Fill Speeds depend on several factors as
follows:
Product Characteristics
Bottle (container) neck diameter
Number of nozzles on the filling machine
Container stability, (for automatic machines)
Product Characteristics
Generally the thicker the product the faster it can fill ….up to a
point…cosmetic creams fill faster than water. Water can foam up as it
goes into a bottle reducing possible speed per nozzle whereas creams do
not. However thick paste, or Honey or Epoxy resins are so sticky that
they could potentially overload a machine without additional options
such as a heating jacket.
Bottle (container) neck diameter
The diameter of the neck of the container dictates the diameter of the
nozzle that can be fitted to the machine. A larger nozzle creates less
foam or splash enabling faster fill speeds. For example the tiny top on
a perfume bottle requires the use of a very small nozzle which will make
the product foam unless the fill speed is lowered. The large neck of a
cream jar enables the use of a large diameter nozzle reducing splash or
foam increasing fill speeds.
Number of nozzles on the filling machine
The more nozzles the greater the speed. With the LittleFiller each unit
or drive has one pump and one nozzle to give accuracy and versatility.
The more drives/pumps the more nozzles.
However a 12 head filler will not necessarily fill at twice the speed of
a 6 head filler since one has to calculate the time it takes to exchange
filled for fresh empty bottles. You can double the speeds if you divide
the bottles into two lanes of 6 bottles each, 12 in total since the
indexing time will be the same but you have twice as many nozzles.
Note: There are rare instances when an extra nozzle can be fitted to a
single pump to give 2 nozzles but this severely compromises the ease of
setting up and adjustment since one can never guarantee the same amount
will flow repeatedly down each of two (or more) nozzles. This is the
problem with inexpensive gravity time pressure fillers.
Container stability, (for automatic machines)
The container stability predicates how quickly you can exchange empty
for full bottles. If your bottle is unstable then special systems such
as in feed screws may have to be fitted to your machine beyond the
standard neck clamp, or the conveyor will have to be slowed which
increases the index time.
Fill Speed Chart
Note that our 24 Liter/min Pumps pump
twice as fast but they will not necessarily fill
at twice the speed.
If you used a fire Hydrant to fill a bucket you may get water
everywhere but not necessarily into the bucket!
