Bottle filliing, nozzle, no drip

[kalabdel]

Hello everyone,


I have a project for bottle filling machine for low to medium viscosity liquids. I understand the products vary slightly some having more granular material to it than other, either sugar or salt.


I've done my research and I understand the two most common are overflow nozzles which provide consistent level and not very time critical, and the other is straight open nozzle which requires precise timing to maintain consistency.


Control is not a concern but I have zero experience with bottle filling and the customer's main concerns have to do with fill level and drip. Their old machine has overflow nozzles that seems to always drip and leaks and for some reason the removed the drip tray.



Is drip unavoidable and is just something that has to managed or is some way to eliminate that? I though of a small air nozzle to blow that liquid off the nozzle but that will make more mess than anything else. What else is out there.




Edit: Wacky thought, how about overflow nozzle with some slow return mechanism that the overflow tube is still exposed as the nozzle is raised, and as it begins to raise something sucks air through the overflow nozzle hopefully sucking then a time nozzle/hose shoots a small burst of air on the the tip of the overflow nozzle so that the drip falls in the bottle itself. Would that work? I would definitely slow down the process but the gain in eliminating dip on the the outside of the bottles far exceeds the extra time taking for this process; assuming it is doable.

 

[goghie]

There are different solutions for nozzles, depending of type of medium and almost always drip can be avoided, but in some cases it is not economical to invest in it, usually due to required throughput. In that cases you just let it drip and collect it. There is also solution to install drip tray with hose that will lead that product to Product Re-Supply.

 

[kalabdel]

There are different solutions for nozzles, depending of type of medium and almost always drip can be avoided, but in some cases it is not economical to invest in it, usually due to required throughput. In that cases you just let it drip and collect it. There is also solution to install drip tray with hose that will lead that product to Product Re-Supply.

Thanks you goghie. I expect to learn a lot as I dig more into this; starting next week I will spend sometime on their existing equipment to see the problems first hand.

Their problem with dripping is that it gets on the bottles meaning the line has to stop for someone to wipe the bottles before continues to be capped and labeled.

It is the similar problem of supplier not providing the support the customer expects so the latter is trying to find solutions elsewhere.


Cheers

 

[gas]

I had a similar problem and used a plunger type pump and retracted the plunger a bit before pulling from the container. Occasional drip but no longer a problem.

 

[I_Automation]

My first thought was a vacuum tube. Then I read your wacky idea. on the side of the nozzle, At the end of dispensing turn the vacuum on, then I read your wacky idea.


The air blow for a second could get a lot out of the nozzle, but still leave some in that could drip, so I would go with vacuum. Also, the vacuum could be run through a jar to collect the product to reuse and not plug up the vacuum generator.

 

[kalabdel]

Many thanks gentlemen. It looks like I will not have to reinvent the wheel as there are some pretty good alternatives on the market. The suction one specially but I'm sure they would be able to customize in other ways.