Filling machines for detergents, cleaning products and surfactants
Anything with surfactant in it foams. It foams when it is pumped, it foams when it falls into the container, and it foams exactly when you need to know how much is in there.
That is the problem this page is about, and it is why we fill these products by weight and from below the surface, never by level and never from the top.
Our customers here range from the companies that make the surfactants — BASF, CLARIANT, CRODA, EVONIK, NOURYON — to the ones that formulate the finished product.
Foam does not fool a scale
Fill a detergent from the top and you get a head of foam. The container looks full when it is not, the level sensor reports a level that is not the product, and by the time the foam collapses the container is short. Fill it slowly enough to avoid the foam and you have halved the output of the line.
Two decisions solve it, and both are in every AiCROV machine:
We fill by weight, not by level or by volume. A scale does not care whether the surface is foam or liquid; it measures what actually went into the container. AiCROVFill® fills in two speeds — coarse flow for most of the dose, fine flow to finish on target — then checks the settled weight and tops up if it has fallen short. The container leaves the line with the weight on the label, foam or no foam.
We fill from below the surface. In immersion mode the nozzle descends to the bottom of the container and rises with the product, staying under the level as it comes up. No free fall, no splashing, and far less air dragged into the product. Foam that is never created does not have to be waited out.
The result is not only accuracy: it is cycle time. Most of the time lost filling a foaming product is time spent waiting.
From a water-thin surfactant to a gel
This group covers a very wide range of viscosities, often on the same line: concentrated surfactants, ready-to-use cleaners, thickened gels, pastes and creams.
What changes between them is the nozzle diameter, the filling speed and how the product is pushed. The nozzle is interchangeable without tools, so a line can move from a thin product to a thick one in minutes, and the machine controls your pump and your valve to suit each recipe. Every product has its parameters stored, so changing reference is a selection on the panel.
Colour and fragrance carry over, and it shows
In most industries a trace of the previous product is a number in a certificate of analysis. Here it is often visible: a blue cleaner in a white product, or a pine fragrance in a citrus one, and the customer rejects the pallet without needing a laboratory.
The filling unit is designed so the product has nowhere to hide — no dead spots where liquid can sit between references — and the line is flushed between products, recovering what is left in the circuit. Where the process requires more, the nozzle is cleaned in place, and for products that cannot share a path at all it is swapped without tools. See how nozzles are cleaned.
Cleaning products for food plants
A good part of this sector is sold into food and beverage production: disinfectants, CIP chemicals, sanitisers. Those lines are audited by the customer’s customer.
Every AiCROV machine is available in a food-grade version, and the wetted parts are specified accordingly. For the caustic and acid CIP chemicals themselves, the material of the filling unit is chosen for the specific product — see acids, bases and aggressive products.
Containers
From one litre to 1,500:
- Pails and buckets, the format of institutional and professional cleaning
- Jerrycans and canisters, from 1 to 30 litres
- Drums and barrels, steel and plastic
- IBCs and totes, for bulk deliveries and for surfactant producers
A single line can handle all of them: what changes is the recipe and, where needed, the nozzle.
Which machine fits your line
Any AiCROV machine can fill these products. What decides which one you need is not what you fill — it is how many containers per hour you have to produce, in what format, and how much of the operation you want automated. Every container format, from a one-litre canister to a 1,500-litre IBC, has machines across the whole range, from semi-automatic to fully automatic.
What the product decides is everything inside the filling unit: whether it is filled by immersion or under the bunghole, the materials in contact with it, and how the nozzle itself is driven — push or pull, two-stage coarse and fine opening or proportional, and whether the process needs flow control and continuous pressure.
That is why our first step is a conversation and not a quotation. Tell us your output, your containers and your product, and the configuration follows.
LSG — semi-automatic weigh filling machine for jerrycans and small containers
Semi-automatic weigh filling machine for jerrycans and small containers. No installation: connect power, air and product, and it is ready to fill.
LSB — semi-automatic weigh filling machine for drums
Semi-automatic drum filling machine for 30 to 250 litres: it weighs every drum as it fills, comes preconfigured and is simple to run.
LSC — semi-automatic weigh filling machine for IBCs
For plants that only fill IBCs (totes): quick to set up and configure, and available in an explosion proof version.
SP1 — semi-automatic weigh filling machine for containers on a pallet
Semi-automatic weigh filling of jerrycans, drums and IBCs on a pallet: the operator positions the nozzle and the machine fills to the net weight.
SP2 — semi-automatic filling line for containers on a pallet, with conveyors
Semi-automatic filling of drums and IBCs on a pallet, from 20 to 1,500 litres, by weight, on a preconfigured machine.
SP25 — weigh filling machine with motorised nozzle positioning
This is the machine in the range where the operator stops moving the head by hand. Travel in X, in…
SP3 — automatic filling machine for drums and IBCs on a pallet
With the Robot Filler, this is the most automated machine we build. The operator does not intervene during the cycle…
Robot Filler — fully automatic robotic filling machine for drums and IBCs
Robotic filling of jerrycans, drums and IBCs on a pallet: 3D vision finds each container, then the robot uncaps, fills, caps and seals.
EL2-B — in-line automatic drum filling machine
Automatic in-line filling of steel and plastic drums from 60 to 250 litres, by weight, with uncapping, capping and sealing stations.
EL2-E — in-line automatic filling machine for jerrycans and small containers
Automatic in-line weigh filling machine for liquid and viscous products in metal or plastic canisters, pails and jerrycans with a rectangular base.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you fill a product that foams without waiting for the foam to settle?
By filling from below the surface, so the foam is never created, and by weighing instead of measuring level, so the foam does not affect the reading. Those two together are what recovers the cycle time.
Why weight and not volume?
Because foam and entrained air change the volume of a dose without changing what the customer is paying for. The scale measures the product; a flowmeter or a level sensor measures whatever is in the way.
Can the same line fill a thin surfactant and a thick gel?
Yes. The nozzle is changed without tools, and each product has its own recipe with its filling parameters.
How do you stop colour or fragrance carrying over between products?
A filling unit with no dead spots, flushing between references with product recovery, CIP cleaning where the process needs it, and a dedicated nozzle for the products that cannot share a path.
Do you supply food-grade machines for disinfectants and CIP chemicals?
Yes, every machine is available in a food-grade version, with the wetted parts specified for the product.
Can it fill pails as well as IBCs?
Yes, from one litre to 1,500. Which machine suits you depends more on your output and your layout than on the format.
Tell us about your formulations and your containers.
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