If a perfume pump leaks, wobbles or refuses to crimp, the cause is almost always the neck. FEA 15 is the specification that keeps bottles and sprayers compatible across suppliers.
What FEA 15 means
FEA stands for Fédération Européenne des Aérosols, the body that standardised aerosol and perfume closures. FEA 15 describes a crimp neck with a 15 mm outer collar diameter. It is the dominant standard for fine-fragrance glass bottles.
Because it is a standard, an FEA 15 bottle can accept an FEA 15 pump from any compliant supplier — which protects you if you ever change component vendors.
Crimp vs screw necks
- Crimp (FEA 15): the pump collar is mechanically clamped onto the neck flange. Permanent, tamper-evident, and the look expected in fine fragrance.
- Screw neck: the pump threads on. Easier for small-scale filling and refillable formats, common on testers, samples and some oil bottles.
Choose crimp for retail fragrance; choose screw when you need refillability or manual small-batch filling.
The dimensions that matter
When you send or receive a technical drawing, check:
- Collar outer diameter (15 mm for FEA 15)
- Neck bore / inner diameter — affects dip tube fit
- Flange height and thickness — the surface the collar crimps against
- Neck verticality and roundness tolerance
- Sealing surface finish — nicks here cause leaks
Dip tube length
The dip tube must reach the bottom of the bottle without bending against the base. Tube length is specific to each bottle height and base shape — a tube specified for a 50 ml bottle will not work correctly in a 100 ml version of the same design. Confirm tube length per SKU.
Crimping tension
Too loose and the pump leaks or detaches. Too tight and the glass neck can crack, sometimes days later. Crimping force should be validated on samples from the same production batch as the bulk order, not on prototypes.
Common failure points
| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Pump spins on the bottle | Insufficient crimp tension |
| Fragrance seeps at the collar | Damaged sealing surface or wrong gasket |
| Weak or sputtering spray | Dip tube too short or kinked |
| Neck cracks after filling | Over-crimping or poor annealing |
Practical sourcing advice
- Ask for the bottle neck drawing before ordering pumps
- Buy bottle, collar, pump and cap as a matched set where possible
- Test spray performance on filled samples, not empty bottles
- Keep one approved master sample for future reorders
Standardising on FEA 15 keeps your packaging supply chain flexible: the bottle can change, the decoration can change, and the pump still fits.