During the bottle-filling process, it’s important to get the correct number of tablets into the bottle. Ascend Packaging Systems explains how the quality of your slats and manifolds impacts the effectiveness of your bottle-filling equipment.
Key Points
- Bottle-filling equipment’s primary function is to count the predetermined amount of tablets and fill the bottle with the accurate product amount efficiently.
- From the beginning of pharmaceutical packaging, slat fillers have been used on bottle filling lines to increase accuracy and speed while ensuring high-quality craftsmanship.
- Not all bottle-filling manifolds are created equal—some are better than others.
- The purpose of a bottle-filling manifold is to direct the tablets into the bottle accurately and efficiently.
- To take the risk out of costly downtime and operation disruptions during the bottle-filling process, it’s crucial to stock up on slat and bottle-filling manifold change parts.
Explaining Bottle Filling Systems
A bottle-filling system’s main purpose is to count the predetermined amount of tablets and fill their bottle with the proper product amount efficiently and accurately. To determine if a bottle filling system is doing its job successfully, there are a few key equipment features you need to consider:
- An open design
- Multiple alignments and adjustment points
- Filling speed
A successful, high-performance bottle-filling system has an open design to allow full access to the machine for cleaning, inspection, and any required maintenance. It’s equipped with a chain and slat guide design that reduces the number of discrete parts on the bottle-filling equipment, minimizing cleaning time, and eliminating multiple alignments and adjustment points. Efficient bottle-filling systems can also operate fast; typically filling 100-count bottles at 300 bottles per minute.
What makes a bottle-filling system high-quality and efficient, is its machine parts and how they work together to create a successful bottle-filling line. Let’s explore the most essential features of a bottle-filling system.
The Importance of Slat Fillers
From the beginning of pharmaceutical packaging, slat fillers have been used on bottle filling lines to increase accuracy and speed and ensure high-quality craftsmanship. Their plastic bars, or slats, are used to count tablets into the bottle. Slat fillers are designed and manufactured with cavities tailored to the tablet’s shape, operating at fast speeds and typically filling 100-count bottles at 300 bottles per minute.
To manufacture high-quality slats, pharmaceutical packaging equipment manufacturers design and produce them in-house using the latest packaging technology. Manufacturers can also copy your existing slat designs or create new cavities for your tablets if you don’t have a set that fills correctly. Before shipment, top-notch manufacturers also test every set of slats on an in-house bottle filling setup using your product.
Quality slats are manufactured with the highest quality materials from reliable suppliers. Designing and producing efficient slats also requires engineers and operators working together, using multi-axis milling machines, to leverage the power of their combined expertise. Using the combined skills of two industry experts results in manufacturing customized slats that fit and work efficiently with your existing product and bottling-line equipment.
The Importance of Bottle-Filling Manifolds
Not all bottle-filling manifolds are created equal—some are better than others. That’s why it’s essential to understand how high-quality bottle-filling manifolds increase your equipment’s performance.
The purpose of a bottle-filling manifold is to direct the tablets into the bottle accurately and efficiently. Every slat filler is equipped with upper and lower manifolds to ensure the bottle is filled properly and at a high-performance rate.
There are customized manifolds available equipped with a unique build that takes good manufacturing practices (GMP) to a new level. Extended Fill Lower Manifold Designs (EF Series) reduces cleaning and maintenance times while improving product flow and durability. Most manufacturers can deliver upper and lower bottle-filling manifolds for any slat filling machine you have.
Slats and Bottle Filling Manifold Change Parts
To take the risk out of costly downtime and operation disruptions during the bottle-filling process, it’s crucial to stock-up on slats and bottle-filling manifold change parts. There are a variety of replacement parts available on the market, compatible with every bottle-filling machine make and model.
At Ascend Packaging, we provide you with customized slat and manifold replacements. As an industry leader in tablet manufacturing, we dig into the details and develop unique solutions for your bottle-filling needs. By allowing Ascend to provide you with the parts you need for a successful bottle-filling operation, you get high-quality change parts quickly.
Additional Slat Filler Parts
Along with slat and manifold change parts, Ascend can provide you with a wide range of additional slat filler replacement parts to keep your bottling line running at peak efficiency:
- Slat Chains
- Brushes
- Brush Combs
- Slat Guides
- Chain Guides
- Feed Screws
It’s essential to keep multiple sets of each part in stock at your facility to prevent production downtime and ensure quick turnarounds.
Providing You With High-Quality Slats, Manifolds, and Bottle-Filling Equipment
At Ascend, we can provide you with high-quality, cost-effective slats, manifolds, and bottle-filling equipment. With us supplying you with the right machine parts, you get your products faster because you can order directly from Ascend professionals. We can also customize our parts based on your application specifications. All Ascend machine parts are tested before they’re shipped, so rest assured—you’re getting the best slats and manifolds when you purchase from us. Contact Ascend today for more information on slats, manifolds, and bottle-filling equipment that result in better efficiencies, uptime, and quality.
