Filling Machine Interface: Recipe and Alarm Screens
If you have followed the past weeks review and explanation of the automatic filling machine operator menus, then you have seen several references to the Recipe Screen. Today, we will discuss the usefulness of the Recipe Screen as well as the Alarm Screen on automatic bottle fillers.
Rather than allowing for set up and control of different functions and components of the filling machine, as almost all of the other screens have done, the Recipe Screen allows an operator to save and recall all of the settings from the other screens. Finding the right settings, including but not limited to the delay, duration, fill and indexing times, can be a very time-consuming process. If this process had to be repeated every time the machine was started or a company changed over from one bottle to another, the necessary increase in production time would be costly and inefficient to say the least. The Recipe Screen allows an operator of an automatic filling machine to record the settings under a specific number, while also allowing the same settings to be recalled at a later date when the same bottle and product are used again, making set up a matter of seconds rather than many minutes or hours.
Furthermore, by supplying both product and bottle samples, Liquid Packaging Solutions can include initial set-up of equipment before the machinery is even delivered to the packager. For the user, this means the Recipe Screen can be used from day one, without the need to complete long trial and error test runs to find the ideal set-up. The only time set-up would be necessary without the Recipe Screen would be when a new product or bottle combination is introduced to the packaging line.
Like the Recipe Screen, the Alarm Screen also doesn't require the operator to perform any set-up activities at all. In fact, as long as the machine is performing correctly, the Alarm Screen should remain blank. However, should bottle jams, emergency stops or any other malfunction occur, the Alarm Screen will assist the operator in finding the cause of the problem by displaying an error message. The Alarm Screen, then, is simply an indicator that there is an issue with machine performance. Once the error is corrected and cleared, the Alarm Screen will return to a nice shade of white and production can be continued.
These two screens together act to assist in set up and troubleshooting of the automatic liquid filler. In the next article, we will look at the last of the common operator interface screens, the Clean-In-Place, or CIP, screen, which is an option on most filling machines to allow for quick and easy cleaning of the product pathway. For questions regarding the operation of filling machinery or any of the other packaging equipment manufactured by Liquid Packaging Solutions, Inc., contact our Technical Service Department at 219-393-3600 x 304.