Tabletop Piston Filler Provides Accuracy for Small Business Owners

Not all packaging processes entail filling, capping and labeling thousands of bottles every day. Yet many local and regional packagers produce enough product to make hand filling and other processes tedious, time-consuming and inefficient. For many of these packagers, production demands simply do not justify purchasing and installing a turnkey automatic packaging system. But even without the complete system, machines exist that will add efficiency and consistency to different processes and help to meet daily demands. The tabletop piston filler represents one of the many options for packagers with lower production demands.

Tabletop piston fillers will normally be used for thick or viscous products, but can be adapted for almost any product. Piston fillers, whether automatic or tabletop, offer an accurate fill based on volume. In general terms, the piston will retract from the cylinder, allowing product to fill the cylinder. Obviously, the volume of the cylinder will not change from stroke to stroke, making the piston filler volumetrically accurate. When the time comes to fill bottles or other containers, the piston pushes product out of the cylinder and into the waiting containers. The piston filler can fill both small and large containers, as the stroke can be adjusted via a PLC or a simple hand knob adjustment. For projects with a wide range of fills, however, more than one piston may be required.

Tabletop piston filling machines offer a quick and simple filling solution for packagers with limited space and low to medium demands. The semi-automatic bottle filler requires the operator to place the bottle under the nozzle and simply activate the fill with either a hand switch or a foot switch. Once the fill is complete, the operator will move the bottle to the next packaging phase. The speed of a tabletop piston filler will depend on several different factors, among those the size of the bottle being filled and the skill or speed of the operator of the machine. Smaller bottles are likely to produce more filled product per minute, while larger bottles will take longer to move more product. While at times speed increases may not be significant over hand filling containers, the consistency and reliablity of the equipment offer benefits as well.

Tabletop piston fillers may also be combined with other tabletop packaging machinery to create a simple, space saving packging system. For example, chuck cappers may be used to quickly seal bottles after the fill, bottle rinsers may be used prior to the fill to avoid product contamination and even labeling machinery is available in tabletop models to quickly add logos, ingredients or other product information. The number and type of machinery used can be hand tailored to each individual packaging process.

While the tabletop piston filler can be the best solution for many different companies, the bottle filler will not be ideal for all products. Other types of tabletop filling machines exist for different applications. To learn more about the tabletop piston filler, or any of the other bottle filling options, visit the filling machinery page at the LPS website or call to speak with a Packaging Specialist at 219-393-3600.