Category: Blog

Accutek Packaging Equipment Companies, Inc., one of the largest packaging machinery manufacturers in the United States, is a leading developer and manufacturer of complete packaging solutions. Accutek Packaging Equipment Companies offer a wide variety of bottle filling, capping, and labeling machines. We pride ourselves on being able to support startup companies that need economical semi-automatic bottle fillers. We also have the depth of experience needed to service mature companies with world-class technology, providing automatic packaging lines at competitive prices.

Custom options

Each customer has unique product and container combinations. We routinely customize our machines to accommodate specialized containers and product combinations. We are also adept at integrating our products into your existing packaging lines.

Finding the best bottle filling machine for your needs

Here are factors that should be considered when searching for the correct bottling machinery for your product line. Bottling machinery selection is driven by your product characteristics, viscosity being the primary metric.  Peanut butter is put in a bottle by a liquid filling machine, as is acetone. Peanut butter and acetone are both liquids but at opposite ends of the viscosity range. The bottling machinery needed to move peanut butter into a bottle is very different than the bottle filling machinery used for acetone. 

What type of filling equipment is best suited for your product viscosity and other characteristics? There are four different liquid filler technologies, piston,  timed flow, metered flow, and overflow. Peanut butter is best handled by a piston filler that keeps the product warm and therefore at a lower viscosity, all driven by a strong pneumatic cylinder. Acetone, on the other hand, can be gravity fed into an overflow filler.

Volumetric Fillers

In a piston filler, piston diameter and stroke length determine the product volume delivered to the bottle. Change the stroke length to deliver a different quantity of product to the container. Piston bottle fillers are best with higher viscosity liquids or filling liquids containing chunks of fruit or vegetables.

Timed Flow Fillers

These fillers use time to meter your product if you have a filling machine that delivers product at a consistent flow rate. Light oils and aqueous solutions work well in this type of bottling machine.

Metered Flow Fillers

Use a gear or lobe pump to deliver the product at a consistent volume determined by pump shaft rotations. This type of metered flow filling machine lends itself to thicker products without particulates in the liquid.

Overflow Fillers

Overflow filling systems are also used for light oils and aqueous products where the product needs to be filled to the same visual level. The product on the shelf will appear to be filled to the same level irrespective of container fluctuations.

Bottle Selection

Selecting a bottle is the next step as you design your liquid filling system. A simple straight-sided round bottle can be handled by off the shelf components. If you choose a novelty container, you will increase the time to design manufacture and test your bottling machine.

As a business starts and expands, the needed production rates from their bottling machinery increases. A startup company’s first filling machine may fill a single bottle at a time with an operator handling the containers by hand before and after filling. Increasing the number of nozzles on a bottling machine increases production rates. Bottling machines that have as many as twelve nozzles filling at the same time are not uncommon. In these filling systems, a conveyor belt moves the containers under the nozzles, pauses while the liquid fills the bottles, and then moves the filled containers out.

Accutek Sales engineers have the training and experience to assist you with selecting the optimum bottling machinery for your production rates, product, and container combination.

• Post Date: 03 May, 2021

In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic there is an opportunity to provide personal and hard surface disinfecting products to the public. Accutek can rapidly supply liquid fillers to the disinfectant packaging industry.

Hand sanitizer is moderately thicker than water making it ideally suited for piston fillers. The Accutek AVF series fillers can fill up to twelve containers at a time. Switching from filling two, eight or sixteen ounce containers can be done in minutes without tools.

Accutek overflow fillers, the APOF series, are well suited for filling, ethyl alcohol another key component in preventing the spread of disease. Changing between container sizes with the APOF can also be accomplished with minimum down time.

Accutek has been manufacturing liquid filling machines for over thirty years. We pre-build portions of our machines which enables us to minimize the time from order to delivery. With a wide selection of ancillary equipment such as turntables, conveyors, cappers, and labelers Accutek can build and test a complete production line in a matter of weeks rather than months.

Contact your Accutek sales engineer today for assistance with production line layout, specification, and quote generation.

• Post Date: 20 Mar, 2020

Accutek is the leading supplier of packaging equipment and machines in the world. With hundreds of machine designs we meet our customer’s needs for complete inline filling systems. We have been serving the packaging industry for thirty years and have acquired an amazing amount of expertise in packaging machine design and manufacture. The first small packaging machine produced by Accutek was a timed flow liquid filler.

Packaging Machines

Thirty years ago, packaging machines were not nearly as flexible as they are today. Timing and control were accomplished mechanically and with a few relays. Accutek was an industry leader in the transition to programable electronics operating pneumatic actuators. Current technology is again evolving from pneumatic to servo or stepper motor actuators. Once again Accutek is in the forefront of this evolution. Our goal is to be a leader in providing our customers with the fastest and most accurate packaging machines.
Accutek sales engineers are packaging experts, eager to assist you in the design of a turnkey packaging line. Our company offers simple semi-automated machines for startup companies, as well as fully automated complete packaging lines for mature companies.

You supply the containers, caps, labels, cases, and products. The Accutek team will produce a packaging solution that will meet your requirements. The sequence of operation begins with container preparation. This involves organizing and placing the containers on a conveyor for transport through a cleaning station. The cleaned containers then enter a filler.
The product characteristics, anything from water to peanut butter, determine the liquid filling technology best suited for our customers. Accutek’s timed flow volumetric filling machines are best suited for filling liquids with low to medium viscosity. These fillers are highly accurate, very sanitary, and have options for filling molten products. They can be used to fill light foamy products as well.

Packaging Equipment Solutions

Accutek’s overflow filling machines are also suited for filling low to medium viscosity liquids. These fillers are great at filling foamy products at higher speeds. Examples of products suited for overflow filling machines are non-carbonated aqueous beverages, sauces, syrups, light gels, shampoos, water, fruit juice, wine, tea, and foamy cleansers or chemicals.

Our piston filling machines are ideal for filling sauces, pastes, creams, lotions, gels, peanut butter and products that have large particulates or chunks. With options for filling molten products this type filler can handle lip balm, honey, and heavy syrups. Cleaning is a simple process as no tools are required. All our piston filling machines are made with heavy-duty stainless steel frames and all contact parts made with food grade materials.

Accutek’s positive displacement pump filling machines are suited for filling viscous products, but they can be used to fill thin products as well. They are ideal for filling pastes, creams, lotions, and gels, in large volumes and at greater speeds than otherwise achieved with a piston filler. Positive displacement fillers can also process molten products such as lip balm, honey, and heavy syrups when purchased with heating option packages.
An important part of the design process is developing the container handling hardware. We routinely adapt our production lines to handle all types of plastic, metal, and glass containers.

Accutek Net Weight filling machines bulk-fill liquid or semi-liquid products into drums or buckets. Easy to use and durable stainless steel construction make each net weight filler a long-lasting investment.

The next packaging machine in the process secures a closure (cap) on a container. Caps are bulk loaded into a hopper where they are oriented and organized to be picked up by a container just before being screwed on, pressed on, snapped on, or stomped.

An attractive label is needed to get your product chosen over competing products on the same shelf. Accutek manufactures a wide variety of labeling equipment to automatically place and secure most label types onto a wide assortment of container types. Accutek labeling machines utilize the latest technologies to achieve the highest speeds and most accurately labeled bottles on the market. Three different styles of labeling systems are available: pressure sensitive labelers, hot melt glue labelers, and sleeve labelers. Labelers can range from high-speed sleeve labeling system down to single head bench top labelers for low-speed labeling.

Filled, capped and labeled containers are ready to be packed in cases and palletized for storage or shipment to a retailer. Accutek has case formers, packers and tapers that can be ordered with the rest of your Accutek packaging machines.

We can supply our customers a complete packaging line, installation and service with a single purchase order. We have supplied liquid packing machines for juice, water, beverage, dairy, brewing, distilled spirits, wine, pharmaceutical, nutritional, industrial cleaners, household products and chemical Industries. Accutek thoroughly tests every component and the integration of the complete packaging line. We offer factory acceptance testing to our customers and we carefully crate and ship your order from our factory in Vista California.

• Post Date: 02 Mar, 2020

The backbone of every packaging line is the conveyor system that moves the product through the various stages of the production process. Typically, the product sits on a moving belt to get from point A to point B, but occasionally it is necessary to have access to the top or bottom of a container, a bottomless conveyor solves this requirement. A bottomless conveyor suspends a container between two moving belts.

Versatility

The Accutek bottomless conveyor is one of our most adaptable products capable of being used in several different ways. Raise one end or the other of the gripper belts to change line height or extract a container from a puck. Pucks are used to stabilize a rounded container that can’t ride on a conveyor without falling over.

A bottomless conveyor is also used to change container travel direction by 90°. This is done by offsetting the gripper belts so that the container stops against one belt then moves sideways to be captured between the two belts. This works to turn left or right.

Flexibility

There is an inherit flexibility with the Accutek Bottomless Conveyor because it can be ordered with low profile gripper belts, standard width or dual gripper belts. In addition, the belts can be tilted to make full contact with tapered containers. The space between the gripper belts is adjustable, accommodating container sizes from 0.5 to 8 inches.

A printer can be mounted between the gripper belts to mark the bottom of each container as it passes over the print head or mount an inspection camera under the gripper belts to check for correct labeling on the bottom of a container.

Latest Technology

The gripper belts are driven by direct drive AC motors that are powered by a single variable frequency drive (VFD). The VFD has a speed control knob that can smoothly vary the gripper belt speed from very slow to full speed.
The gripper belts are a sandwich of durable materials from the scuff resistant container contact material to the inner toothed composite material that is in contact with the drive wheels.

Stainless steel and aircraft grade aluminum construction make the Accutek Bottomless Conveyor a durable low maintenance unit that can be wiped down with nonabrasive cleaners and a damp rag to return it to like new condition. A valuable and useful addition to any packaging line.

• Post Date: 02 Mar, 2020

The Accutek bottomless conveyor is one of our most versatile, best selling and low cost machines we manufacture. This machine in most cases is available to be completed and put into shipping in less than one business day. Bottomless conveyors are used to provide a smooth and stable transfer of containers up to 2 ½ gallons between machines or around corners, allowing access to the bottom of a container. Allowing access to the bottom of containers is required, when it used in conjunction with an ink jet or laser coding machine applying date and lot coding. Accutek bottomless conveyors are compatible with most ink jet and laser coding machines. The bottomless conveyor can also be used when a packaging line needs to be reconfigured. The bottomless conveyer can join two conveyors, or machines together to create a simple low cost transfer solution. Bottomless conveyors can also be used to transfer containers around corners by staggering their belts ninety degrees and reduce costs in having to purchase a curved conveyor.  

Accutek’s sturdy and user friendly design allows our machine to be modified by using several different belt options. The gripper belt assembly choices include, single one inch width, double gripper belts and our one half inch low profile belts for small containers. The gripper belts can be adjusted in minutes to meet most conveyor heights in the packaging industry. The width between the two belts can be adjusted in seconds, utilizing the convenient rotating handle on each belt assembly that controls each belt assembly individually. The gripper belt assembly can be tilted inward or upward to help in controlling of the container for specific needs of the customer. The gripper belts are powered by two AC motors, controlled by a programmable variable frequency drive that controls speed and torque.

Accutek’s commitment to quality control and craftsmanship in our manufacturing process ensures that we are using the finest stainless steel and aircraft grade aluminum parts, in the assembly of our bottomless conveyors. Accutek’s craftsmanship provides a longer service life, for years of use and wear parts are readily available for next day shipment.

 

• Post Date: 17 Feb, 2020

 

Listen

Listen to the sound of your conveyor as it is working. Hear the sound of the conveyor plates as they roll over the pulleys. You should not hear bearing noise or gear noise. The sound of conveyor operation should remain at the same volume over time. Any new noise that you hear from your conveyor is an indication that something may be wrong. Don’t ignore the noise find its cause.

 

Look

Look at the surface of the belt for build up of spilled product on the surface of the belt and accumulation of gunk between the conveyor links. Keep your conveyor free of foreign material for good performance.

 

Cleaning

The conveyor belt must be loosened and removed for proper cleaning. The conveyor belt tension can be relaxed by loosening the axle bolts on both sides of the conveyor at the end opposite the drive motor. The conveyor must be returned to the same tension when you reinstall the cleaned belt.Use a punch or small screwdriver to remove the link pin from a link. The link pin only comes out in one direction. The conveyor belt can now be removed from its track for cleaning.
Note that the conveyor is designed to move in one direction as shown in the picture below.

    

• Post Date: 15 Jan, 2020