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A Brand Owner’s Guide to Selecting the Right Food Filling Machine

Insights from John Toth, Director of Sales (Filling) for Pneumatic Scale Angelus

Are you a brand owner looking for best-in-class solutions to enhance your production line with top-tier food filling equipment? If so, you've come to the right place. In this post, I will introduce you to the world of food filling machines, addressing your most pressing questions and providing insights into the key factors you should consider when selecting the ideal food packaging machine for your business.

The Crucial Factors in Food Packaging Machine Selection

When it comes to food packaging machines, the first factor to consider is the nature of your product. Is it a viscous sauce, a delicate dressing, an edible oil, or perhaps a baby food puree? Each product type demands a specific filling technology. Beyond that, your desired volumes and production rates –measured in containers per minute (CPM) or containers per hour (CPH) – play a pivotal role. Don't overlook the sensitivity of your product – factors like acidity, pH, and viscosity can influence equipment selection, as well as whether there is a requirement to sterilize the container or cap prior to filling. And let's not forget cleaning requirements – do you need a machine that's cleaned in place (CIP) or one that can be disassembled for cleaning?

Maintaining Optimal Performance

Ensuring your food filling machine runs at peak performance requires a tailored approach. The maintenance needs differ based on the type of filler. For volumetric fillers, components like cam followers, piston seals, cylinders and valve bodies all require routine maintenance. On the other hand, net weigh or mass flow fillers might require attention to seals in the main rotary supply and filling heads, typically on a 3,000 to 6,000-hour preventive maintenance schedule, but these requirements can vary significantly depending on your application. The type of product you're filling – be it corn syrup or drinkable yogurt – and subsequent cleaning process required dictate the frequency and intensity of maintenance needed to sustain performance standards.

Meeting Food Safety Regulations & Other Industry Standards

The key to food safety lies in selecting the right technology for your product. It's essential that your chosen food packaging machine is well-suited to the specific attributes of what you're filling, ensuring safety from both a quality and regulatory perspective. Compliance with industry standards and regulations is paramount. For Pneumatic Scale Angelus' food filling machines, our Mass Flow and Net Weigh fillers hold a 3-A certification to code 17-13 (certificate #1573). This certification is crucial for maintaining Food and Dairy industry standards and covers most requirements and standards for the primary industries we serve.

Harnessing Technological Advancements

Technological advancements are reshaping the landscape of food packaging machines, particularly in valve design. A prime example is our focus on designing filling valves that safeguard product integrity – preventing drips and creating a laminar flow of the liquid as it’s presented to the container.

Our commitment to evolving valve designs ensures they accommodate a diverse range of products. We're especially proud of our valve innovation that facilitates the filling of thicker substances and larger particulates in sauces and dressings. This development not only enhances product quality but also enables us to automate the CIP (Clean-In-Place) processes for previously hard-to-clean equipment that required the removal of filling heads and nozzles.

Going the Extra Mile

From a liquid filling perspective, there are more than just these few details to consider when selecting a food filling machine. But to summarize, the primary information we like to discuss with our customers in early conversations include:

• - The type of product(s) you want to fill
• - The range of container sizes and volumes you’ll be filling
• - The container and cap specifications, including material and design
• - The desired production rates (measured in CPM or CPH)
• - Whether your product is filled at ambient temperature or hot-filled
• - Your cleaning requirements, including CIP specifications

Are you ready to find the right filling machine for your product? Take a look at this example of one of our food filling machines in action or reach out to our Sales Team for more information.

About the Author
John Toth is the Director of Sales, Filling and Capping at Pneumatic Scale Angelus, a BW Packaging company. John brings more than 20 years of manufacturing and food production experience to PSA and its customers in a wide range of industries, including Food, Beverage, and Home and Personal Care.