Filling machines for food and beverage
Twenty-one projects in food and beverage, from olive oil mills to dairy plants and ingredient producers. CARGILL, TETRA PAK, CORBION, LOUIS DREYFUS, CHR. HANSEN, BORGES, OLEOESTEPA, RENY PICOT and MUNTONS all fill on AiCROV machines, in Spain, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Russia, Indonesia, Croatia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Oils, sauces, concentrates, syrups, juices, colourings and preservatives — in drums, IBCs (totes), jerrycans and pails, at ambient temperature or hot, and with a changeover that has to be defensible in front of an auditor.
Allergens are not a quality problem. They are a legal one.
In most industries a trace of the previous product is a batch out of specification. In food it is a product recall, a label that is now false, and in the worst case somebody in hospital.
Which is why, on a food line, the question is never “is it clean?” It is “can you prove it is clean, and how long did it take?”
A weight filler has almost nothing to clean. We do not build volumetric machines, and that is not a detail here. A volumetric machine needs an intermediate product tank to hold pressure and flow steady, plus the pipework and the three-way valve that feed it. Every one of those is a surface that touched the allergen and has to be cleaned, swabbed and signed off.
Our nozzle connects directly to your pipe. When you change from a product with an allergen to one without, what you clean is the nozzle. Why we fill by weight and never by volume.
On top of that: a filling unit designed with no dead spots where product can sit between batches, flushing with product recovery, CIP cleaning in place where the process requires it, and an interchangeable nozzle that can be swapped without tools in minutes — or kept permanently dedicated to your allergen-bearing product. See how nozzles are cleaned.
Food-grade where it has to be, and documented
Every AiCROV machine is available in a food-grade version: wetted parts, seals and surface finish specified for food contact, and the construction chosen so the machine can actually be cleaned rather than just wiped.
The machine records date, time, tare and net weight of every single container in CSV. That file is what answers a traceability request months later, when a customer asks which pallet a particular drum came from.
Oils that are not liquid at room temperature
Palm oil, coconut oil, certain fats and some concentrates are solid or barely pourable in a cold warehouse, and they are filled warm.
AiCROV machines handle product temperatures from 0 to 130 °C, with the nozzle rated to 80 °C as standard and up to 210 °C on request for special applications, and the wetted parts and seals specified accordingly. Tell us the temperature the product leaves your process at and its viscosity at that temperature — those two figures decide the nozzle before anything else does.
From olive oil to ketchup on the same line
This group covers the widest range of behaviour of any sector we work in, and often inside the same plant:
- Oils — olive, sunflower, corn, palm, coconut. Clean to fill, but they string and drip, and a smeared thread is a leaking drum in the warehouse.
- Sauces and pastes — soy, barbecue, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard. Viscous, sometimes with particles, and they need the nozzle to close positively rather than trail off.
- Juices, musts and concentrates — often foaming, often filled warm.
- Syrups and malt extracts — high viscosity, and they set if the nozzle cools between containers.
- Colourings, preservatives and ingredients — small volumes, high value, and the strictest changeover of the lot.
What changes between them is the nozzle, the filling speed and the closing profile. The nozzle is interchangeable without tools, and every product has its parameters stored as a recipe, so changing reference is a selection on the panel and not a readjustment of the line.
Foam, and why the scale ignores it
Juices, musts and anything with protein in it will foam as they fill. A level sensor reads the foam; a scale does not.
Every AiCROV machine fills by weight. 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. And in immersion mode the nozzle stays below the surface as the level rises, so most of the foam is never created in the first place. That is not only accuracy: on a foaming product, most of the time lost is time spent waiting.
Weight that stands up to an inspection
Food is sold in declared quantities and the trade is inspected.
The weighing conveyors carry legal-for-trade approvals under OIML R61 and the Measuring Instruments Directive (MID, Annex MI-006), with CE-M marking. Every container is weighed, and the record is there if anyone asks.
Containers
From one litre to 1,500:
- Jerrycans and canisters, from 1 to 30 litres
- Pails and buckets, the format of food service and industrial catering
- Drums and barrels, steel and plastic
- IBCs and totes, for bulk supply to other manufacturers
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 long does an allergen changeover take?
It depends on the pair of products, but the machine is on your side: there is no intermediate tank, no feed pipework and no three-way valve, because a weight filler does not need them. What you clean is the nozzle, and it can be swapped without tools or kept dedicated to the allergen-bearing product.
Do you supply food-grade machines?
Yes, every machine in the range is available in a food-grade version, with the wetted parts, seals and surface finish specified for food contact.
Can you fill hot products like palm oil?
Yes. Product temperature from 0 to 130 °C, with the nozzle rated to 80 °C as standard and up to 210 °C on request for special applications.
Can the same line fill olive oil and ketchup?
Yes, with a nozzle change and each product’s parameters stored as a recipe. They behave very differently, and what changes is the nozzle, the speed and the closing profile.
How do you fill a product that foams, like juice or must?
By weighing rather than reading level, so the foam does not affect the measurement, and by filling from below the surface so most of it is never created.
Will it drip on the threads?
Anti-drip nozzle with positive closing and a closing profile matched to the viscosity. On oils that is what keeps the drum clean enough to label.
Does the weighing hold up to an inspection?
The weighing conveyors carry approvals under OIML R61 and the Measuring Instruments Directive (MID, Annex MI-006), with CE-M marking. Every container is weighed and recorded with date, time, tare and net weight.
Tell us your product, your containers and your changeover requirement.
Get a quotation
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