How do bottling companies insert champagne corks into the bottles when they make them?
In: Engineering
The cork on a champagne bottle is a cylinder before it is pressed into the bottle with a press machine. This gives it the done like head. A wire holder is then placed on top and twisted, this keeps the cork in place as to withstand gas pressure in the bottle
When the champagne is bottled, the fermentation process hasn’t completed yet and the yeast continues to make carbon dioxide. The corks can more or less be pressed in (usually by a machine) like normal wine bottling.
The fermentation process continues after bottling and this produces the carbon dioxide that dissolves in the “wine” to make it bubbly when the bottle is uncorked.
At least, this is how it worked for my home made bubbly!
fun fact – cork has a Poisson ration of about zero, which means that as you press down on it it does not expand sideways. Without that it would not be easy to use it to push into a bottle top, as the expansion sideways would resist your efforts
The cork on a champagne bottle is pretty much the same as a wine cork.
When inserting the champagne cork we do not insert it all the way, leaving about 1/4 of the cork sticking out of the top.
After corking we add the cage to hold the cork in while the wine referments in the bottle. The refermentation is what adds the bubbles (yeast eat sugar and release alcohol and carbon dioxide) and the pressure (carbon dioxide) mushrooms the head of the cork as the pressure is trying to push the cork out of the bottle.
They squish it. Seriously.
Best way to see it is to look at a home bottling press. Cork goes in, gets smashed, then shoved into the hole. Mushroom. Kinda fun.
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