Why Buy
a LittleFiller?
Why should you choose a LittleFiller
To select a liquid filler there are decisions to make – speed price, capabilities, convenience, ease of operation, reliability etc.. Likewise in the manufacturing of a filling machine similar considerations apply. From the very many alternatives, we selected positive displacement gear pump as the preferred technology.
The advantages are as follows:
Any type of product can be handled from light liquids through to heavy creams and pastes.
Each nozzle has its own independent volumetric pump giving the highest possible accuracy.
Variances in viscosity through a batch are less likely to affect the fill.
Setup and changeover is simple and quick.
Product can be fed either from a hopper above or from a drum below.
The gear pump is always immediately ready to fill again after the previous fill.
There is no suction stroke to wait for, as with piston fillers.
There are no limitations on the volume dispensed. From milliliters to gallons it is simply how long the gear pump runs for.
Accuracies of ±0.5% are easily achievable.
The adjustment of 1 nozzle does not affect any other nozzle.
The units are very compact
Other advantages we have built in to the inherently good technology include:
Stainless steel cabinets and contact parts.
Touch panel control.
Plug in networkable design allowing multiple units to be combined
together to form a system at any time.
Rugged sanitary gear pump with few components as the heart of the
system.
Frequency variable speed drives.
Automate at any time with a plug in kit.
Filling Speeds & Technologies
We list other technologies so you can evaluate if you feel that you need to know what else is out there.
Speeds - First you need to know your target speed.
There are three speed categories for filling machines: manual fillers, automatic inline fillers, and automatic rotary fillers.
Each of these three can use several alternate technologies for filling.
Manual fillers go as fast as you can manually change bottles over either with 1 or 2 nozzles (unless you are a Martian with 3 hands). Depending upon the fill volume the maximum speed with 2 nozzles and 2 hands is likely to be topped out at 30 or even 40 bottles a minute for relatively small fills (100ml). Even then you will need to consider how to cap, label, and carton etc. the bottles down stream.
However multiple small units are becoming more popular as they have
faster changeovers which you have to consider in your overall productive
day.
The next decision will be between automatic inline and automatic rotary.
Automatic inline machines range from a single nozzle up to 12 (or more)
nozzle machines. Normal speed ranges of an inline filler are between
60-150 containers per minute.12 Nozzles will generate speeds on 100 ml
fills beyond 200. Higher speeds enter the domain of the rotary filler
which can operate at speeds in excess of 1000 containers per minute.
Inline fillers are quicker to changeover and easier to setup than rotary
fillers, and normally don’t require change parts for each size of
container, but rotary fillers once setup can give consistently high
speeds.
Consideration has to be given to run (batch) sizes, cost of change parts, speed of changeover (down time) when selecting between rotary and inline fillers. Long runs, few changeovers, favor Rotaries and the converse favors inline.
Alternative Filling Technologies
Whether manual or automatic, there are three major technologies, each
of which can be further sub-divided.
Vacuum/gravity/pressure
Positive displacement
Net weight
Vacuum, Gravity, & Pressure Fillers
Vacuum, gravity, and pressure fillers use a source of power whether it
is vacuum (to suck), gravity, or pressure to deliver liquids to multiple
nozzles from a single source (tank, manifold) of product. They control
the fill either with a nozzle that will overflow to a collector, when
the product reaches the right level in the container, or through a
nozzle that closes after a preset but adjustable time.
Typically these are the least expensive fillers, each has its pros and
cons, with the vacuum handling the thinnest liquids into bottles that
will not collapse when vacuum is applied to it through to time pressure
fillers that can handle free flowing but thicker products.
Issues with these technologies involve having to collect and recycle
overflow, only having a fill to a level rather than to a correct volume,
and having issues with fill accuracy on time pressure fillers. Time
pressure fillers require strict regulation of the pressure, time and
product consistency (temperature/viscosity), a slight alteration of any
one would affects the fill.
Usually these systems are used with thinner rather than thicker
products and with the less expensive products such as water or cheap
chemicals. (Accuracy not an issue)
Positive Displacement Fillers
Positive displacement fillers have an individual pump or piston for
each individual filling nozzle. They are mid-priced but more versatile.
They include piston fillers, gear
pump fillers, lobe pump fillers, and progressive
cavity fillers.
A known amount of product is dispensed volumetrically. A piston pulls
the exact quantity of product into its cavity and then dispenses it into
the container. The positive displacement gear pumps or progressive
cavity pumps have many small cavities which are counted and dispensed
cumulatively into the container.
All systems are very accurate, and can handle a very wide range of
product consistencies from thin to thick.