Filling machines for resins and adhesives
Polyester, epoxy, polyurethane and phenolic resins, adhesives and hardeners — filled into pails, drums and IBCs (totes), usually viscous, often warm, and always with a clock running.
COVESTRO, HEXION, POLYNT COMPOSITES, H.B. FULLER, DYNEA, SYNTHESIA, ARKEMA, MORCHEM and KRYPTON CHEMICALS all fill on AiCROV machines.
Here, cleaning is not about the product. It is about the machine.
In most industries you clean the filling unit so the next product is not contaminated. With a reactive resin or an adhesive, you clean it so there is still a filling unit tomorrow.
A product that cures inside the nozzle does not come out with a flush. It has to be dismantled, and sometimes it has to be replaced. Which means two things decide whether a line survives this sector:
How little there is to clean. We fill by weight, and a weight filler needs no intermediate product tank. The nozzle connects directly to your pipe. A volumetric machine carries a tank, its pipework and a three-way valve — with a curing product, every one of those is somewhere the resin can sit still and set. Ours is the nozzle. Why we fill by weight and never by volume.
How fast it can be cleaned. The filling unit is built with no dead spots where product can stand between batches. The circuit is flushed and the product recovered rather than lost. Where the process requires it, the nozzle is cleaned in place. And when a product simply cannot be left in the line, the nozzle comes off without tools in minutes.
For a plant running several chemistries with different pot lives, that is not a maintenance detail. It is how many products you can put through one line in a day.
Moisture, and keeping it out
Isocyanates and moisture-sensitive components react with the humidity in the air, and the reaction happens in the headspace of the container you just filled.
Nitrogen inerting, before, during and after filling, displaces the air where the product requires it. The same option we fit for flammable products, used here for a different reason.
For these products we also fill by immersion, with the nozzle below the surface and rising with the level — less contact with air on the way in, and no splashing up the walls of the container where a film can skin over.
Viscous, hot, and abrasive when filled
This group pushes the filling unit in three directions at once:
- Viscosity. From a pourable resin to something closer to a paste. The nozzle diameter, the filling speed and the closing profile change with each, and the machine controls your pump and your valve to suit the recipe.
- Temperature. Many resins are filled warm to be filled at all. Product temperature from 0 to 130 °C, nozzle rated to 80 °C as standard and up to 210 °C on request for special applications, with the wetted parts and seals specified accordingly.
- Fillers. Glass, mineral and other fillers in composite resins are abrasive, and they wear a filling unit that was not specified for them. The wetted parts are chosen for the actual formulation, with more than eighty nozzle combinations available.
Solvent-based versions
A large part of this group is solvent-borne, which puts the filling area inside a classified zone.
Every AiCROV machine is available in an explosion proof version — under ATEX, IECEx or the scheme applicable in the country of installation — covering the whole assembly rather than the machine alone. See flammable products and solvents for how that certification works and what comes with it.
A clean container, because this one does not wipe off
Resin or adhesive on the thread of a drum sets there. It is not a cosmetic problem that someone deals with later — it is a container that cannot be closed properly and a label that will not stick.
Anti-drip nozzle with positive closing, closing profile matched to the viscosity, and the nozzle held in position long enough for a stringing product to break cleanly.
Containers
From one litre to 1,500:
- Pails and buckets, the usual format for two-component systems and adhesives
- Drums and barrels, steel and plastic
- IBCs and totes, for bulk resin supply
- Jerrycans and canisters, for hardeners, catalysts and additives
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
What happens if a resin cures inside the nozzle?
That is what the design is meant to prevent. There is no intermediate tank or feed pipework where product can stand still, the filling unit has no dead spots, and the circuit is flushed with product recovery. Where a product cannot be left in the line at all, the nozzle comes off without tools.
How much has to be cleaned between products?
The nozzle. A weight filler does not need a tank, pipework or a three-way valve, so there is nothing else in contact with the product.
Can you inert with nitrogen for isocyanates?
Yes, before, during and after filling, to keep moisture out of the headspace.
Can you fill hot resins?
Yes. Product temperature from 0 to 130 °C, nozzle rated to 80 °C as standard and 210 °C as an option.
What about abrasive filled resins?
The wetted parts are specified for the actual formulation. Tell us what the filler is and we will tell you what we would fit.
Is there an explosion proof version for solvent-borne products?
Yes, in an explosion proof version under ATEX, IECEx or the local scheme, covering the whole assembly.
Tell us your chemistry, your pot life and your containers.
Get a quotation
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