Filling Machine Alternatives for Gritty Soap Products

Soap products can be manufactured in many different forms, from bars of soap for the shower to liquid soap for dishes, hands, body, cars and other products.  Industrial soaps, however, stand out from most other products in the category by including grit in their products.  These cleaning agents are normally a liquid with a grit like product added to exfoliate or scrub to remove tough grime like oil, tar, paint and more.  Depending on the actual type of grit or particulates in a soap, different filling machines can be used during the packaging process.

 

Both product viscosity and the type of particulates used can effect the type of filling machine that will best suit any particular packaging project.  For thin to medium viscosity products with a fine grit added for cleaning purposes, an overflow filling machine will often get the job done.  The overflow filler utilizes a fill to level principle, with additional product recirculating into a holding tank.  The return port will efficiently handle most free-flowing products, and as long as the particulates are small enough to pass through the return port, this machine can provide a solution for some soaps.  But as viscosity increases and particulates become more dense or larger, other options will be better suited for soap products.

 

A pump filling machine uses different types of pumps to push product into waiting bottles or containers.  For soap products with particulates, gear, positive displacement and other types of pumps can be matched to the product to allow for an efficient and reliable fill.  Pump fillers will normally use one pump for each fill head on the machine.  Pump fillers can be manufactured as time based machines, which will fill each bottle for a pre-set amount of time.  Or in the alternative, a pulse based filler will fill based on the pump rotation or other movement.  For example, each pulse on a gear pump may equal a quarter turn of the pump.  Filling will be based on a pre-set number of pulses.

 

Similarly, piston filling machines provide an alternative for high viscosity soaps or for soaps with very dense or even large particulates.  A piston filler generally fills a cylinder with product before pushing the same out into the waiting container.  The cylinder will allow larger or more dense particulates to pass through the product pathway and into the package itself.  Piston fillers, like other liquid fillers, can be built with one or multiple fill heads to accommodate a large range of production demands.  

 

Soap products with particulates may also require agitation in the holding tank, to avoid settling of particulates and ensure each container receives a mix of product and particulate.  Each of the above machines can be manufactured as tabletop or semi-automatic packaging equipment for low to medium production facilities or as completely automated machines for higher production demands.  Automatic equipment can be a single piece of a turnkey packaging system or can be manufactured to roll up to an existing system.  Almost all filling equipment is upgradeable through the addition of fill heads or by moving from semi-automatic to automatic production.

 

For more information on filling machines in general, click here or call the offices of Liquid Packaging Solutions, Inc. at 1-888-393-3693.