SP2 — semi-automatic filling line for containers on a pallet, with conveyors
The SP1 asks the operator to do two jobs: move pallets and fill containers. The SP2 takes the first one away.
Pallets arrive at the filling station on the infeed conveyor and leave full on the outfeed. The operator never touches a pallet truck, never walks into the filling area, and spends their whole shift on the only part of the job that needs a person: putting the nozzle in the right place.
Compact series · Semi-automatic · Containers on pallet, with conveyors
Is this the machine you need?
Yes, if you fill containers on pallets continuously enough that pallet handling is what limits the operator, and you have the floor space for a short conveyor line.
No, if you fill a few pallets a day — the SP1 does the same filling for less, and a pallet truck is not the bottleneck. And no, if what you want removed is the alignment, not the handling: that is the SP25.
Every AiCROV machine handles virtually any industrial liquid — viscous, sticky, foaming, flammable, corrosive. What changes with the product is the nozzle, the materials in contact with it and how the dose is controlled. Not the model.
What decides the model is the container format, the throughput you need, and how much of the handling you want the machine to do. That is why our range is not organized by industry. A detergent plant and a lubricants plant filling the same drum at the same rate buy the same machine.
How it works
1. Filling recipe and net weight are selected on the operator panel.
2. Filling height is adjusted to the container format, without tools.
3. The pallet of empty containers is placed on the infeed conveyor.
4. When the operator authorizes it from the panel, the pallet advances automatically to the filling station.
5. The operator presses the release button and positions the filling head over the container. On releasing, the head locks.
6. On start, the system tares automatically and fills to the net weight.
7. Alignment and filling repeat for each container on the pallet.
8. The operator commands discharge: the full pallet moves out and the next one comes in.
9. Full pallets are collected at the end of the line.
SP2 Filling Line + Extra Scale: Drums, IBCs & Jerrycans | Lubricants – Sadaps Bardahl
An SP2 line filling lubricants for Sadaps Bardahl in Belgium: drums, IBCs and jerrycans from the same line.
More videos of this machine
Other installations and configurations, filmed in our workshop and at customer sites.
SP2 Automatic IBC & Drum Filling Line — Explosion Proof, 12-IBC Buffers | Clariant, Tarragona
Semi-Automatic IBC Filling Line SP2 — Immersion Weight Filling | Chemical | AiCROV
Explosion-Proof Twin SP2 Drum & IBC Filling Lines — One Operator | Halliburton | AiCROV
Dual SP2 Automatic Filling Line — Drums & IBCs, Immersion Nozzle | Lubricant Oil | AiCROV
Filling modes: two assemblies
Two filling assemblies are available, and the choice is made when the machine is ordered: the assembly is a physical part of the machine, not a setting. Both are made of sandblasted AISI 304 stainless steel; the nozzle is AISI 316L as standard, with other materials available for demanding products.
Under bunghole filling
Normally used for products that do not foam and are neither flammable nor explosive, including dense and viscous products. The nozzle descends until it is just inside the container and fills from that position. This assembly fills under the bunghole only.
Immersion filling
Normally used for foaming products, and for flammable or explosive products. The nozzle descends to the bottom of the container, and the filling recipe chooses one of three ways of filling:
- Rising with the product: the nozzle opens at the bottom and rises as the container fills. The control calculates the product height inside the container and keeps the nozzle at that level, stopping at the top of the container, without leaving it, until the fill is complete.
- From the bottom: the nozzle stays at its lowest position for the whole fill. For extremely foaming products.
- Under bunghole: the nozzle enters just past the bunghole and fills from there, as the under-bunghole assembly does.
If your range includes foaming or flammable products, or may include them later, choose the immersion assembly: it covers every way of filling.
Machine architecture
A self-supporting structure carries a vertical column on which the filling head travels. The filling station sits over the conveyor line, so pallet infeed, positioning and discharge happen without a pallet truck and without the operator entering the filling area.
Weighing is done by the weighing conveyor in the filling station, with its terminal integrated into the control system.
One cabinet governs both the filling machine and the conveyor line — no additional panels, no second controller, no integration between two suppliers’ logic. This is the part that usually goes wrong when a filling machine and a conveyor line are bought separately.
Inert gas filling (optional)
Any AiCROV machine can be supplied to fill under an inert atmosphere. It is fitted as an accessory, and it touches the nozzle, the control cabinet and the recipe.
How it is built. The nozzle carries a small passage through which the gas flows. A dedicated solenoid valve in the main control cabinet drives that flow, so the gas is part of the filling cycle rather than something an operator does alongside it.
When the gas flows is a recipe parameter, not a fixed setting. You choose to inert before the nozzle opens, during filling, after the target weight is reached, or any combination of the three — and you set how many seconds each phase lasts. Different products need different answers, and the machine stores one per product.
Why a small amount of gas is enough. Nitrogen is heavier than air. A short burst into the bottom of an empty container leaves a layer of nitrogen sitting there, and filling then begins inside that atmosphere rather than in air. As the product level rises, the nitrogen is pushed up ahead of it and stays between the liquid and the container opening. A little more at the end, before the container is capped, and the product has never touched air.
It is not always nitrogen. The gas is chosen for the product; nitrogen is simply the most common.
Inerting by overpressure is the other route: capping assemblies that pressurize the inside of the container to a few millibars immediately before the cap goes on.
And the case that is not about product quality at all. Filling a flammable product into a metal container can generate a spark as the liquid starts to flow. Displace the oxygen first and there is nothing to ignite. On some installations that is the whole reason the inerting is there.
The nozzle is interchangeable. It can be replaced by a different model or diameter without modifying the structure or the filling head, which means the machine can be adapted to a different product or a different container years after it was bought. How nozzles are cleaned →
AiCROVFill®
Weighing a container while you fill it is not difficult. Getting the last hundred grams right, every time, on a product that foams, settles or clings to the lance, is the whole job. AiCROVFill® is the filling control AiCROV has developed and refined since its first filling machine in 2009, installation after installation.
A software ecosystem, not a single function. AiCROVFill® is the whole of AiCROV’s filling software, built around one aim: to fill as accurately and as fast as the product allows — efficient in time, effective in the result — and always safely.
Misalignment control. If the nozzle meets resistance as it descends into the container, it returns to its upper position and waits for the operator to realign it. It does not force the container.
Final weight control and top-up. Once the nominal net weight is reached, the nozzle closes. For a set interval afterwards the system keeps watching the settled weight, and if it has fallen below the nominal value it reopens and completes the dose — as many times as needed. This is the difference between a container that reads correct at the moment of closing and one that reads correct on the customer’s scale.
Compensation for the submerged lance. In immersion filling the nozzle can stay below the product surface — because the operator has set it to fill under the level to keep a foaming product quiet, or because, near the top of a full container, it cannot rise any further without leaving the opening. A submerged lance displaces its own volume of product, and the scale reads that displacement as weight. Close the nozzle at the nominal value, draw the lance out, and the container is suddenly tens or hundreds of grams short — a fill that looked perfect now fails the tolerance. AiCROVFill® knows where the lance is: its position is controlled, so the volume it occupies inside the product is known at every moment. The control calculates the weight that volume accounts for and doses exactly that much more before closing, so the net weight is right after the lance comes out, not only while it is still in.
Automatic compensation of the product still falling after the valve closes. When the valve closes, some product is still on its way into the container. How much depends on the machine, and on conditions outside it: supply pressure, flow rate, product temperature and viscosity. If the recipe carries a fixed value for that product, AiCROVFill® uses it. If that value is set to zero, the machine learns it: container after container it measures the result and moves the cut-off point by itself, so the batch settles on the nominal weight and stays there as conditions drift.
Recipe-based operation. Filling parameters are stored per product and per container format. Changing reference is a selection on the panel, not a readjustment of the machine.
Built from parts you can buy yourself
This machine is built with industrial components from globally distributed brands — control, pneumatics, sensors and weighing elements — with no proprietary electronics or firmware anywhere in the control chain.
This matters on the day something fails. You source the spare part yourself, in your own market, at market price. Your maintenance staff work on platforms they already know. You do not wait for a shipment from Tarragona to replace a component that is on a shelf twenty minutes from your plant.
It is a deliberate design decision, and we think a machine that holds your plant hostage is not a machine you should buy.
Safety and compliance
The machine is designed and manufactured in Europe, to European machinery safety legislation, and carries the CE marking. That is our starting point for every market we ship to. Outside the EU, most markets mirror that legislation through a transposition or an equivalent framework of essential health and safety requirements, so AiCROV starts from the same design and the same risk assessment everywhere, and adapts the marking, the declaration and the documentation to the regime of the country of installation.
The design follows the harmonised framework customary in the sector: risk assessment and risk reduction to EN ISO 12100, safety-related parts of control systems to EN ISO 13849-1, electrical equipment to EN 60204-1, emergency stop to EN ISO 13850.
The risk assessment is carried out on the configuration actually supplied, not on a generic model, and the resulting measures are built into the mechanical design, the electrical design and the control software.
- Emergency stop — cuts power and pneumatic pressure to the actuators and stops conveyor movement. Reset is manual and deliberate.
- Pallet movement under authorization — the pallet never enters or leaves on the machine’s initiative. Each movement is authorized by the operator from the panel, so travel can never coincide with alignment and filling.
- Head braked by default.
- Passive nozzle lock — without pneumatic pressure the nozzle cannot open.
- Safe behaviour on failure — no residual head movement, no conveyor drift, no product flow.
Every AiCROV machine can be supplied in an explosion proof version. Where the machine is going into an area with a risk of explosive atmosphere, that protection is engineered as a specific part of the project, under the certification scheme that applies in the country of installation — ATEX in Europe, IECEx in many other markets, NEC in the United States. Explosion proof versions are designed for Zone 1 or Zone 2 hazardous areas, or the equivalent Class I, Division 1 or 2 under NEC, depending on the project.
This is not a variant we assemble occasionally. Most of the explosion proof machines AiCROV has installed are in plants that also run standard machines from us — the same customer, two versions, depending on which room the machine stands in.
Explosion proof filling machines →
Connection parameters — voltage, frequency, neutral and earthing arrangement, electrical and compressed air connection types — and the operator panel language are defined with you during order engineering, in accordance with the regulations and the usual practice of the country of installation. The starting point is always the CE-compliant design; the local requirements are built in from the start of the order, not retrofitted afterwards.
Technical specifications
| Type | Semi-automatic, weigh filling, with conveyor pallet handling |
| Series | Compact |
| Containers | Drums, kegs, pails, canisters and IBCs, on a pallet, 20 to 1,500 litres (5 to 400 gal); from 0.2 L with an additional scale |
| Throughput | 65 drums/hour (220 L) · 15 IBC/hour (1,200 L) |
| Filling accuracy | ±0.1% of the nominal fill (to be confirmed for each case) |
| Weight scale resolution | ± 50 g |
| Inert gas filling | Available as an accessory |
| Filling assembly | Under bunghole, or immersion (the immersion assembly also fills under bunghole or from the bottom, selected by recipe) |
| Weighing | Weighing conveyor in the filling station |
| Height adjustment | 550 mm, servo |
| Power | 240 V, 50–60 Hz, <1 kW (to be confirmed per project — depends on the conveyor layout) |
| Air pressure | 6 bar (other pressures on request) |
| Working temperature | −10 °C to +45 °C |
| Product temperature | 0 °C to +130 °C |
| Product connection | 1½” male camlock |
| Weight | 900 kg (to be confirmed per project) |
| Explosion proof version | Available |
Filling throughput is set by the product and the container, not by the model: when they only fill, the SP1, SP2, SP25, SP3 and Robot Filler reach the same cadence, around 60–65 drums per hour. What changes between models is the level of automation. When the machine also uncaps and caps the container, as the SP3 and the Robot Filler can, the cadence is lower.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the SP1 and the SP2?
The filling is identical. The SP2 adds conveyors, so pallets reach the filling station and leave it without a pallet truck and without the operator entering the filling area.
Is the conveyor line included?
The weighing conveyor in the filling station is part of the machine. The rest of the line — accumulation before and after — is sized to your plant and quoted separately.
Who controls the conveyors?
The same cabinet that controls the filling machine. There is no second controller and no integration between two suppliers.
Can the pallet move while the operator is filling?
No. Every pallet movement is authorized by the operator from the panel.
Can it fill flammable products?
Yes, in an explosion proof version engineered for the certification scheme of the country of installation. Flammable products are normally filled with the immersion assembly, which keeps the nozzle below the product level, and electrostatic grounding control is available as an option.
What is the difference between the SP2 and the SP3?
In the SP2 the operator aligns the nozzle with each container. The SP3 motorises the head, adds teach or machine vision, and can uncap, cap and seal.
Not sure this is the right machine?
Tell us what you fill, into what container, and how many per hour. We will tell you which model fits — and we will tell you when none of ours does.
Related projects
Real installations of our filling machines in different industries.
SP2 line with an extra scale for jerrycans — lubricants and greases into drums, IBCs and jerrycans, Sadaps Bardahl, Belgium
Sadaps Bardahl wanted one line for lubricating oils and greases in drums, IBCs and small jerrycans, with the same accuracy on all of them.
SP2 IBC filling line for bio-based agrochemical solvents, with dedicated nozzles and nitrogen feed — Spain
An agrochemicals producer in Montmeló needed to fill several bio-based solvents into IBCs without ever mixing them, in a small room.
SP2 drum and IBC filling line for lubricant oils and greases, with teleservice — Ardeca Lubricants, Belgium
Ardeca, a Belgian producer of high-quality lubricants, needed to fill oils and greases into drums of three sizes and IBCs, with legal-for-trade accuracy.
SP2 and LSG packaging plant for water-treatment chemicals — jerrycans, drums and IBCs, Tashia, Spain
Tashia, a manufacturer and packager of water-treatment chemicals, was setting up a new packaging plant and needed to fill jerrycans, drums and IBCs.
Twin Explosion Proof SP2 Lines for Drums and IBCs, Run by One Operator — Halliburton, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Halliburton needed to fill highly flammable, explosive products into drums and IBCs with as few people as possible in the hazardous area.
SP2 IBC Filling and Blending Line for Aggressive Acids — Kemira, Helsingborg, Sweden
Kemira needed to fill aggressive acids into IBCs and to blend several components directly in the container, on the Øresund.
Two semi-automatic SP2 fillers on one conveyor line for lubricants — drums, open-top drums and IBCs, Moove, United Kingdom
Moove needed to fill lubricants into four container types, from 60-litre drums to IBCs, at high output.
Fully Automatic Explosion Proof SP2 Line for IBCs and Drums, with 12-Pallet Buffers — Clariant, Tarragona, Spain
Clariant needed to fill flammable chemicals into IBCs and metal drums continuously, without the filler stopping every time a pallet came in or went out.
SP2 filling line for flammable products, in service since 2016 — Barcelona area, Spain
A chemicals producer near Barcelona needed to fill flammable products into drums and IBCs by weight, safely and with automatic pallet handling.
SP2 filling line for flammable chemicals — Germany
A German manufacturer of flammable chemicals needed to fill drums and IBCs on pallets by weight, safely, with containers fed and removed automatically.
SP2 line for flammable and explosive petrochemical products, AiCROV’s first project in Saudi Arabia — Dammam
A producer of petroleum-derived chemicals in Dammam needed to fill flammable and explosive products into drums and IBCs safely, in a hazardous area.
SP2 IBC filling line for detergents and cleaning chemicals, with buffers inside and outside the building — Degussa, Spain
Degussa needed to fill concentrated detergents, which foam, into IBCs, and wanted the full containers to leave the building on their own.
Tell us about your product and containers
We will contact you