Package Machine Blog

Filling machines are manufactured for a wide variety of products both thick and thin. Depending on the product characteristics, the liquid fillers will be manufactured with a specific type of filling principle. Though there may be variations in the controls used for each filling principle, many of the screens will remain similar or the same. For our purposes, we will focus on the touchscreen interfaces found on automatic filling machines and the basic controls that will be found on each.

Outside of the touchscreen operator interface, the control panel for an automatic filling machine will almost always include a Main Power Switch and an Emergency Stop, or E-Stop, button. These switches allow for easy on/off power control to the filling machine. Other switches may allow for control of auxiliary machinery such as conveyors or turntables. Outside of these few switches, everything necessary to operate an automated liquid filler will be found through the touchscreen operator interface. Some of the more common screens and their controls are described below.

MANUAL TOGGLE SCREEN

The manual toggle screen allows the operator to, simply, manually control certain features of the filling equipment. While these controls may vary based on filling principle, they will usually allow manual control of features such as fill head dive, indexing gates and drip trays. Manual control of the different features can aid the operator in troubleshooting and filler setup. These controls, however, will normally return to an automatic setting upon exiting the manual toggle screen to ensure proper functioning in an automatic mode.

FILLER SET UP SCREEN

This screen allows for certain functions of the filling machine to be turned on and off. Unlike the Manual Toggle Screen, the Filler Set Up Screen will allow the operator to control the features that will function during the automatic running of the machine. Ensure that all settings in this screen are set as desired – including choosing the type of indexing and turning on components such as neck grabbers and drip trays – before starting production.

ADJUST PRE-SETS SCREEN

The Adjust Pre-Sets screen includes all the time settings that will allow the filling machine to fill bottles in a consistent and reliable manner. The actual time settings will again vary depending on the filling principle used, but will include such settings as a pump delay and duration, entrance and exit gate durations and other similar settings.

While these delay and duration times are almost always factory set for the bottles to be run, a general understanding of this screen is necessary for set up if a new bottle type or size is added in the future.

ADJUST FILL TIMES SCREEN

This screen is fairly self-explanatory as it will be used to adjust the actual time that product is released into the containers. On some filling machines, the operator will be able to adjust the fill time for each individual fill head if necessary or desired.

AUTO SET UP SCREEN

The Automatic Set Up screen is a great time saver for the operator of a filling machine. This screen allows an operator to line bottles up on the power conveyor to quickly and accurately obtain indexing times, removing a lot of trial and error from the set up procedure. When combined with the Recipe screen found on most fillers, the screen saves even more time in the future. The Recipe screen allows indexing times and other setting to be saved for a specific bottle, to be easily recalled at a later date when the bottle is used again.