Basic Guide to Liquid Filling - Sponsored Whitepaper

A Filamatic White Paper on the basics of liquid filling including filling techniques, metering systems, and nozzles

When beginning your liquid filling equipment search, it is important to consider the different aspects of your product (or application) and the demands of your project. There are four characteristics that will help in determining the type of filling machine you will need: the liquid’s nature or characteristics, fill volume(s), production rate(s), and container description(s).

The first question that you will need to answer about the nature of a product is the product’s viscosity. You can describe the viscosity by using the terms water-thin, semi-viscous, or viscous. Those products that are free-flowing, or have a consistency of water, would be considered water-thin opposed to thick substances such as hair gel, oils, and pastes that are considered viscous. Below is a chart with some examples of products and their viscosity.

The product’s nature will determine the correct pump to use in your filling machine as well as the filling technique that should be used. For example, does your product tend to be foamy? Does it contain particulate matter? Does it contain an ingredient (such as alcohol or acetone) that is flammable? The different characteristics of products require different filling techniques.

Bottom-Up Filling: Used for foamy products, or to reduce splashing, nozzles are lowered to the bottom of the container before filling and then rise just above the liquid as the container is being filled.