Liquid Fillers and the Liquid Filling Machine Manufacturers That Build Them
What is the RIGHT machine, anyway? At the risk of sounding like a politician, the answer is that "it depends". Most of all it depends upon the goal of the company who is in the market for a liquid filling machine. The driving force behind our customers to source liquid filling equipment, is that they either want to improve upon how they already do their liquid filling, or they have a brand new product which has never been packaged before.
The truth about filling liquid is that there are always many ways to do it. For example, you can fill olive oil on a Gravity Filler, a Pump Filler, a Piston Filler, an Overflow Filler, a Peristaltic Pump Filler, a Pressure Filler, and within each of those machines, seemingly endless variations and combinations of contact parts and controls. What drives this customization of any given type of filler are issues like: product aeration, product foaminess, product viscosity stability, presence of particulate matter within the liquid, the type, size and shapes of bottles or containers. The price of the product comes into play, usually in tandem with degree of repeatable accuracy of the filling machine.
The truth about most liquid filling machine manufacturers is that they all have their own "success stories", based upon projects that they've sold and commissioned in the field. Over time, their histories dictate what they do in the future. It's always easier to replicate what you've already done than it is to reinvent the wheel. If the company has success in filling olive oil with an Overflow filler, then it is likely that they will quote that exact machine the next time they get an inquiry for it. In fact, if you called six different companies and requested a quote for a liquid filler to fill olive oil you shouldn't be surprised to receive quotes containing six different, and disparate, liquid fillers.
All of that is well and good as long as your liquid filling machine supplier doesn't get caught up in, as the old addage goes "if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail". You want your liquid filling machine supplier to always have an eye towards innovation and thinking out of the box. There are time tested proven methods, but there is always room for innovation and improvment, too. The dynamic marketplace in which we operate has room for both.
The most common variables in terms of the "right" filling machine to fill a liquid product are:
- Output capacity of machines per unit of time. This can be expressed in "bottles per minute (BPM), Metric Tons Per Shift, and a variety of other articulations of capacity. A good figure to use when articulating the amount of capacity required for a given machine is the rate of sale of the product. If your company is selling at a rate of 1,000 units per minute, like Coca-Cola, then that will lead you to look at high output systems like integrated Rotary Monblocs lines worth a million bucks. If, on the other hand, you are effectively selling 30 units per minute, that will lead you to a different path.
- Cost/ROI of liquid filling equipment. Standard practice for ROI on Capital Equipment should yield a complete payback in savings of direct labor within three years. In order to do a realistic ROI Analysis the output capacity of the machine must be known, as stated above. Closely related to this is your budget allotted for filling equipment.
- Available Plant Space. It's okay to want large, expansive equipment, but if you don't have the space (or your ceiling is too low), it ain't gonna fit. In general, the higher the output requirement of a liquid filling is, the more floor space it will consume. Even though the machinery may take up a reasonably compact space, if you're running a couple hundred bottles per minte, you will need plenty of accumulation conveyor.
- Product characteristics. If your product is flammable, or explosive, you'll have to find a supplier who can manufacture liquid fillers with Hazardous Location Construction per the NFPA Guidelines. Same holds true if the product is Food Grade, or Pharmaceutical Grade. You don't have to be well voiced in the particulars of the particular standard as long as your supplier can demonstrate that they are.
There are many more characteristics that we'll save for a later blog perhaps. But one thing is for sure. The number of questions we ask you as your liquid packaging machinery supplier is directly proportional to the degree of your satisfaction when your line is up and running in your plant. Have an appropriate amount of skepticism if anybody tries to sell you a machine without asking you some important questions about your goals, your product and your process.
Posted: March 10, 2010
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