Filling By Volume - Bottle Filler Options
With a number of principles available to fill bottles, filling by volume is one of the most popular. Volume may bring back memories of high school math and the familiar length x width x height calculation. When filling bottles, however, it is not the interior volume of the bottle that most packagers are worried about, but rather getting the same volume of liquid into each bottle. Several different filling machines can help to achieve this goal, each working slightly differently from the others.
GRAVITY FILLING MACHINERY
Gravity filling machines hold product above the fill heads and allow it to flow through nozzles into waiting containers. As gravity is the main force behind moving the product, free-flowing liquids will work best with this type of equipment. Thicker, or more viscous, products will take longer to flow through the product pathway, and better options may exist. Each fill head on a gravity filler will be adjustable to ensure consistent and reliable volume with each cycle.
PUMP FILLING MACHINERY
Pump filling machines will use a pump matched to the specific product or products being filled to achieve an accurate volumetric fill. While pump fillers can run a range of viscosities, pumps help to push thicker products through the product pathway, making them a good choice for higher viscosity products. One pump will be added to the machine for each fill head, allowing for each head to be adjusted individually to achieve accurate volume.
PISTON FILLING MACHINERY
Piston fillers utilize a cylinder to pull the same amount of product from a bulk tank during each cycle. As the volume of the cylinder never changes, the volume of the product pulled into the cylinder will never change. The piston then pushes product from the cylinder into waiting bottles or other containers. Like the pump fillers, the piston filler can handle a range of viscosities, but the extra push of the piston makes the filling machine a good option for thick products and products with particulates or chunks, such as jams and jellies.
Each of these volumetric fillers can be manufactured as semi-automatic or automatic filling machines, with one or multiple fill heads. Depending on the product or products being run by any packager, one type of volumetric fill may work better based on viscosity, speed, bottles and other factors. To learn more about filling by volume, or other fill principles offered by Liquid Packaging Solutions, browse the Filling Machine section of the LPS website or contact a Packaging Specialist at LPS today.