Piston Fillers for Products Thick and Thin

LPS often touts the ability of the piston filling machine to handle the most viscous of products as well as those products that may contain particulates. However, piston fillers can also work for thin products, or handle a range of viscosities when a packager runs multiple and varied products.

The piston filling machine uses a wide-open cylinder to measure product by volume. The volume of the cylinder will not change from cycle to cycle, so that the volume of product entering the cylinder will also never change. The piston then enters the cylinder to push product into the waiting bottles or other containers.

The push of the piston as it enters the cylinder allows for packaging highly viscous liquids. While the flow of the product may be slow, the push of the piston assists with product movement and adds efficiency to the fill process. Furthermore, as noted above, the cylinder of a piston filling machine can include a long and wide opening for product. This makes the filling machine the ideal solution for jams, jellies, sauces and other products that may include larger particulates like pieces of fruits, vegetables or meat.

The piston filler can also be manufactured for packagers with varying demand as well. Simple tabletop piston fillers can use a single head to fill one bottle at a time, the fill activated by an operator stepping on a foot switch for each cycle. On the other side of the spectrum, piston fillers can be built to run automatically using multiple fill heads for those packagers with higher demand.

For the reasons set out above, the piston filler will often be suggested for packagers with thick products with low or high demand. However, when a packager runs more than just the thick products, this bottle filler can be a good solution for running all products on one machine!

As noted above, the volume of the cylinder of a piston filler simply never changes. And this remains true whether running thin or thick products on the machine. Both thick and thin liquids can be filled by volume with a high degree of accuracy. So where both thin and thick products are being filled by a packager, the piston filler will often be the best solution. In some cases, there may exist a more efficient filler for the thin products, but being able to use one machine for all products will outweigh the efficiency gained when running low viscosity products.

However, the piston filler is not the only filling option for thick or highly viscous products. Each packaging project will require an analysis of products, bottles, demand and many other factors to determine which filling machine will provide the best solution. Packagers can always contact Liquid Packaging Solutions for assistance with that analysis!