For a first indie launch, choose a screw pump on a 15/415 or 18/415 neck unless your filler confirms crimping capability in writing. Screw takes any filler including hand filling, is refillable, and a fragrance-grade screw pump sprays very well. Crimp (FEA 15) gives the seamless prestige look and the finest mist, but needs a crimping machine, is permanent, and a failed crimp scraps the bottle. Both deliver 0.1–0.2 ml per shot and must pass ≥1,500 actuations; crimp collar torque is verified at 58.8–224 N by diameter, screw opening torque at 0.2–0.7 N·m.
What the two necks actually are
FEA 15 is the fine-fragrance crimp standard: a 15 mm neck with no thread, onto which an aluminium-collared pump is crimped permanently. 15/415 and 18/415 are screw finishes: a 15 or 18 mm outer thread diameter (the T dimension) with the 415 series, meaning a tall neck carrying two full thread turns. The extra engagement is why the 415 series is used on perfume and essential-oil bottles rather than the single-turn 400 series found on serum glass. The full thread vocabulary — 400, 410, 415, the T/E/I/S/X drawing symbols — is on the neck finish and closure reference.
One rule saves most fit problems: specify the neck on the bottle drawing first, then buy the pump to it. Pump size (12.5–24 mm) is chosen to the bottle neck, never the reverse, and glass neck tolerances are wider than injection-moulded ones, so the pump factory needs the glass neck drawing.
The decision in one table
| Question | Crimp (FEA 15) | Screw (15/415 · 18/415) |
|---|---|---|
| Look | Seamless, classic fine fragrance | Visible collar; near-identical from arm's length with a good anodised collar |
| Filling | Requires a crimping machine; confirm the filler's capability in writing before ordering glass | Any filler, including hand filling at small scale |
| Refillable | No; the pump is permanent and a failed crimp scraps the bottle | Yes; relevant for EU PPWR-era claims |
| Thread / collar engagement | Crimped aluminium collar, torque verified 58.8–224 N by diameter | 415 series, 2 thread turns, tall neck; opening torque 0.2–0.7 N·m |
| Spray quality | Finest, most even mist | Very good from a fragrance-grade pump; poor from a generic toner pump |
| Dose per shot | 0.1–0.2 ml (60–100 µl) | 0.1–0.2 ml (60–100 µl) |
| Pump minimum (stock silver / gold) | ~1,000 pcs | ~1,000 pcs |
| Custom-colour collar | ~10,000 pcs | ~10,000 pcs |
| Honest default | Prestige positioning with a proper co-packer | First indie launch, unless crimping capability is confirmed in writing |
Why the filler decides, not the designer
A crimp pump is fixed to the bottle by deforming an aluminium collar around the neck bead under controlled force. That needs a crimping head set to the neck diameter and verified by torque. If your contract filler does not own one — many small-batch fillers do not — you either buy one, pay a co-packer who has one, or you have 3,000 flacons that cannot be closed. A screw pump needs nothing: it threads on by hand or on any capping head. This is why the question to ask before the glass drawing is signed is not "which looks better" but "can my filler crimp, and will they put that in writing".
The second consequence is refill. A crimped flacon is sealed for life; a screw flacon can be opened and refilled, which matters for refill programmes and for the sustainability claims that refillable packaging now has to carry in the EU.
Spray quality is a pump question, not a thread question
The common belief that crimp sprays better is only half true. The crimp format is used by dedicated fine-fragrance pump lines, so a crimp pump is almost always fragrance-grade. A screw pump can come from the same lines — or from a generic toner-sprayer line, where it will deliver droplets and streams instead of mist. Around six in ten fragrance packaging failures are pump failures: weak atomisation, leak-back, dead pumps out of the box. Glass rarely fails; sprayers do. So the specification is the same on either neck: a fragrance-grade fine-mist pump, SUS304 spring, 0.1–0.2 ml per shot, sampled and tested to the thresholds below.
| Test | Method | Pass threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Atomisation | Sampled pumps sprayed to a target card, compared with the retained golden sample | Even mist, no droplets or streams |
| Priming and dose | Fill to nominal, prime, weigh; 50 strokes, weigh again; ×3 | 0.1–0.2 ml per shot; dosing error within 0.02 g |
| Pump service life | Continuous actuation; n = V total ÷ V per shot × 1.2 | ≥1,500 actuations |
| Vacuum leak | Filled, lying and inverted in a vacuum chamber | −0.08 MPa for 15 min, loss ≤0.5% (volatile bulks) |
| Collar torque (crimp) | Torque meter on crimped collar | 58.8–224 N by diameter, per specification |
| Opening torque (screw) | Torque meter after application | 0.2–0.7 N·m; no thread strip at rated tightening |
These sit inside the wider battery — tape adhesion, thermal cycling at 48°C / −15°C, drop — on the QC standards page.
What it means for a 50 ml launch
The 50 ml flacon is the hero size for most launches and accepts either neck. On a stock flacon the choice costs nothing either way — stock silver or gold pumps and collars start around 1,000 pieces on both formats, and the glass itself starts at 500–1,000 pieces undecorated. The cost appears only if you want a custom-colour or plated collar, which sits at around 10,000 pieces on either format; the usual fix on a small run is a stock collar with a custom cap. MOQ and lead time by route are in custom perfume bottle MOQ, mould cost and lead time, and the component-by-component programme is on the perfume bottle supplier page.
- Choose crimp if you are positioned as prestige, filling through an established co-packer with crimping capability confirmed in writing, and refill is not part of the model.
- Choose screw for a first launch, a small-batch or in-house filler, a refill programme, or whenever the crimping question has no written answer yet.
- Either way, buy the pump from a dedicated fragrance-pump line and test atomisation on every order — that is where the mist comes from.
Specification detail for both formats is on fragrance bottles and the fragrance packaging solution; the supplier questions that expose a generic pump are on how to evaluate a China packaging supplier.
Vella is a Guangzhou-based beauty packaging solutions provider — a sourcing partner working with vetted partner factories operating to ISO 22716 / GMP. On fragrance packs we fix the neck on the glass drawing first, buy pumps only from dedicated fragrance-pump lines on either format, and test atomisation, dose and actuation count on every order. The full programme is on our perfume bottle supplier page.
Common questions
Not sure whether your filler can crimp?
Ask us before you order glass.
Send the flacon size and your filler's name or set-up. We come back within 24 hours with the neck recommendation, matching stock pumps and the test protocol.
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