Hot Fill Fillstar HF

Fillstar HF RCP gravity filler technical features

The gravity filling valve HF RCP moves to make contact with the bottle during filling. The bottle itself opens the valve when it makes contact and there is no product recirculation.

Air flowing from the bottle is exhausted through a product recirculation pipe. When the filling level has been reached the product recirculation restarts, then a pneumatic valve closes the filling head and stops product recirculation. The maximum amount of product recirculation through the machine is guaranteed to be less than 10%. A time opening phase of the pneumatic valve, which controls the recirculation rate, allows a high filling temperature to be maintained in all parts of the machine.

This Advanced Recirculation Control of the product recirculation rate with an external actuator offers many advantages compared with traditional hot fill: for example dual speed filling allows the filling speed at the end to be reduced to limit turbulence and foaming and reduce the product recirculation rate. Moreover, product feeding can be closed in the final part of the filling carrousel with a reduced product recirculation rate and less product splash-out when filling square plastic bottles as the bottles are decompressed.

This specific filling valve does not need dummy bottles for CIP cleaning because there is a closed loop within the valve that allows cleaning to take place.

The shaping of the contact zone between fixed and mobile parts ensures a proper cleaning flow rate. The rest of the machine is very easy to clean: a spray ball needed only for cleaning the manifold and external tank.