The Right Filler for Volumetric Fills

Many different factors will come into play when choosing the right filling machine for any packaging project. For those that choose to, or must, fill by volume, several different machines are available. So how does a packager know which volumetric filler will work best with their products?

Gravity, pump and piston fillers all use a volumetric fill principle, filling each bottle with the same volume of liquid. However, the machines do offer different benefits, and analyzing any project will help to find the ideal solution for filling by volume.

Gravity filling machines, as the name suggests, rely on nothing more than the force of gravity to move liquids through the product pathway and into the bottles. For this reason, gravity fillers tend to be an ideal solution for free-flowing products, or liquids with water-like properties. Held in a tank over the fill heads, valves will open for a pre-set amount of time to allow product to flow to waiting containers. Attempting to run thicker products on a gravity filler will likely result in slow, inefficient fill times, inconsistent fills or both.

So what about thicker products? Pump filling machines provide an extra push not found on the gravity filler. By adding a pump to each fill head, thicker products can be pushed through the product pathway with greater efficiency. Each pump, like each fill head on a gravity filler, can be adjusted individually to ensure accurate volumetric fills. The pump used on each filling machine will be matched to the product or products being run to protect the product and provide the most reliable and efficient fill possible.

Piston fillers also work well with thicker products. The cylinder of the piston can take in large amounts of product, and the open cylinder also allows particulates to be packaged as well. While pump fillers can handle some particulates depending on the type of pump used, piston fillers are ideal for products with larger particulates such as fruit or vegetable chunks. As the volume of the cylinder never changes, piston fillers can provide accurate fills for both thick and thin products, often making this filling machine ideal for packagers preparing a variety of different items.

Of course, each packaging project is unique, and an analysis of all of the factors surrounding the fill will need to take place before the ideal volumetric filling machine can be identified. Not sure which filler is right for your product? Contact Liquid Packaging Solutions today for assistance in choosing the right machine.