subject: Aseptic Filling Machines With A Single Use Production Philosophy [print this page] PLFs range of filling machines are all built to facilitate the stringent demands of the food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, i.e. easy to clean with quick changeover, minimum giveaway, gentle product handling. They can be semi or fully automatic and are built so that performance can be enhanced to meet production demands. Each machine can be fitted with PLFs accumulated or individual head-update weight control systems to ensure maximum accuracy and minimum giveaway.
The machines are also designed to be flexible so as to accommodate a variety of filling machine methods containers can be filled by vacuum for more static powders, and by volume for free-flowing products. Extensive powder trials are conducted (free of charge) to assess the most appropriate filling method for each. PLF machines can be designed to be ATEX compliant, when required.Traditionally, fill/finish lines have used piston pumps but, in today's production environment, piston pumps suffer from a number of drawbacks.
Production managers switching from piston pumps to peristaltic pumps are often surprised at the accurate, pulsation- free flow that peristaltic pumps achieve. In addition, sophisticated electronic control of the pump motor enables the flow rate to be ramped up, maximized and ramped down again, thereby reducing aeration and foaming so that very short cycle times to be maintained. It is not unusual for peristaltic pumps to be used on filling machines systems processing up to 150 bottles per minute.With appropriately sized tubing, peristaltic pumps can deliver volumes down to 0.5ml at an industry-standard accuracy of +/-0.5 percent; smaller volumes can be delivered with an accuracy of +/-1 percent. Typical high-speed beverage filling machines use in-process checkweighing to monitor the filling accuracy and, if necessary, the output from this can be used in a closed-loop pump control system.
