Packaging Liquid Fertilizers and Other Garden Products
Spring is in the air! And as a result, many people's minds are turning to outdoor activities, including landscaping and gardening. Like any other liquid product, fertilizer in the liquid form must be packaged and prepared for those with a green thumb. While not all fertilizers and garden products will use the same equipment, and the best machinery for any project will be determined on a case-by-case basis, there are certain machines that are fairly common to the industry.
Filling garden products, and especially liquid fertilizers, will often be done using an overflow filling machine. The overflow filler uses a special nozzle to fill containers to a specified level, recirculating - or overflowing - product back to the tank once that level has been reached. Most of these products are thinner, free-flowing liquids. The lower viscosity allows the overflow filler to move and recirculate the product without issue. Also, many fertilizers and other liquid garden products have a tendency to foam. The overflow principle can control foam by simply pushing it out of the bottle during the recirculation of product. While this may add a fraction of a second to fill times, it also protects against underfilling or random filling due to excess foam. While there are exceptions to this rule, the overflow filling machine is definitely the most prevalent when dealing with liquid fertilizer and similar lawn and garden products.
Capping machines are always chosen based on the type of cap being used to seal a product. While there may again be exceptions, many liquid fertilizers and garden products will use some type of a screw-on type cap. These may be simple flat caps, but could also include pumps or trigger sprayers as well. But the fact that most of these caps will use threads to tighten or loosen them on the container means that the spindle capping machine will be seen more than any other when packaging these products. Spindle cappers use matched sets of spinning disks to thread closures down and create the seal. Though some modification may be necessary to handle trigger sprayers, pump sprayers and other unique screw-on closures, the spindle capping machine will usually be the best choice for liquid fertilizers and lawn and garden products.
When it comes to labeling, the application of the labels will depend in part on the type of container holding the product. However, liquid fertilizers and lawn and garden products will often use a front and back label to provide information such as ingredients and instructions for use while also including a logo or graphic on the front. Some gallon bottles will use a wrap label to present the same information. Bottle size and shape will help determine the best label layout, but rarely will an application other than front, front and back or wrap be used for these products.
These common packaging machines for liquid fertilizers and lawn and garden products are all available in semi-automatic and automatic designs, meaning that a range of production demand can be handled. For more information on fillers, cappers and labelers, browse the relevant category on the Liquid Packaging Solutions website or contact the company today.