The liquid filling equipment ranges from basic single-head, manually-operated filling machines to multi-head, fully-automated filling systems that use a volumetric-piston filling or vacuum-level filling technologies.
If you are about to invest in liquid filling equipment, there are several considerations to ensure you find a machine that matches up to your liquid-filling requirements. The most important things you need to know at the beginning of the process includes container types, liquid-product viscosity, fill volumes, required fill rate, and the type of filling and metering system that matches up to your needs. Here is more information highlighting the importance of these 5 key things when it comes to your liquid-filling selection.
Your first step should involve determining the liquid-filling solutions that match up to your requirements is to first understand the fundamentals linked to your product. Is your product semi-viscous, extremely thick, heavy-viscous, or a water-like product? This is going to help you to determine possible machine solutions or establish other options due to the viscosity of the product.
Product viscosity has an impact on several areas. These include the metering system type, fill rate, along with other variables of importance within your production equation. Identifying product viscosity accurately is one of the largest steps you can take in the correct direction.
Container Types
The container type that you fill is also extremely important when figuring out the ideal equipment options. Whether you fill plastic or glass, short or tall, square or round, large or small openings, unstable or stable bottles, these are a few of the considerations associated with the container types that usually impact the design and development of the liquid-filling system that you choose.
Fill Rate
One of the popular and common questions relating to the production side is “how many containers can I fill per minute/per production shift/per hour?” This may mean that you need a semi-automatic, a single-handheld, a full-line intermediate automatic solution, or one of the fully-automatic integrated systems in order to achieve the desired rate. There are also other variables that you need to look at when talking about fill rates. Container types, liquid viscosities, fill volumes, and the metering system type that you use, all contribute to filling rates.
Fill Volume
Knowing what your fill volume is may sound easy enough. However, it is very important when you determine other factors that are related such as metering systems, product viscosity, and fill rate. Depending on the industry that you are in, you might have varying fill-accuracy requirements you should be following rigorously to remain compliant with a specific industry standard. For this reason, it is important to know as much as you can about the required fill-volumes and requirements relating to your industry to achieve production success.
There are various types of liquid and metering filling systems. The metering system type (e.g. peristaltic, flow, piston, etc. ) that you decide on is going to depend on different variables. These include fill rates, accuracy requirements, fill volumes, and product viscosity. Your changeover times that you have allowed from 1 recipe to another can also impact your decision on a pump option.
The liquid-filling equipment also comes in different types:
- Integrated, fully-automatic Monoblocs
- Full-line, intermediate automatic systems
- Single-handheld, semi-automatic benchtop machines
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, both automatic and manual liquid filling systems are used for various types of products. Common ones include medicine to tomato paste and petrol. In fact, there are liquid filling systems designed specifically for all types of needs. This equipment varies in price, from manual systems that cost in the region of £400-£1000. The automatic systems, on the other hand, are a bit heftier in terms of price, costing up to £10,000.
