Filling Equipment To Witness Rapid Technological Upgrades

With the improvements in automation, filling equipment has witnessed tremendous updates. The traditional filling equipment demanded tons of human labor and lacked perfect finish compared to what today’s automated filling systems provide. These machines are simpler and one-person operated without compromising the quality of the production. What’s more, they are the most elegant way to eliminate human error and cut down labor costs.

The food & beverage and packaging industries are the prime end-users of the filling equipment. With the rise in demand for new products, the demand for large-scale production has increased more than ever. Thus, the modern filling machines must offer perfect and complete packaging of goods as it is directly related to consumer satisfaction and sales of the company products.

The global market of filling equipment was around $17.82 billion in 2019, and is expected to reach $23.49 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 3.9% from 2020 to 2027. The increase in demand for automated equipment and rise in focus on energy-efficient equipment drive the market growth. Thus, more and more companies have invested in automation and advanced filling equipment.

Precision and speed

Filling containers with utmost accuracy is one of the major elements that ensure the safety and quality of the product, especially in cases of liquid products. Under-filled bottles may result in customer dissatisfaction and overfilling costs companies a fortune. Thus, the filling equipment must be precise and consistent at the job. Over the years, every machine suffers from wear and tear, which means the filling system would be subjected to regular maintenance and thus, lead to downtime. Therefore, filling equipment that is accurate, precise, and demand less maintenance have gained importance in the packaging industry.

Apart from the mechanical part of the filling system, accuracy relies on several factors including technology used and product characteristics. Manufacturing companies need to invest in developing a supportive technology-based infrastructure that works well with the filling system. The majority of the companies use programmable logic controllers (PLCs) as they allow users to make small adjustments to the filling parameters and product flow in the case of liquid products.

Upcoming developments in filling equipment

With the improvement of the economy of developing countries, the demand for high-speed and precise filling equipment has increased. What’s more, product penetration, attraction for finely finished packaging, and presentation of goods make a lot of difference for the company’s sales. In the future, the below trends will dominate the packaging industry.

1. Quick delivery: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, automation and human-free manufacturing facilities gained importance. This trend will continue post-pandemic as well. Furthermore, packaging facilities would deal with more production lines, orders, and variety in packaging types, which would require filling machines to deliver products within a short manufacturing time.

2. Adaptability: The packaging industry witnesses quick changes and improvement, which would rely on adaptability and flexibility in filling equipment. Moreover, manufacturing companies need to develop separate programs for filling different types of containers without wastage and compromising customer expectations.

3. Multifunctional filling equipment: Needless to say, developing an automated manufacturing facility is a costly endeavor. It can be even more costly if the company has to use a separate machine for a different function. Thus, the demand for multifunctional filling equipment would increase in the future. For instance, one piece of equipment for both filling and final packaging would save costs as well as space in the manufacturing facility.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for filling equipment is not restricted to the packaging industry. The pharmaceutical industry has now become one of the top-end users of filling systems. This means the market of filling equipment will grow larger and larger in the future as companies realize the return on investments offered by such automated machines. What’s more, the advent of artificial intelligence would play a major role in the future and the filling equipment industry will witness groundbreaking innovations.