Do you ever wonder what a filling machine is? How does it work? What is the basic idea behind the packaging of your carbonated drinks, milk, and wine, etc.?
The filler is an essential equipment for the manufacturing industry for promoting quality and efficiency of the products during the manufacturing process. They are usually employed for packaging food or beverage, but their use extends to the packaging of many other products as well.
However, different fillers are required for various products. And these products are packaged in a specified amount in a carton, a plastic bag or a bottle.
Based on their degree of automation and the materials used, these fillers are classified differently. They could be categorized as automatic, semi-automatic and fully automatic machines. And they could also be liquid fillers, gas fillers, paste fillers and powder fillers.
It is important to note that there are various types of fillers in the market when we talk about the working principles. Therefore we will only look at the working principles behind the filling of liquids, gases, and adhesives.
“Gas fillers” employ a straightforward method. It uses a booster pump for creating pressure differences which are necessary for the filling. This gas booster is very similar to a gas compressor. Examples of these filling materials are carbon dioxide, coal gas, and natural gas, etc.
Based on the working principle, liquid fillers are divided into ordinary, pressure and vacuum filling machines. The ordinary liquid fillers work by gravity, in which the liquid is filled due to its weight into particular bottles. However, it is necessary to meet special requirements to maintain the viscosity and gas bearing of the fluids. Notable examples of this are milk bottles and grape wine etc.
The vacuum fillers require the atmospheric pressure to be greater than the pressure of the bottles. Liquids such as syrup, oil, and wine, etc. have high viscosity and require this type of filling, which is very efficient and employs a very simple structure.
The pressure liquid fillers need to have greater pressure than the atmospheric pressure to be functional. This type of filling is further divided into “equal air pressure filling” and “high-pressure filling.” In “equal air pressure filling,” the pressure of the liquid reservoir gets equal to the pressure of the bottle, and so the liquid proceeds into the bottles by their weights. The high-pressure filling, on the other hand, works by the pressure difference between the liquid reservoir and the bottles.
In paste fillers, a volumetric method is used for measuring and controlling the filling quantity of the pastes. This method is considered very efficient and easy to maintain. It is particularly handy for highly viscous products.
This machine is based on a self-priming cylinder in which a piston can move. The piston diameter along with the stroke length decides the filling volume. The volumetric fill of this liquid filler is considered highly accurate because of the constant volume of the cylinder on the piston.