Bottle Fillers - Understanding the Fill Cycle

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For those that currently use a liquid filling machine, or even those that have researched liquid fillers, you have probably come across the term "fill cycle". Generally speaking, the term defines the time it takes for one set of bottles to run through the filling machine and receive product, from entering the fill area to exiting. But understanding what actually makes up the fill cycle can help a packager to achieve maximum efficiency with their equipment. Of the many components that make up the fill cycle, the indexing is that time in which the bottles move into the bottle fill with liquid area and under the fill heads, as well as the time it takes the bottles to exit the fill area once they have been filled with product.

In other words, the indexing times are really the travel time for the bottles. Fine tuning the indexing times can save fractions of seconds bottle fill with liquid even seconds on each fill cycle, which can mean a lot of saved time when hundreds of cycles are run every day. Almost all automatic filling machinery will include an automatic indexing set up in the PLC.

Operators simply line up bottles and press a button to achieve ideal indexing times. These times can also be saved on a recipe screen on automatic fillers, to be recalled each time the bottle is used in production.

So the first step in finding a cycle time, and the first component of the bottle fill with liquid time, bottle fill with liquid the amount of time the bottles will spend indexing in and out of the fill area. Delay and duration times include bottle fill with liquid of the different times and pauses that will occur while the fill is taking place.

While the fill time itself would be considered a duration time, we will discuss that below by itself. Delay and duration times may include many different components, including, but not limited to:. Of course, many other delay and duration settings may be included on any given filling machine. Those that will be included will depend on a number of different factors including indexing type, containers being used, the product itself and even the type of filling machine being used.

Now in addition to the indexing time, we have all the delay and duration settings to add to the fill cycle time. Again, the fill time would be considered bottle fill with liquid duration time as noted above, but each bottle fill with liquid every filling machine will have some variation of this setting.

The fill time is also what most people immediately think of when talking about a fill cycle. Quite simply, the fill time is the amount of time necessary to put product into the bottles. We isolate the fill time here to show that the fill cycle consists of much more than bottle fill with liquid the time taken to fill bottle fill with liquid bottle.

Of course, the larger the container, the more fill time that will be necessary. But most automatic filling machines will include assistance in setting up the fill times as well as the recipe bottle fill with liquid to save these times once they are set. Now taking these three items discussed above, we can create a sample fill cycle. Bottle first index in to the fill area, taking exactly four seconds to enter. From here, the heads will not dive until the container available sensor delays for 0.

Assume it takes 10 seconds to fill the bottles with product and then the heads release, taking 0. The exit gate opens and bottles index out for four seconds, completing the cycle.

The exit gate will shut after allowing the last bottle to leave the fill area, and by this time, the new bottles will likely be entering the fill area, starting a new cycle.

Taking the times from the simplistic example above, you can see this project will take twenty seconds to complete a fill cycle, able to complete three cycles per minute. The importance of this calculation becomes appartent when trying to determine production schedules.

If a ten head filler runs three cycles per minute, the machine will fill 30 bottle per minute of the given container. In other words, understanding the fill cycle can help make the machine efficient while also assisting in planning production schedules to make the company efficient. For questions or for more information on fill cycles or filling machines in general, contact Liquid Packaging Solutions, Inc.

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One of the most often asked questions regarding liquid fillers is how many bottles can be filled per day, hour or week with this filling machine. The speed of filling equipment will depend on a number of different factors, including bottle size and product viscosity.

The easiest way to determine any of the numbers noted above is to figure out how long each fill cycle will last and find the number of bottles per minute run by the filling machine. Also, keep in mind that on an automated packaging line, the filler will only run as fast as the slowest piece of packaging machinery! A number of factors will have an effect on how quickly a liquid filler will complete a fill cycle.

First and foremost is the bottle size. Common sense tells us that a two ounce bottle, or bottles, will be filled quicker than a one gallon bottles or bottles. The less time taken to fill an individual bottle, the more bottles the filling machinery can complete in an hour, day or week. The product itself will also have some effect on the speed of a liquid filler. Products that flow freely, such as water, will also fill with more speed versus thick products like paste or gel that may literally ooze into waiting containers.

Similarly, the filling principle used can have an effect on the speed of the filling machine. Pumps and pistons may assist in moving a product through the bottle filler, and tanks may occasionally need to be refilled. But as a general rule, free flowing products will fill with more speed that highly viscous products. Finally, the type of filling equipment used will help determine the speed of the filling process. A semi-automatic filling machine will only fill as fast as the operator running the machine, while an automatic machine will be limited only by the other automatic packaging machinery working with the filler.

So how do we determine the rate at which bottles are filled by a liquid filler? We simply determine the amount of time for each fill cycle. As an example, we will use an Automatic Overflow Filler with six fill heads and pin indexing.

Pin indexing on a filling machine simply uses an entry gate and exit gate to position bottles under fill heads and release them once the fill is complete. The fill cycle will start when the entry gate opens and bottles begin to move under the fill heads. Assume that this process takes 3 seconds. Once in place, the overflow filler nozzles will descend and fill the bottles. In our example we will say the filling process takes 6 seconds.

Once the heads have retracted, the exit gates open and the bottles move away on the belt conveyor system. Assume this takes another 3 seconds. The entry gate on the overflow filler is now ready to open and let another set of bottles index under the fill heads and the filling machine has now run a complete cycle. The total time for one fill cycle in the above example was 12 seconds, meaning that in 60 seconds, five cycles could be run.

Six fill heads times five cycles per minute equals a total of thirty bottles per minute! From here, simple math tells you that 30 bottles per minute would be equal to bottles per hour or 14, bottles in an eight hour day. Again, this is the approximate number of bottles run by the liquid filler only. The filling machine may be limited by a semi-automatic labeler, for example, that only allows for bottles an hour to be labeled.

In this case, the liquid filling machine would only be able to work as fast as the slower component on the automated packaging line. Other factors affecting the productivity of filling machines can include set up and clean up time, the number of different products run throughout the day changeover time and certain machine options, such as drip trays, that may help with clean up and changeover. If all of the numbers, factors and options seem just a little confusing, just pick up the phone and call a Packaging Specialist at Liquid Packaging Solutions.

Our representatives will answer any of your questions regarding liquid filling machines and can be reached toll free at