torque gauge that has been sitting in the toolbox ever since I splurged on a nicer torque wrench. 
The little bit of blue you see at the top is a piece of grippy silicone used to open jars. 

The test.
I stood on a step stool to get the same height as I would have been at when we are working on the kitchen counter and turned the band with slight downward pressure until the bottom of the eight ounce jar turned on the grippy pad. 


The torque was less than one foot pound and  when I removed the jar from the test stand I could easily turn the band a few more degrees with moderate pressure. 
The next time I leaned pretty hard on the jar lid while turning, and when the jar bottom started to slide, the torque was around 1.3 foot pounds. This time I was only able to move the band a tiny bit more when I tested the tightness. 

While canning I use a pair of neoprene dipped gloves from Harbor Freight to grip more easily, provide some degree of protection in the event of a jar breaking, and also to provide some amount of protection against the heat.
These are the gloves.
And I turned that band pretty darn tight. 

I wondered how to get a better feeling for the maximum torque we were putting on the jar lid without hurting myself. 
I put some grip tape on the glass, and used a hose clamp to hold some wooden scraps against the grip tape. 
I tightened the hose clamp until I could not make the blocks slip. Next time I will don those Kevlar gloves I wear when using the food mandolin. (That kitchen tool frightens me) But I was making progress and forgot. 
This time I set the blocks against the clamps so that the blocks acted as anti-rotation keys and we set up another test.




When I twisted the band about as hard as I would have twisted it when canning, I got 4.2 foot pounds of torque. 

We then broke down the test rig and put everything away. 

When we do the next batch of canning I will 
snug up the band to just a tiny bit more than fingertip tight.
Old dogs can learn lots of new tricks if they want too!

Thank you for posting the information. 

John and Sharon"

Many Thanks, John and Sharon! This is information that will be helpful. University Extension offices used to teach home canning, test pressure gauges, etc., but those services have disappeared in Illinois. Learning how to can your produce requires careful research nowadays. Susan has become somewhat of an expert in canning the output of our garden.


1 comment:

  1. That was pretty neat and I followed up on how tight the jar bands should be.
    According to Ball, several universities, and any number of groups in the food preservation industry, the right answer is far less than we have been tightening them, and the right answer is just a bit tighter than the fingertip technique demonstrated in Superb's testing lab.

    If you absolutely want to know how much torque you need to apply, you could buy a torque gauge similar to the one in the lab for $1764.00.
    https://www.coleparmer.com/i/mark-10-mtt01-100-cap-torque-tester-100-lbfin-1600-ozfin-116-kgfcm-115-ncm-11-5-nm/2530402?PubID=UX&persist=true&ip=no&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgNanBhDUARIsAAeIcAvJCtHJK3OWFWRCR8A8j8NAIRMzguXhFndudR6y7d6BaOP5bujIR-MaAhZHEALw_wcB

    We will henceforth tighten the bands to the suggested fingertip plus one quarter turn.
    (I used "henceforth" for the first time ever in any sentence!)

    Superb bands are on Amazon and the price is comparable to Ball bands. Once we run through our inventory, we will check them out.

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